US and the Middle East
September 12, 2024 7:08 AM Subscribe
The Washington Post challenges Biden's claim that Turkish-American activist Aysenur Eygi's death was due to an accidental ricochet with new video and eyewitnesses. (archive.is) The Biden administration has released $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt, overriding human rights concerns, citing Egypt's assistance with Gaza talks. Brown University held the first of two forums on the issue of divestment and the advisory committee is expected to issue a recommendation within the next three weeks, to be voted on in October. Various colleges and universities have issued new restrictions on protest and free expression on their campuses, including limiting the use of masks, ban on encampments, and more. (archive.is) UC Berkeley is launching a new Palestinian and Arab studies program this fall due to demand.
Speaking of academic boycotts, Healthcare Workers for Palestine launched a new campaign today to call on academic workers to refuse funds from Len Blavatnik, an oligarch who uses massive donations to manipulate policy and profits from Israeli apartheid.
posted by latkes at 7:36 AM on September 12, 2024 [7 favorites]
posted by latkes at 7:36 AM on September 12, 2024 [7 favorites]
Sharing links previously share in the current Palestine thread:
HuffPost: A Secretive Conference About The Middle East’s Future Featured No Palestinians -
The Middle East-America Dialogue summit concluded over cocktails on Monday night as Israel launched strikes on a tent camp of displaced Palestinians in Gaza
Haaretz opinion (ungated): America's Support of Netanyahu Is Killing Us All -
In their insistence on uncritical support for Israel's actions, and in stark contrast to the Israelis protesting the deaths of hostages whom the government could have saved, American Jews are actually bolstering Israel's worst enemy – Netanyahu
--- new links --
CAIR posted a follow-up report to its August poll that showed Stein leading in a few states amongst its respondents of Muslim voters (this is before the debate) (PDF)
Key survey findings from the press release:
- Overall: CAIR’s initial August 25-27 survey revealed that 29.4% of American Muslims plan to vote for Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party, virtually tied with Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party, who follows closely with 29.1%. At the same time, Donald Trump of the Republican Party garners 11.2% of the vote, and Dr. Cornel West of the People’s Party receives 4.2%. Chase Oliver of the Libertarian Party has less than 1% support, with 16.5% of respondents remaining undecided.
- Battleground States: Dr. Stein is leading Harris in Arizona (35%) Michigan (40%) and Wisconsin (44%), while Harris leads Stein in Georgia (43%) and Pennsylvania (37%). Trump’s highest support is observed in Nevada (27%), just ahead of Harris (26%).
- Gender: Kamala Harris leads among Muslim male voters with 29%, while Dr. Jill Stein holds a stronger position among Muslim women at 34%. Donald Trump has similar levels of support among men (14%) and women (10%). Additionally, a higher proportion of men (17%) are undecided compared to women (16%).
- Racial Demographics: Kamala Harris is supported by 55.3% of Black Muslim voters, 28% of Asian Muslims, and 25.6% of White, Arab, and Turkic Muslims. Dr. Jill Stein is supported by 32.7% of White, Arab, and Turkic Muslim voters, 25.7% of Asian Muslims, and 11.2% of Black Muslim voters. Donald Trump is supported by 12.8% of White, Arab, and Turkic Muslims, 12.6% of Asian Muslims, and 9.8% of Black Muslim voters.
- Party Affiliation: Harris slightly leads among Democrats (33%) and Independents (30%), while Dr. Stein also garners significant support from these groups (32% and 28% respectively). Donald Trump’s highest support comes from Republicans (48%).
- Likelihood of Voting: Harris attracts a higher proportion of high-likelihood voters (33%), whereas Dr. Stein has a significant share of moderate-likelihood voters (65%). Trump’s support is concentrated among high-likelihood voters (13%).
- Support for Third Parties: Overall, support for third-party candidates (Stein and West) comes from both Muslim Democrats and Republicans, indicating discontent with both parties’ platforms on the issues that Muslim Americans prioritize.
---
In the meantime, re: that Egypt aid, Dr Anelle Sheline (MidEast fellow at Quincy Institute): To be clear, Egypt's human right record has not improved in the slightest
This is about bribing Egypt to continue to participate in U.S. policy towards Palestine, which equates to facilitating the ongoing genocide in Gaza
I can't seem to find non-twt copy of this portion, this is from Christiane Amanpour's show, per their official twt account today: Kamala Harris was “not able to seal the deal” on Gaza: Latino USA anchor @Maria_Hinojosa says that, for young American voters of color, the critical foreign policy issue is Gaza, not Ukraine.
Still, apparently Harris did put out a statement on Ayşenur Eygi, per this press release earlier today. Hopeful tea leaf readers might take heart?
The killing of Aysenur Eygi is a horrific tragedy that never should have happened. Doug and I are keeping her family and loved ones in our prayers. Aysenur was peacefully protesting in the West Bank—standing up against the expansion of settlements—when her young life was senselessly cut short. No one should be killed for participating in a peaceful protest. The shooting that led to her death is unacceptable and raises legitimate questions about the conduct of IDF personnel in the West Bank. Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again.
Israel’s preliminary investigation indicated it was the result of a tragic error for which the IDF is responsible. We will continue to press the government of Israel for answers and for continued access to the findings of the investigation so we can have confidence in the results. There must be full accountability.
The United States will continue to hold accountable anyone in the West Bank – Israelis and Palestinians – who stokes violence and undermines peace and stability.
THR exclusive: Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef and More Call on SAG-AFTRA Leaders to Protect Pro-Palestine Members From Being Blacklisted (Exclusive) -
More than 700 union members signed the open letter that also called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and condemned violence against journalists.
In the meantime, from last week: (Guardian) Aid agency insiders claim BBC ‘blocking’ Gaza humanitarian appeal -
Disasters Emergency Committee sources say BBC fears backlash from those supportive of Israel’s war with Hamas
With editorial actions like that, idk why Israel has to be afraid of. Might as well accede to this editorial demand from Haaretz: Why Is Israel Afraid to Allow Foreign Journalists in Gaza? What's It Hiding?
posted by cendawanita at 8:21 AM on September 12, 2024 [13 favorites]
HuffPost: A Secretive Conference About The Middle East’s Future Featured No Palestinians -
The Middle East-America Dialogue summit concluded over cocktails on Monday night as Israel launched strikes on a tent camp of displaced Palestinians in Gaza
Haaretz opinion (ungated): America's Support of Netanyahu Is Killing Us All -
In their insistence on uncritical support for Israel's actions, and in stark contrast to the Israelis protesting the deaths of hostages whom the government could have saved, American Jews are actually bolstering Israel's worst enemy – Netanyahu
--- new links --
CAIR posted a follow-up report to its August poll that showed Stein leading in a few states amongst its respondents of Muslim voters (this is before the debate) (PDF)
Key survey findings from the press release:
- Overall: CAIR’s initial August 25-27 survey revealed that 29.4% of American Muslims plan to vote for Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party, virtually tied with Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party, who follows closely with 29.1%. At the same time, Donald Trump of the Republican Party garners 11.2% of the vote, and Dr. Cornel West of the People’s Party receives 4.2%. Chase Oliver of the Libertarian Party has less than 1% support, with 16.5% of respondents remaining undecided.
- Battleground States: Dr. Stein is leading Harris in Arizona (35%) Michigan (40%) and Wisconsin (44%), while Harris leads Stein in Georgia (43%) and Pennsylvania (37%). Trump’s highest support is observed in Nevada (27%), just ahead of Harris (26%).
- Gender: Kamala Harris leads among Muslim male voters with 29%, while Dr. Jill Stein holds a stronger position among Muslim women at 34%. Donald Trump has similar levels of support among men (14%) and women (10%). Additionally, a higher proportion of men (17%) are undecided compared to women (16%).
- Racial Demographics: Kamala Harris is supported by 55.3% of Black Muslim voters, 28% of Asian Muslims, and 25.6% of White, Arab, and Turkic Muslims. Dr. Jill Stein is supported by 32.7% of White, Arab, and Turkic Muslim voters, 25.7% of Asian Muslims, and 11.2% of Black Muslim voters. Donald Trump is supported by 12.8% of White, Arab, and Turkic Muslims, 12.6% of Asian Muslims, and 9.8% of Black Muslim voters.
- Party Affiliation: Harris slightly leads among Democrats (33%) and Independents (30%), while Dr. Stein also garners significant support from these groups (32% and 28% respectively). Donald Trump’s highest support comes from Republicans (48%).
- Likelihood of Voting: Harris attracts a higher proportion of high-likelihood voters (33%), whereas Dr. Stein has a significant share of moderate-likelihood voters (65%). Trump’s support is concentrated among high-likelihood voters (13%).
- Support for Third Parties: Overall, support for third-party candidates (Stein and West) comes from both Muslim Democrats and Republicans, indicating discontent with both parties’ platforms on the issues that Muslim Americans prioritize.
---
In the meantime, re: that Egypt aid, Dr Anelle Sheline (MidEast fellow at Quincy Institute): To be clear, Egypt's human right record has not improved in the slightest
This is about bribing Egypt to continue to participate in U.S. policy towards Palestine, which equates to facilitating the ongoing genocide in Gaza
I can't seem to find non-twt copy of this portion, this is from Christiane Amanpour's show, per their official twt account today: Kamala Harris was “not able to seal the deal” on Gaza: Latino USA anchor @Maria_Hinojosa says that, for young American voters of color, the critical foreign policy issue is Gaza, not Ukraine.
Still, apparently Harris did put out a statement on Ayşenur Eygi, per this press release earlier today. Hopeful tea leaf readers might take heart?
The killing of Aysenur Eygi is a horrific tragedy that never should have happened. Doug and I are keeping her family and loved ones in our prayers. Aysenur was peacefully protesting in the West Bank—standing up against the expansion of settlements—when her young life was senselessly cut short. No one should be killed for participating in a peaceful protest. The shooting that led to her death is unacceptable and raises legitimate questions about the conduct of IDF personnel in the West Bank. Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again.
Israel’s preliminary investigation indicated it was the result of a tragic error for which the IDF is responsible. We will continue to press the government of Israel for answers and for continued access to the findings of the investigation so we can have confidence in the results. There must be full accountability.
The United States will continue to hold accountable anyone in the West Bank – Israelis and Palestinians – who stokes violence and undermines peace and stability.
THR exclusive: Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef and More Call on SAG-AFTRA Leaders to Protect Pro-Palestine Members From Being Blacklisted (Exclusive) -
More than 700 union members signed the open letter that also called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and condemned violence against journalists.
In the meantime, from last week: (Guardian) Aid agency insiders claim BBC ‘blocking’ Gaza humanitarian appeal -
Disasters Emergency Committee sources say BBC fears backlash from those supportive of Israel’s war with Hamas
With editorial actions like that, idk why Israel has to be afraid of. Might as well accede to this editorial demand from Haaretz: Why Is Israel Afraid to Allow Foreign Journalists in Gaza? What's It Hiding?
posted by cendawanita at 8:21 AM on September 12, 2024 [13 favorites]
I can absolutely sympathize with not wanting to support the Biden Administration's position on the issue, but not only is Jill Stein a terrible human being and a puppet of Vladimir Putin, but voting for her makes it easier for Trump to win and he'll let Netanyahu turn Gaza into glass, so that seems like a textbook example of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 8:34 AM on September 12, 2024 [38 favorites]
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 8:34 AM on September 12, 2024 [38 favorites]
The Brown divestment thing is going to leave everyone very angry. It is likely going to result in a recommendation to divest that will infuriate supporters of Israel, and which the Board will accordingly reject, infuriating opponents of Israel.
posted by MattD at 8:45 AM on September 12, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by MattD at 8:45 AM on September 12, 2024 [4 favorites]
I can absolutely sympathize with not wanting to support the Biden Administration's position on the issue, but not only is Jill Stein a terrible human being and a puppet of Vladimir Putin, but voting for her makes it easier for Trump to win and he'll let Netanyahu turn Gaza into glass, so that seems like a textbook example of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
If Harris looses were going to hear a lot of dems blame muslims in Michigan rather than blaming Dem policy for alienating people who are otherwise predisposed to vote for them.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:02 AM on September 12, 2024 [30 favorites]
If Harris looses were going to hear a lot of dems blame muslims in Michigan rather than blaming Dem policy for alienating people who are otherwise predisposed to vote for them.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:02 AM on September 12, 2024 [30 favorites]
but not only is Jill Stein a terrible human being and a puppet of Vladimir Putin,
Absolutely agree.
but voting for her makes it easier for Trump to win and he'll let Netanyahu turn Gaza into glass
Uh, is it possible to come up with another angle of attack that's more hmmm, in recognition of the fact that we will likely see a full year and a bit of decimation before some theoretical change comes in? Because otherwise, in the span of time, I'd say Biden has done so much to make sure the next beachfront condo development gets to put in their foundation uninterrupted. I guess by then Jared just gets to claim credit. And from my pov, at least when it's Trump, institutional-level pushback would actually exist, if not inside America, then definitely outside of it.
posted by cendawanita at 9:03 AM on September 12, 2024 [12 favorites]
Absolutely agree.
but voting for her makes it easier for Trump to win and he'll let Netanyahu turn Gaza into glass
Uh, is it possible to come up with another angle of attack that's more hmmm, in recognition of the fact that we will likely see a full year and a bit of decimation before some theoretical change comes in? Because otherwise, in the span of time, I'd say Biden has done so much to make sure the next beachfront condo development gets to put in their foundation uninterrupted. I guess by then Jared just gets to claim credit. And from my pov, at least when it's Trump, institutional-level pushback would actually exist, if not inside America, then definitely outside of it.
posted by cendawanita at 9:03 AM on September 12, 2024 [12 favorites]
Like, Biden now holds the record for having the presidency that has an Israel rampaging in the Occupied Palestinian Territories at such a lengthy period by a factor of tens-fold, if not hundreds (if we do by day). In order to do so, he's pretty much made a mockery of American domestic law, the precedence of which can absolutely be used by a Russia stooge, and maybe next time, someone who could actually run a political campaign.
posted by cendawanita at 9:06 AM on September 12, 2024 [15 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 9:06 AM on September 12, 2024 [15 favorites]
Oh and speaking of Russia stooges:
ToI: Israeli pleads guilty to shipping US-made avionics to Russia, violating sanctions -
US Justice Department says Gal Haimovich sent aircraft tech, some of it with missile applications, worth $2 million to Russian customers, violating export controls amid Ukraine war
Still looking for an update on this, but this is the latest: (CNBC) Norway wealth fund may divest companies that aid Israel in Gaza war, occupied territories
International Crisis Group's new report on how to curb/address the settler violence: 'Outside powers invested in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should sanction violent settlers, as some Western countries have started doing, and officials enabling violence. They should curb sales of weapons used in violation of international law and raise the cost the Israeli government pays for settler violence and the settlement project.'
Since October 2023, the West Bank has taken a back seat to the war and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, exchanges of fire on the Israel-Lebanon border and fears of a wider Middle East war. Yet the settlement expansion and surging settler violence in the West Bank is fuelling Palestinian militancy and upping the likelihood of a larger outbreak of violence there. Western powers appear reluctant to take stronger action; in the U.S., in particular, any change in policy may have to wait until after the November elections and what is feasible then will almost certainly hinge on the results. For their part, European capitals are split on how to respond. Yet Western leaders’ repeated calls for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on two states have long rung hollow absent firmer measures to check the settlements that are killing off hope of Palestinian statehood.
Methodology note: "This report takes a close look at the roots and drivers of settler violence, the reasons for its recent acceleration, its ties to Israeli government aims and the impediments it creates to efforts at achieving a just, sustainable peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It also offers recommendations for how Israel’s Western partners can better impose costs on the Israeli government for supporting and enabling this behaviour. It draws on dozens of interviews with Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. officials, local representatives and leaders, academics, legal and human rights experts, as well as Israeli settlers and Palestinian West Bank residents. The majority of the interviewees were men, reflecting a gendered power divide in this conflict both at the government level and on the ground."
Silver lining I guess: Private donations boost UN support for war-torn Gaza
(Well, until it's made illegal in western democracies to donate to UNRWA, or rather a terrorist-supporting organization.)
(Reminder that: "All donors, except the US, have since resumed funding.")
Missed sharing this Hollywood news from last week: Mark Ruffalo, Mahershala Ali, Cynthia Nixon and Ilana Glazer Among Stars Calling for Halt to Illegal Weapons Transfers to Israel in New Artists4Ceasefire Initiative: ‘Enough Is Enough’ (EXCLUSIVE)
And also: After Mayor Whitmire accused pro-Palestinian organizers of ‘being paid by Iran,’ City of Houston says it has no documentation to back up his claim
Remember the Houthis? Unherd: The Houthis now rule the Red Sea -America has silently admitted defeat
Today, the blockade is stronger than ever, and the American military has given up on trying to lift it. Just a fortnight ago, faced with a deterrent bolstered by zero US aircraft carriers, the Houthis managed to board a Greek-flagged oil tanker, plant some explosives, and chant “Death to America! Death to Israel!” as the vessel went up in flames. Last week, the Pentagon quietly admitted that the tanker is still on fire and now appears to be leaking oil.
This should probably be huge news: one of the most important trade routes in the world is now blocked by a rag-tag group of militants, and the US Navy has thrown its hands up in defeat and sailed away. And yet, we just don’t want to talk about it.
The reason for this seems to be fairly straightforward: more than just sharing a sense of growing embarrassment, we no longer know how to talk about what’s going on. After all, America’s Navy is supposed to be the most powerful Navy in the world. As every war film of the past two decades has insisted on reminding us, all it takes is a single aircraft carrier to force a developing nation to its knees. America might not be great at “nation-building”, but boy does it know how to bomb things until all resistance stops.
posted by cendawanita at 9:36 AM on September 12, 2024 [12 favorites]
ToI: Israeli pleads guilty to shipping US-made avionics to Russia, violating sanctions -
US Justice Department says Gal Haimovich sent aircraft tech, some of it with missile applications, worth $2 million to Russian customers, violating export controls amid Ukraine war
Still looking for an update on this, but this is the latest: (CNBC) Norway wealth fund may divest companies that aid Israel in Gaza war, occupied territories
International Crisis Group's new report on how to curb/address the settler violence: 'Outside powers invested in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should sanction violent settlers, as some Western countries have started doing, and officials enabling violence. They should curb sales of weapons used in violation of international law and raise the cost the Israeli government pays for settler violence and the settlement project.'
Since October 2023, the West Bank has taken a back seat to the war and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, exchanges of fire on the Israel-Lebanon border and fears of a wider Middle East war. Yet the settlement expansion and surging settler violence in the West Bank is fuelling Palestinian militancy and upping the likelihood of a larger outbreak of violence there. Western powers appear reluctant to take stronger action; in the U.S., in particular, any change in policy may have to wait until after the November elections and what is feasible then will almost certainly hinge on the results. For their part, European capitals are split on how to respond. Yet Western leaders’ repeated calls for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on two states have long rung hollow absent firmer measures to check the settlements that are killing off hope of Palestinian statehood.
Methodology note: "This report takes a close look at the roots and drivers of settler violence, the reasons for its recent acceleration, its ties to Israeli government aims and the impediments it creates to efforts at achieving a just, sustainable peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It also offers recommendations for how Israel’s Western partners can better impose costs on the Israeli government for supporting and enabling this behaviour. It draws on dozens of interviews with Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. officials, local representatives and leaders, academics, legal and human rights experts, as well as Israeli settlers and Palestinian West Bank residents. The majority of the interviewees were men, reflecting a gendered power divide in this conflict both at the government level and on the ground."
Silver lining I guess: Private donations boost UN support for war-torn Gaza
(Well, until it's made illegal in western democracies to donate to UNRWA, or rather a terrorist-supporting organization.)
(Reminder that: "All donors, except the US, have since resumed funding.")
Missed sharing this Hollywood news from last week: Mark Ruffalo, Mahershala Ali, Cynthia Nixon and Ilana Glazer Among Stars Calling for Halt to Illegal Weapons Transfers to Israel in New Artists4Ceasefire Initiative: ‘Enough Is Enough’ (EXCLUSIVE)
And also: After Mayor Whitmire accused pro-Palestinian organizers of ‘being paid by Iran,’ City of Houston says it has no documentation to back up his claim
Remember the Houthis? Unherd: The Houthis now rule the Red Sea -America has silently admitted defeat
Today, the blockade is stronger than ever, and the American military has given up on trying to lift it. Just a fortnight ago, faced with a deterrent bolstered by zero US aircraft carriers, the Houthis managed to board a Greek-flagged oil tanker, plant some explosives, and chant “Death to America! Death to Israel!” as the vessel went up in flames. Last week, the Pentagon quietly admitted that the tanker is still on fire and now appears to be leaking oil.
This should probably be huge news: one of the most important trade routes in the world is now blocked by a rag-tag group of militants, and the US Navy has thrown its hands up in defeat and sailed away. And yet, we just don’t want to talk about it.
The reason for this seems to be fairly straightforward: more than just sharing a sense of growing embarrassment, we no longer know how to talk about what’s going on. After all, America’s Navy is supposed to be the most powerful Navy in the world. As every war film of the past two decades has insisted on reminding us, all it takes is a single aircraft carrier to force a developing nation to its knees. America might not be great at “nation-building”, but boy does it know how to bomb things until all resistance stops.
posted by cendawanita at 9:36 AM on September 12, 2024 [12 favorites]
voting for her makes it easier for Trump to win and he'll let Netanyahu turn Gaza into glass, so that seems like a textbook example of cutting off your nose to spite your face
If he were to take office, Trump would be too busy imprisoning and murdering political opponents and anyone else in the way ("antifa", trans and gay people). It's beyond giving Netanyahu carte blanche and beyond nose-cutting, to enabling genocide on a whole other scale. Accelerationism will get a lot more innocent people killed.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:38 AM on September 12, 2024 [4 favorites]
If he were to take office, Trump would be too busy imprisoning and murdering political opponents and anyone else in the way ("antifa", trans and gay people). It's beyond giving Netanyahu carte blanche and beyond nose-cutting, to enabling genocide on a whole other scale. Accelerationism will get a lot more innocent people killed.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:38 AM on September 12, 2024 [4 favorites]
Can we have a moratorium on the straw man that critiques of Biden = support of Trump? This has been litigated endlessly here and elsewhere and no one here wants Trump to be president. No one here is an accelerationist. Take that argument to the people making it - they are not here in this thread.
posted by latkes at 10:03 AM on September 12, 2024 [22 favorites]
posted by latkes at 10:03 AM on September 12, 2024 [22 favorites]
Accelerationism will get a lot more innocent people killed.
Accelerationism isn't what is going on here. Not even the made up version of accelerationism liberal internet spaces are afraid of.
posted by pattern juggler at 10:32 AM on September 12, 2024 [6 favorites]
Accelerationism isn't what is going on here. Not even the made up version of accelerationism liberal internet spaces are afraid of.
posted by pattern juggler at 10:32 AM on September 12, 2024 [6 favorites]
I'm not making the argument that critiques of Biden are support for Trump. I'm saying that basic arithmetic tells us that voting for "Dr" Stein makes it more likely Trump will win.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 10:57 AM on September 12, 2024 [7 favorites]
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 10:57 AM on September 12, 2024 [7 favorites]
That's the choice Harris has made.
If she decides she'll lose more votes opposing genocide than she will otherwise, that is her call.
But it is asinine to make that call, or support it, and then be mad that the people whose votes were deemed not worth pursuing are lost.
posted by pattern juggler at 11:00 AM on September 12, 2024 [23 favorites]
If she decides she'll lose more votes opposing genocide than she will otherwise, that is her call.
But it is asinine to make that call, or support it, and then be mad that the people whose votes were deemed not worth pursuing are lost.
posted by pattern juggler at 11:00 AM on September 12, 2024 [23 favorites]
If you don't have suggestions for stopping the genocide that is happening right now, I encourage you to find something else to do with your time. Maybe go talk to the people you know who are supporting Israel and make them understand the blood on their hands?
posted by constraint at 11:02 AM on September 12, 2024 [6 favorites]
posted by constraint at 11:02 AM on September 12, 2024 [6 favorites]
The Washington Post challenges Biden's claim that Turkish-American activist Aysenur Eygi's death was due to an accidental ricochet with new video and eyewitnesses.
Hold on. Biden would be going on IDF intelligence here. Let’s pump the brakes on “Biden’s claim” no?
posted by teece303 at 12:28 PM on September 12, 2024
Hold on. Biden would be going on IDF intelligence here. Let’s pump the brakes on “Biden’s claim” no?
posted by teece303 at 12:28 PM on September 12, 2024
If you repeat someone else's claim as fact, that then becomes your claim; seems pretty straightforward to me.
posted by sagc at 12:37 PM on September 12, 2024 [15 favorites]
posted by sagc at 12:37 PM on September 12, 2024 [15 favorites]
If you repeat someone else's claim as fact, that then becomes your claim; seems pretty straightforward to me.
Seems like a deliberate misstatement to me, and I really don’t like it, yuck.
posted by teece303 at 12:38 PM on September 12, 2024
Seems like a deliberate misstatement to me, and I really don’t like it, yuck.
posted by teece303 at 12:38 PM on September 12, 2024
Did the IDF lie? Quite probably. Did Biden lie? Zero evidence of that.
posted by teece303 at 12:43 PM on September 12, 2024
posted by teece303 at 12:43 PM on September 12, 2024
The USA has always had a straightforward and simple double standard with regards to Americans being hurt, killed, held hostage, or imprisoned by foreign powers.
If it would advance US imperial interests then the lives of those US citizns are the most important thing ever and America will do anything at all to resscue and/or avenge them.
If it would not advance US imperial interests (or worse, impede them) then the US is shockiingly, callously, indifferent to the lives of its citizens abroad.
So of course it's no surprise that there's a shockingly large number of Americans killed by Israel that the US has never spoken of, talked about, or done anything for. Israel is critical to the American imperial project, therefore it can kill Amricans with impunity. Especially if they might be journalists or liberals.
posted by sotonohito at 12:47 PM on September 12, 2024 [16 favorites]
If it would advance US imperial interests then the lives of those US citizns are the most important thing ever and America will do anything at all to resscue and/or avenge them.
If it would not advance US imperial interests (or worse, impede them) then the US is shockiingly, callously, indifferent to the lives of its citizens abroad.
So of course it's no surprise that there's a shockingly large number of Americans killed by Israel that the US has never spoken of, talked about, or done anything for. Israel is critical to the American imperial project, therefore it can kill Amricans with impunity. Especially if they might be journalists or liberals.
posted by sotonohito at 12:47 PM on September 12, 2024 [16 favorites]
From the president who repeated the 40 beheaded babies lie after* it's debunked by Israeli journalists (and then finally, after slowwalking it, the govt)?
*months after
Speaking only for myself, and probably unrelated to everything else that he has acumen in and savvy for, Biden's brain is porridge when it comes to Palestine.
posted by cendawanita at 12:48 PM on September 12, 2024 [15 favorites]
*months after
Speaking only for myself, and probably unrelated to everything else that he has acumen in and savvy for, Biden's brain is porridge when it comes to Palestine.
posted by cendawanita at 12:48 PM on September 12, 2024 [15 favorites]
Biden would have to be actually senile to believe that IDF intelligence about its own wrongdoings is trustworthy. And I don't believe he is.
Whether you call it a "lie" or not, whether you call it Biden making a "claim" or not - these are arguments about the definition of "lie" and "claim." What actually matters is that Biden (and others in power) repeatedly accept the claims of an increasingly fascist, genocidal government as truth because it would be politically inconvenient to recognize their atrocities as anything other than tragic accidents or the inevitabilities of a justified war. I don't really care what word you call that, it sucks and is awful.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 12:51 PM on September 12, 2024 [9 favorites]
Whether you call it a "lie" or not, whether you call it Biden making a "claim" or not - these are arguments about the definition of "lie" and "claim." What actually matters is that Biden (and others in power) repeatedly accept the claims of an increasingly fascist, genocidal government as truth because it would be politically inconvenient to recognize their atrocities as anything other than tragic accidents or the inevitabilities of a justified war. I don't really care what word you call that, it sucks and is awful.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 12:51 PM on September 12, 2024 [9 favorites]
one of the most important trade routes in the world is now blocked by a rag-tag group of militants, and the US Navy has thrown its hands up in defeat and sailed away.
probs didn't want Houthis leeching their wifi
posted by flabdablet at 12:58 PM on September 12, 2024 [8 favorites]
probs didn't want Houthis leeching their wifi
posted by flabdablet at 12:58 PM on September 12, 2024 [8 favorites]
Stein is problematic in too many ways to list. The democrats have fewer flaws, which is not a ringing endorsement. Unfortunately for dem strategists, "Are you against genocide, Y/N?" is being answered with, "Well, uh, we understand that, uh, Israel has a right to defend itself, and uh, they're, you know, uh, a long-time ally and an important strategic partner".
As opposed to the answer literally fucking everyone who set foot in a public shool was raised to understand as correct which is "Yes, of course I oppose genocide." It's not like this is a moral dilemma introduced at the college level, I'm pretty sure they run middle (or even elementary) school kids through the blindingly obvious at the earliest possible age.
posted by Slackermagee at 1:04 PM on September 12, 2024 [10 favorites]
As opposed to the answer literally fucking everyone who set foot in a public shool was raised to understand as correct which is "Yes, of course I oppose genocide." It's not like this is a moral dilemma introduced at the college level, I'm pretty sure they run middle (or even elementary) school kids through the blindingly obvious at the earliest possible age.
posted by Slackermagee at 1:04 PM on September 12, 2024 [10 favorites]
Speaking of, "what other interesting bald-faced claims Biden and ilk will just take at face value," flagging for attention (just shared in the genocide thread):
This summary from Itay Epshtain (which you can cross-reference/validate with this Hebrew article):
BREAKING: The Government of #Israel submits to the High Court of Justice that after 11 months of - debilitating and atrocious war in #Gaza - it has not accomplished 'effective control' in any part of Gaza, has not displaced any of Hamas's governmental functions, and is therefore not the occupying power (with commensurate obligations under #IHL).
--
I have to admit, usually admitting rank incompetence to avoid (war) criminal charges is something mobsters do.
posted by cendawanita at 1:05 PM on September 12, 2024 [8 favorites]
This summary from Itay Epshtain (which you can cross-reference/validate with this Hebrew article):
BREAKING: The Government of #Israel submits to the High Court of Justice that after 11 months of - debilitating and atrocious war in #Gaza - it has not accomplished 'effective control' in any part of Gaza, has not displaced any of Hamas's governmental functions, and is therefore not the occupying power (with commensurate obligations under #IHL).
--
I have to admit, usually admitting rank incompetence to avoid (war) criminal charges is something mobsters do.
posted by cendawanita at 1:05 PM on September 12, 2024 [8 favorites]
Do you guys remember Daily Kos?
I left that site one day and never came back. Why? An attitude like this.
That lede is grossly unfair to Biden. It is factually incorrect.
Be careful you don’t become the disinformationist you hate.
I strongly disagree with Biden’s calls with Bibi and Israel and Palestine. It also seems the guy is trying to do what he thinks is right.
Opening this post that way… is beneath what Metafilter should be. Yuck.
posted by teece303 at 1:07 PM on September 12, 2024 [3 favorites]
I left that site one day and never came back. Why? An attitude like this.
That lede is grossly unfair to Biden. It is factually incorrect.
Be careful you don’t become the disinformationist you hate.
I strongly disagree with Biden’s calls with Bibi and Israel and Palestine. It also seems the guy is trying to do what he thinks is right.
Opening this post that way… is beneath what Metafilter should be. Yuck.
posted by teece303 at 1:07 PM on September 12, 2024 [3 favorites]
Here is the video of Biden describing what he thinks happened to Aysenur Eygi: 'apparently… an accident’, bullet ‘ricocheted off the ground’.
Anyway, today Biden is apparently outraged: “I am outraged and deeply saddened by the death of Aysenur Eygi,” Biden said in a statement, adding that the shooting “is totally unacceptable.”
Biden called for “full accountability” for her death after Israel “has acknowledged its responsibility.”
“A preliminary investigation has indicated that it was the result of a tragic error resulting from an unnecessary escalation,” Biden said. “The US government has had full access to Israel’s preliminary investigation, and expects continued access as the investigation continues, so that we can have confidence in the result. We will continue to stay in close contact with Israeli and Palestinian authorities regarding the circumstances that led to Aysenur’s death.”
The administration may also be responding to pressure from Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, and now Cantwell, to have “an immediate, transparent, credible, and thorough independent U.S. investigation” by the FBI into her death.
posted by toastyk at 1:36 PM on September 12, 2024 [10 favorites]
Anyway, today Biden is apparently outraged: “I am outraged and deeply saddened by the death of Aysenur Eygi,” Biden said in a statement, adding that the shooting “is totally unacceptable.”
Biden called for “full accountability” for her death after Israel “has acknowledged its responsibility.”
“A preliminary investigation has indicated that it was the result of a tragic error resulting from an unnecessary escalation,” Biden said. “The US government has had full access to Israel’s preliminary investigation, and expects continued access as the investigation continues, so that we can have confidence in the result. We will continue to stay in close contact with Israeli and Palestinian authorities regarding the circumstances that led to Aysenur’s death.”
The administration may also be responding to pressure from Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, and now Cantwell, to have “an immediate, transparent, credible, and thorough independent U.S. investigation” by the FBI into her death.
posted by toastyk at 1:36 PM on September 12, 2024 [10 favorites]
On the contrary, whining that it's not fair to say Biden "claimed" something because he was merely repeating what someone else told him - that's what's beneath what Metafilter should, because it's beneath all of us as human beings. Human beings who are witnessing daily fucking atrocities that are enabled by, encouraged by, supported by the person who is merely repeating the words of the criminals committing them.
It is so morally out of whack to pretend that you're standing up for truth against disinformation because it wasn't actually a "claim", because cendawanita shouldn't have used "claim," when daily, fucking daily, we are inundated with relentless disinformation whose sole purpose is to license further violence against palestinians. It barely merits a response, and this will be my last one to you.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 1:38 PM on September 12, 2024 [21 favorites]
It is so morally out of whack to pretend that you're standing up for truth against disinformation because it wasn't actually a "claim", because cendawanita shouldn't have used "claim," when daily, fucking daily, we are inundated with relentless disinformation whose sole purpose is to license further violence against palestinians. It barely merits a response, and this will be my last one to you.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 1:38 PM on September 12, 2024 [21 favorites]
Biden definitely passed along evidence-free IDF spin using one of the biggest bully pulpits on earth. The first few moments of narrative crafting are so important after events like this, and Biden - once again - gave the game away immediately to the farthest-right Netanyahuite story.
posted by mediareport at 1:47 PM on September 12, 2024 [12 favorites]
posted by mediareport at 1:47 PM on September 12, 2024 [12 favorites]
Sorry if this is repetitive, but as much as I think the Administration has done to improve the lives of its citizens, and helping Ukraine fight back (but not enough there) and to shore up relationships with allies, it has been beyond reprehensible on Gaza, the West Bank, and Palestinian lives.
I don't believe in Bronze Age tribal myths, but Biden does, so if he's right, he's going to hell over his role in killing 40,000 to 189,000 Gazans. And all for no apparent purpose (if the vile IDF has failed so badly as it claims). Well, I guess there is a purpose, propping up that Hitlerian monster Netanyahu and his cabinet of startlingly evil 'people'.
Oh, so sorry if that's mean to Joe.
posted by WatTylerJr at 3:56 PM on September 12, 2024 [5 favorites]
I don't believe in Bronze Age tribal myths, but Biden does, so if he's right, he's going to hell over his role in killing 40,000 to 189,000 Gazans. And all for no apparent purpose (if the vile IDF has failed so badly as it claims). Well, I guess there is a purpose, propping up that Hitlerian monster Netanyahu and his cabinet of startlingly evil 'people'.
Oh, so sorry if that's mean to Joe.
posted by WatTylerJr at 3:56 PM on September 12, 2024 [5 favorites]
Biden is aiding and abetting genocide. Talking about whether his statements in excusing the Israeli killing of an American citizen during that genocide were conscious lies or just him mindlessly repeating the génocidaires' own assurances that they've of course done nothing wrong, is absurd.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:01 PM on September 12, 2024 [9 favorites]
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:01 PM on September 12, 2024 [9 favorites]
Oh, so sorry if that's mean to Joe.
Joe is never going to see it. It is sort of disrespectful to other religious people who aren't engaged in genocide, though. (Including many of those close to the victims.)
posted by pattern juggler at 4:04 PM on September 12, 2024
Joe is never going to see it. It is sort of disrespectful to other religious people who aren't engaged in genocide, though. (Including many of those close to the victims.)
posted by pattern juggler at 4:04 PM on September 12, 2024
Also, to suggest that the president of the world's only superpower and ostensibly the world's most powerful man just has no way of knowing whether the things the Israeli regime is telling him are true or not, because it's not like the nice old man has any intelligence agencies at his disposal, or, most likely, intelligence assets embedded in the actual IDF and Israeli government, so he just aw-shucks has to believe what Netanyahu says, no malarkey, is laughable.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:05 PM on September 12, 2024 [13 favorites]
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:05 PM on September 12, 2024 [13 favorites]
literally fucking everyone who set foot in a public shool was raised to understand as correct
a bit of a complication: i went to a US public school and our junior high history class had, in among all the repetitions of the same few bits of US-centric stuff you'd expect, a little multi-day potted history of the founding of exactly one (1) seemingly arbitrarily chosen tiny distant country, to the exclusion of all of the other possible tiny distant countries; you can guess which one and whether that history of the founding of that country used words like "ethnic cleansing".
not that that state of affairs (which i imagine is typical for people who went to US public schools) really affects your larger point, of course.
posted by busted_crayons at 4:41 PM on September 12, 2024 [3 favorites]
a bit of a complication: i went to a US public school and our junior high history class had, in among all the repetitions of the same few bits of US-centric stuff you'd expect, a little multi-day potted history of the founding of exactly one (1) seemingly arbitrarily chosen tiny distant country, to the exclusion of all of the other possible tiny distant countries; you can guess which one and whether that history of the founding of that country used words like "ethnic cleansing".
not that that state of affairs (which i imagine is typical for people who went to US public schools) really affects your larger point, of course.
posted by busted_crayons at 4:41 PM on September 12, 2024 [3 favorites]
It also seems the guy is trying to do what he thinks is right.
Can you walk us through how one arms and funds a genocide while also "doing what he thinks is right"? I am genuinely curious about this mindset and what drives it. Do you mean that it seems that Biden thinks that arming and funding a genocide is "right"? Or do you mean that Biden would probably deny that a genocide is occurring to begin with, so it's removed from any of his equations when arming and funding the genocidal entity?
Given that both cases would be completely morally abhorrent - assuming we agree a genocide is taking place, and that Biden is assisting in it - why must one be "fair" to literally anything Biden does here?
posted by windbox at 4:53 PM on September 12, 2024 [8 favorites]
Can you walk us through how one arms and funds a genocide while also "doing what he thinks is right"? I am genuinely curious about this mindset and what drives it. Do you mean that it seems that Biden thinks that arming and funding a genocide is "right"? Or do you mean that Biden would probably deny that a genocide is occurring to begin with, so it's removed from any of his equations when arming and funding the genocidal entity?
Given that both cases would be completely morally abhorrent - assuming we agree a genocide is taking place, and that Biden is assisting in it - why must one be "fair" to literally anything Biden does here?
posted by windbox at 4:53 PM on September 12, 2024 [8 favorites]
Can we have a moratorium on the straw man that critiques of Biden = support of Trump?
We can't even begin to help Palestinians if our government is compromised by Russian agents. So, no, not really, we can't have your moratorium. It has become complicated by the fact that we have Russians and Russian-aligned Israelis trying to destabilize our democracy. Sorry, I wish we lived in a better world.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:35 PM on September 12, 2024 [3 favorites]
We can't even begin to help Palestinians if our government is compromised by Russian agents. So, no, not really, we can't have your moratorium. It has become complicated by the fact that we have Russians and Russian-aligned Israelis trying to destabilize our democracy. Sorry, I wish we lived in a better world.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:35 PM on September 12, 2024 [3 favorites]
You're being manipulated by Republicans, and, by proxy, Russians.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:37 PM on September 12, 2024
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:37 PM on September 12, 2024
No one here is being "manipulated", it is completely unshocking that antisemitic and islamophobic republicans/dark money PACs are going to exploit the fact that the democratic administration is funding and arming Israel, and that this makes segments of the voting population really angry, and that they can hyper-target this population in a swing state.
That is the type of vulnerability that you expose yourself to when you position yourself as the party of human rights and empathy and "freedom" but then go and choose to keep funding a genocide anyway, making factions of targetable voters extremely pissed off and disillusioned by what they view as disturbing levels of hypocrisy.
It's like, a super obvious opportunity for an opponent to exploit! But let's be extremely clear, the administration puts themselves in that position all on their own, they've made the deliberate and cynical trade off that arming a genocide is worth it. I'm not going to sit and pretend like I know whether it's definitively an election loser, it very well might have no impact at all. But democrats have done the math on this and they know these voters exist, and they've made their decision to say "eh, fuck 'em" and leave them on the table for others to take.
posted by windbox at 10:21 PM on September 12, 2024 [15 favorites]
That is the type of vulnerability that you expose yourself to when you position yourself as the party of human rights and empathy and "freedom" but then go and choose to keep funding a genocide anyway, making factions of targetable voters extremely pissed off and disillusioned by what they view as disturbing levels of hypocrisy.
It's like, a super obvious opportunity for an opponent to exploit! But let's be extremely clear, the administration puts themselves in that position all on their own, they've made the deliberate and cynical trade off that arming a genocide is worth it. I'm not going to sit and pretend like I know whether it's definitively an election loser, it very well might have no impact at all. But democrats have done the math on this and they know these voters exist, and they've made their decision to say "eh, fuck 'em" and leave them on the table for others to take.
posted by windbox at 10:21 PM on September 12, 2024 [15 favorites]
democrats have done the math on this and they know these voters exist, and they've made their decision to say "eh, fuck 'em" and leave them on the table
The only way that I can read current Democratic policy on Palestine as in any way rational is that they've run the numbers and convinced themselves that there are more voters who would dump them for acting against Israel than for acting against its genocide.
It's really hard for those of us who habitually pay attention to world affairs to understand the thinking of people who don't, but those people are the overwhelming majority, and I fear that decades of hasbara has worked on enough of them to swing this election. If the Dems do indeed have focus group research confirming that fear, as I suspect that they do, then the speaking from both sides of their mouths that they're doing right now makes perfect sense to me.
If you want to make a difference to Palestine, I don't think it's your elected representatives you need to be talking to at this point. I think it's your friends, neighbours and people at the pub. And yet again I want to thank cendawanita for keeping so much of the background required for those conversations right at all our fingertips.
posted by flabdablet at 11:01 PM on September 12, 2024 [15 favorites]
The only way that I can read current Democratic policy on Palestine as in any way rational is that they've run the numbers and convinced themselves that there are more voters who would dump them for acting against Israel than for acting against its genocide.
It's really hard for those of us who habitually pay attention to world affairs to understand the thinking of people who don't, but those people are the overwhelming majority, and I fear that decades of hasbara has worked on enough of them to swing this election. If the Dems do indeed have focus group research confirming that fear, as I suspect that they do, then the speaking from both sides of their mouths that they're doing right now makes perfect sense to me.
If you want to make a difference to Palestine, I don't think it's your elected representatives you need to be talking to at this point. I think it's your friends, neighbours and people at the pub. And yet again I want to thank cendawanita for keeping so much of the background required for those conversations right at all our fingertips.
posted by flabdablet at 11:01 PM on September 12, 2024 [15 favorites]
Wouldn’t it take a long time for the tide of public sentiment to turn and trickle up to people powerful enough to help?
posted by Selena777 at 11:05 PM on September 12, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Selena777 at 11:05 PM on September 12, 2024 [2 favorites]
Yes.
posted by flabdablet at 11:06 PM on September 12, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 11:06 PM on September 12, 2024 [2 favorites]
A man in Boston self-immolated outside the Israeli consulate on Wednesday. It's received no news coverage outside of Boston, and the one article i've found has a headline that highlights that it was "outside the Four Seasons hotel", as if he self-immolated in protest of scratchy sheets or some shit. The Israeli consulate is only mentioned once, and not even in the article itself but in super tiny print in the video caption.
The news article also fails to mention his name, or whether he survived.
He is the third American since October 2023 to self-immolate as a protest against Israel's genocide of Palestinians.
posted by adrienneleigh at 11:20 PM on September 12, 2024 [17 favorites]
The news article also fails to mention his name, or whether he survived.
He is the third American since October 2023 to self-immolate as a protest against Israel's genocide of Palestinians.
posted by adrienneleigh at 11:20 PM on September 12, 2024 [17 favorites]
Wouldn’t it take a long time for the tide of public sentiment to turn and trickle up to people powerful enough to help?
As it so happens, I was (western) overseas in October 2023, and met up with a mefite about two weeks after Israel launched its siege on Gaza. They were feeling pessimistic about things changing.
I wasn't so sure. The scale and speed of the anti-war protests were significant. When I went back, I had random acquaintances telling me they're in chat groups (which later turns out to be connected to research teams prepping for South Africa) forwarding the numerous warcrime scrapbooking activity. One of them was so hopeful that something was going to change. I said, maybe, and I think so. I hope the Palestinians will be safe, they said. At that, I said, no, they're still going to be killed.
But something was changing and has changed. I mentioned before that it's not like there's a lull - the mobilization could happen because there's been an IDF expedition every year since 2020. International Law moved more slowly but Palestine getting a full seat at the UNGA also didn't happen overnight. Abu Mazen signing onto to the Rome Accords allowed (however toothless they are right now) signals that's made statements about apartheid and plausible risk of genocide backed by law.
Something was changing. Something has changed.
posted by cendawanita at 11:48 PM on September 12, 2024 [7 favorites]
As it so happens, I was (western) overseas in October 2023, and met up with a mefite about two weeks after Israel launched its siege on Gaza. They were feeling pessimistic about things changing.
I wasn't so sure. The scale and speed of the anti-war protests were significant. When I went back, I had random acquaintances telling me they're in chat groups (which later turns out to be connected to research teams prepping for South Africa) forwarding the numerous warcrime scrapbooking activity. One of them was so hopeful that something was going to change. I said, maybe, and I think so. I hope the Palestinians will be safe, they said. At that, I said, no, they're still going to be killed.
But something was changing and has changed. I mentioned before that it's not like there's a lull - the mobilization could happen because there's been an IDF expedition every year since 2020. International Law moved more slowly but Palestine getting a full seat at the UNGA also didn't happen overnight. Abu Mazen signing onto to the Rome Accords allowed (however toothless they are right now) signals that's made statements about apartheid and plausible risk of genocide backed by law.
Something was changing. Something has changed.
posted by cendawanita at 11:48 PM on September 12, 2024 [7 favorites]
Something was changing. Something has changed.
Indeed it has. Even here. It was not so long ago that Israel/Palestine was a topic on which even as left-leaning a member base as ours had opinions so terribly skewed that any overt support for Palestine would attract such a torrent of flagging and bad-faith personal attacks as to make moderating the threads involved completely untenable.
It's a great pity that it has taken a prolonged and manifestly genocidal campaign to move the public opinion needle, but move it has, and move it continues to do. Too slowly for sure, but inexorably toward the only morally defensible view. And the main thing that's been moving it is widespread availability of accurate information about what's actually been going on in Palestine. Which is, of course, why Israel remains so desperate to shut down as much of that information flow as it possibly can and present whatever remains in the most distorted light available.
My hope is that Harris will use the period when her position is least assailable - i.e. right after she wins in November - to begin the genuine reining-in of Israel that's been within the US's power all along. This would require a US President to act with less than full-throated support for the US weapons sales racket, so it's a thin hope, but it's the best I got.
posted by flabdablet at 1:16 AM on September 13, 2024 [8 favorites]
Indeed it has. Even here. It was not so long ago that Israel/Palestine was a topic on which even as left-leaning a member base as ours had opinions so terribly skewed that any overt support for Palestine would attract such a torrent of flagging and bad-faith personal attacks as to make moderating the threads involved completely untenable.
It's a great pity that it has taken a prolonged and manifestly genocidal campaign to move the public opinion needle, but move it has, and move it continues to do. Too slowly for sure, but inexorably toward the only morally defensible view. And the main thing that's been moving it is widespread availability of accurate information about what's actually been going on in Palestine. Which is, of course, why Israel remains so desperate to shut down as much of that information flow as it possibly can and present whatever remains in the most distorted light available.
My hope is that Harris will use the period when her position is least assailable - i.e. right after she wins in November - to begin the genuine reining-in of Israel that's been within the US's power all along. This would require a US President to act with less than full-throated support for the US weapons sales racket, so it's a thin hope, but it's the best I got.
posted by flabdablet at 1:16 AM on September 13, 2024 [8 favorites]
Go Brown. Go Norway. Trump is a literal fucking settler, Biden is a racist, and someone who has forgotten what starvation is
In September of 2024, Harris is our option to shift policy by shifting personnel at the highest level. We know the other two options are failures. We may fail again, but we must at least try.
Voting Green is a failure to try. And I know because I spent years as a green party organizer. I actually left the party by accident, it just wasn't where the movement was.
Kissenger just died. US politics has moved like an earthquake on Palestine, at least since I tabled at college on Rachel Corrie trying to save someone's house by getting run over by a Caterpillar. Things are changing.
Voting is not consumerism. Voting is taking power back, if you can, for an opportunity. . Most politicking happens after the electoral clown show is over, and by September, it really is all clown show. Voting is just your ticket into the dance. The movement will never be any single action, voting, protesting, or otherwise.
So buy a ticket, and keep moving no matter what, keep pushing. and thanks to you all that do.
posted by eustatic at 2:28 AM on September 13, 2024 [9 favorites]
In September of 2024, Harris is our option to shift policy by shifting personnel at the highest level. We know the other two options are failures. We may fail again, but we must at least try.
Voting Green is a failure to try. And I know because I spent years as a green party organizer. I actually left the party by accident, it just wasn't where the movement was.
Kissenger just died. US politics has moved like an earthquake on Palestine, at least since I tabled at college on Rachel Corrie trying to save someone's house by getting run over by a Caterpillar. Things are changing.
Voting is not consumerism. Voting is taking power back, if you can, for an opportunity. . Most politicking happens after the electoral clown show is over, and by September, it really is all clown show. Voting is just your ticket into the dance. The movement will never be any single action, voting, protesting, or otherwise.
So buy a ticket, and keep moving no matter what, keep pushing. and thanks to you all that do.
posted by eustatic at 2:28 AM on September 13, 2024 [9 favorites]
Disclaimer: I haven't watched this full Council for Foreign Relations panel with the US ambassador to the UN yet, but Prem Thakker did, so: (if you have twt, there are clips)
On ICC: US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield says US would *not* comply if the International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu.
At first, seems to think warrants were already issued: "He was here in the US…and he was not arrested."
Have we considered that the biggest Russia stooge is actually the Biden administration?
On Palestine: US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield: "I do not believe the Palestinians as they exist right now have all of the elements to give it statehood."
(In April, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would’ve made Palestine a full member of the UN)
Aside from the naked racism and imperialism--
Ben Goren: Taiwan does but the US is careful to skip around the elephant in that room, whilst with Palestine they help negotiate an arguably self-defeating agreement in Oslo, watch as Israel negates & ignores it, and makes a mockery of the PA, then arms a genocide designed to erase a state.
Kevin Jon Heller: Your friendly reminder that the US recognised Kosovo as a state the day after it declared independence from Serbia, at a time when Kosovo did not come close to satisfying the Montevideo requirements for statehood.
---
Columbia Spectator: Inside Columbia’s surveillance and disciplinary operation for student protesters
Guardian: Hillary Clinton slams Netanyahu and Columbia students in new book -
Ex-secretary of state excoriates Israeli PM and says campus protesters had ‘blank stares’ when talking about Palestine
Heh, finally found an article version of the Colombia President's remarks during COP28:
I invite all of you to imagine a combination of facts — the projection of the climate crisis in five or ten years and the current genocide of the Palestinian people. Are these facts disconnected? Or can we look at there [Gaza] as a mirror of the immediate future? The unleashing of genocide and barbarism on the Palestinian people is what awaits the exodus of the peoples of the South unleashed by the climate crisis.
If the wealth bearers from the North, with intensive carbon consumption, do not allow the emitting chimneys to be turned off, that means they do not stop consuming oil, coal, and gas, [and then] the supporting pillars of human existence in the planet will be irreversibly broken. That breakdown will be uneven.
Most of the climate victims, whose number will increase in billions, will be in countries that do not emit at all or emit very little CO2. Without transfers of wealth from the North to the South, climate victims will have less water in their habitats and will move towards the North, where melting ice will allow fresh water. The exodus will involve billions.
This immense exodus will have a response in the North. We are already seeing it in the anti-immigration policies of rich countries and the rise of the extreme right within them. Hitler is knocking on the European and American middle-class homes’ doors and many are letting him in. The exodus will be responded to with a lot of violence and barbarism. What we are seeing in Gaza is a rehearsal of the future.
Why have large carbon-consuming countries allowed the systematic murder of thousands of children in Gaza? Because Hitler has already entered their homes and they are getting ready to defend their high levels of carbon consumption and reject the exodus it causes.
We can then see the future: the breakdown of democracy and the barbarism unleashed against our people, the people who do not emit CO2, the poor people.
Is this future of a generalized Gaza against the growing exodus of our people avoidable?
The votes at the United Nations on the barbarism against Palestine mark a global political fragmentation. There are still countries that, on the verge of sinking, like the islands of Vanuatu and other islands, vote against Palestine, but the vast majority of the world’s poor people have united to stop the barbarism.
Only a few countries in Europe and North America, the largest consumers of carbon, vote in favor of genocide.
Reading over this comment, I genuinely didn't intend the naming theme.
posted by cendawanita at 2:59 AM on September 13, 2024 [10 favorites]
On ICC: US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield says US would *not* comply if the International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu.
At first, seems to think warrants were already issued: "He was here in the US…and he was not arrested."
Have we considered that the biggest Russia stooge is actually the Biden administration?
On Palestine: US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield: "I do not believe the Palestinians as they exist right now have all of the elements to give it statehood."
(In April, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would’ve made Palestine a full member of the UN)
Aside from the naked racism and imperialism--
Ben Goren: Taiwan does but the US is careful to skip around the elephant in that room, whilst with Palestine they help negotiate an arguably self-defeating agreement in Oslo, watch as Israel negates & ignores it, and makes a mockery of the PA, then arms a genocide designed to erase a state.
Kevin Jon Heller: Your friendly reminder that the US recognised Kosovo as a state the day after it declared independence from Serbia, at a time when Kosovo did not come close to satisfying the Montevideo requirements for statehood.
---
Columbia Spectator: Inside Columbia’s surveillance and disciplinary operation for student protesters
Guardian: Hillary Clinton slams Netanyahu and Columbia students in new book -
Ex-secretary of state excoriates Israeli PM and says campus protesters had ‘blank stares’ when talking about Palestine
Heh, finally found an article version of the Colombia President's remarks during COP28:
I invite all of you to imagine a combination of facts — the projection of the climate crisis in five or ten years and the current genocide of the Palestinian people. Are these facts disconnected? Or can we look at there [Gaza] as a mirror of the immediate future? The unleashing of genocide and barbarism on the Palestinian people is what awaits the exodus of the peoples of the South unleashed by the climate crisis.
If the wealth bearers from the North, with intensive carbon consumption, do not allow the emitting chimneys to be turned off, that means they do not stop consuming oil, coal, and gas, [and then] the supporting pillars of human existence in the planet will be irreversibly broken. That breakdown will be uneven.
Most of the climate victims, whose number will increase in billions, will be in countries that do not emit at all or emit very little CO2. Without transfers of wealth from the North to the South, climate victims will have less water in their habitats and will move towards the North, where melting ice will allow fresh water. The exodus will involve billions.
This immense exodus will have a response in the North. We are already seeing it in the anti-immigration policies of rich countries and the rise of the extreme right within them. Hitler is knocking on the European and American middle-class homes’ doors and many are letting him in. The exodus will be responded to with a lot of violence and barbarism. What we are seeing in Gaza is a rehearsal of the future.
Why have large carbon-consuming countries allowed the systematic murder of thousands of children in Gaza? Because Hitler has already entered their homes and they are getting ready to defend their high levels of carbon consumption and reject the exodus it causes.
We can then see the future: the breakdown of democracy and the barbarism unleashed against our people, the people who do not emit CO2, the poor people.
Is this future of a generalized Gaza against the growing exodus of our people avoidable?
The votes at the United Nations on the barbarism against Palestine mark a global political fragmentation. There are still countries that, on the verge of sinking, like the islands of Vanuatu and other islands, vote against Palestine, but the vast majority of the world’s poor people have united to stop the barbarism.
Only a few countries in Europe and North America, the largest consumers of carbon, vote in favor of genocide.
Reading over this comment, I genuinely didn't intend the naming theme.
posted by cendawanita at 2:59 AM on September 13, 2024 [10 favorites]
Jill Stein a terrible human being and a puppet of Vladimir Putin, but voting for her makes it easier for Trump to win
This is a scurrilous remark but seems to be the norm here on MF. Explain how she's a "terrible human being." Also what makes someone a "pUtIn pUpPeT"? Should she have dumped her drink on Putin's head at the dinner where she was seated next to him?
I live in a state where the GOP has carried every Presidential election for decades so my vote for Stein is not a vote for Trump. Honestly this is just one of the most obnoxious tropes but again seems to be the norm here on the blue.
posted by drstrangelove at 4:03 AM on September 13, 2024 [4 favorites]
This is a scurrilous remark but seems to be the norm here on MF. Explain how she's a "terrible human being." Also what makes someone a "pUtIn pUpPeT"? Should she have dumped her drink on Putin's head at the dinner where she was seated next to him?
I live in a state where the GOP has carried every Presidential election for decades so my vote for Stein is not a vote for Trump. Honestly this is just one of the most obnoxious tropes but again seems to be the norm here on the blue.
posted by drstrangelove at 4:03 AM on September 13, 2024 [4 favorites]
Meanwhile, in Toronto, Jewish Far-right Extremists Linked to Outlawed Terror Group Show Up at pro-Palestinian Events.
The police chief was interviewed on a local commercial radio station on Sept 13, describing them as 'security patrols' that are being co-ordinated with the Toronto Police Service.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:08 AM on September 13, 2024 [7 favorites]
The police chief was interviewed on a local commercial radio station on Sept 13, describing them as 'security patrols' that are being co-ordinated with the Toronto Police Service.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 7:08 AM on September 13, 2024 [7 favorites]
In swing state Michigan, the Attorney General Dana Nessel announced she is filing criminal charges against 9 people involved in a pro-Palestinian protest at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
In blue state New York, four workers at the Noguchi Museum were fired for wearing keffiyehs, which violated internal policy that was put in place in August. What would Noguchi have to say about this? Given that he traveled to DC to lobby for Japanese American civil rights, who knows?
In NJ a Republican candidate for governor introduced legislation for a mask ban, following a similar bill that was passed in Nassau County, NY.
posted by toastyk at 7:31 AM on September 13, 2024 [6 favorites]
In blue state New York, four workers at the Noguchi Museum were fired for wearing keffiyehs, which violated internal policy that was put in place in August. What would Noguchi have to say about this? Given that he traveled to DC to lobby for Japanese American civil rights, who knows?
In NJ a Republican candidate for governor introduced legislation for a mask ban, following a similar bill that was passed in Nassau County, NY.
posted by toastyk at 7:31 AM on September 13, 2024 [6 favorites]
Is it wrong to become less and less optimistic about the status quo changing in this regard as I hear Harris discuss I/P more and more? She appears to want to offer continuity with the prior administration(s) instead of being truly changed by the extent of the humanitarian crisis that lies before us.
posted by Selena777 at 8:37 AM on September 13, 2024 [9 favorites]
posted by Selena777 at 8:37 AM on September 13, 2024 [9 favorites]
Not wrong at all. But eustatic nailed it above:
Trump is a literal fucking settler, Biden is a racist, and someone who has forgotten what starvation is
In September of 2024, Harris is our option to shift policy by shifting personnel at the highest level. We know the other two options are failures. We may fail again, but we must at least try.
posted by flabdablet at 10:57 AM on September 13, 2024 [6 favorites]
Trump is a literal fucking settler, Biden is a racist, and someone who has forgotten what starvation is
In September of 2024, Harris is our option to shift policy by shifting personnel at the highest level. We know the other two options are failures. We may fail again, but we must at least try.
posted by flabdablet at 10:57 AM on September 13, 2024 [6 favorites]
Honestly, the world is going to move on, with or without the US, so the US admin, whoever wins, needs to get a clue. The US is burning all our international capital for an genocide.
Today: Spain hosted a high-level meeting of several Arab + Muslim and European countries on ways to end the Gaza war. Notably, the US did not attend.
Chile joins the growing list of countries joining the South Africa genocide case.
The man who self-immolated is now identified as Matt Nelson. There is video of him linked in the comments speaking about why he's doing it, but I have not watched the Instagram reel all the way through, so proceed with caution; I have not watched it and will not be watching it. His last statement: "My name is Matt Nelson and I'm about to engage in an extreme act of protest. We are all culpable in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.... We are slaves to capitalism and the military industrial complex. Most of us are too apathetic to care. The protest I'm about to engage in is a call to our government to stop suppling Israel with the money and weapons it uses to imprison and murder innocent Palestinians, to pressure Israel to end the genocide in Gaza, and to support the ICC indictment of Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government.... A democracy is supposed to serve the will of the people, not the interests of the wealthy. Take the power back. Free Palestine."
posted by toastyk at 11:10 AM on September 13, 2024 [11 favorites]
Today: Spain hosted a high-level meeting of several Arab + Muslim and European countries on ways to end the Gaza war. Notably, the US did not attend.
Chile joins the growing list of countries joining the South Africa genocide case.
The man who self-immolated is now identified as Matt Nelson. There is video of him linked in the comments speaking about why he's doing it, but I have not watched the Instagram reel all the way through, so proceed with caution; I have not watched it and will not be watching it. His last statement: "My name is Matt Nelson and I'm about to engage in an extreme act of protest. We are all culpable in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.... We are slaves to capitalism and the military industrial complex. Most of us are too apathetic to care. The protest I'm about to engage in is a call to our government to stop suppling Israel with the money and weapons it uses to imprison and murder innocent Palestinians, to pressure Israel to end the genocide in Gaza, and to support the ICC indictment of Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government.... A democracy is supposed to serve the will of the people, not the interests of the wealthy. Take the power back. Free Palestine."
posted by toastyk at 11:10 AM on September 13, 2024 [11 favorites]
Regarding Jill Stein, she's good on Israel/Palestine, but bad on a number of other issues. She's vaccine hesitant, anti-GMO, has expressed concerns about "electromagnetic radiation" like WiFi and 5G's effects on children, against nuclear power, seems very happy to support Russia in both Ukraine and through their proxy dictatorship in Syria, seems to have promoted conspiracy theories about 9/11, praised Brexit, and wants the US to leave NATO (I'm not a big fan of NATO, but it's absolutely essential in deterring Russian aggression right now).
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:44 PM on September 13, 2024 [7 favorites]
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:44 PM on September 13, 2024 [7 favorites]
Regarding Jill Stein, she's good on Israel/Palestine, but bad on a number of other issues.
Oh, sure, she's a crackpot. But there's a big difference between someone being a crackpot and being a Russian agent!
posted by adrienneleigh at 1:49 PM on September 13, 2024 [4 favorites]
Oh, sure, she's a crackpot. But there's a big difference between someone being a crackpot and being a Russian agent!
posted by adrienneleigh at 1:49 PM on September 13, 2024 [4 favorites]
Oh, sure, she's a crackpot. But there's a big difference between someone being a crackpot and being a Russian agent!
I have no evidence she's actually a Russian agent, in the sense that she's paid and briefed on what to say. Her statements on foreign policy, however, often align with Russian interests, in that way that's sadly the case with many older leftists who got too used to thinking that the opposite of what the US wants is always the right side, and totally ignoring that Russia's almost completed its slide into full fascism. See also Chomsky, Roger Waters, and several others.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:52 PM on September 13, 2024 [8 favorites]
I have no evidence she's actually a Russian agent, in the sense that she's paid and briefed on what to say. Her statements on foreign policy, however, often align with Russian interests, in that way that's sadly the case with many older leftists who got too used to thinking that the opposite of what the US wants is always the right side, and totally ignoring that Russia's almost completed its slide into full fascism. See also Chomsky, Roger Waters, and several others.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:52 PM on September 13, 2024 [8 favorites]
WaPo: A rabbi protested the war in Gaza. Her activism came at a high price. "Rabbi Lonnie Kleinman joined more than 300 protestors to call for a cease-fire in Gaza. Weeks later, she was fired from her job."
Mother Jones: New University Rules Crack Down on Gaza Protests "Dozens of campuses quietly implemented new “expressive activity” policies over the summer—effectively banning many forms of protest."
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 3:18 AM on September 14, 2024 [7 favorites]
Mother Jones: New University Rules Crack Down on Gaza Protests "Dozens of campuses quietly implemented new “expressive activity” policies over the summer—effectively banning many forms of protest."
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 3:18 AM on September 14, 2024 [7 favorites]
An American activist who was shot by the IDF in the West Bank speaks out: I came to the West Bank with Defend Palestine to provide nonviolent civil protection—a well-known form of peacekeeping—for Palestinian farmers and families. Such efforts are made necessary by rapidly-escalating settler and military violence; violence that only ever seems to garner condemnation and individualized sanctions by the Biden-Harris administration, and never a rethink of the U.S.-Israel security relationship.
The Israeli army called my shooting an “accident,” claiming the soldiers fired live rounds into the air. (I had previously used an alias, Amado Sison, but have decided to go public with my real name.) The truth is they fired straight at me. The bullet entered through the back of my thigh and out the front. It’s a trajectory that would be impossible for a bullet falling from the sky. The State Department has said they are “aware of the incident,” and the U.S. Embassy has offered me accompaniment to file a report with the Israeli police. But I declined the offer because I believe such reporting whitewashes the systemic impunity Israel wields. The data bears this out.
MIT Coalition for Palestine announces: the MISTI-Israel Lockheed Martin Fund has been shut-down after sustained pressure. This is the first known American-Israeli weapons manufacturer partnership to end at an American university since the war on Gaza began.
posted by toastyk at 8:18 AM on September 14, 2024 [10 favorites]
The Israeli army called my shooting an “accident,” claiming the soldiers fired live rounds into the air. (I had previously used an alias, Amado Sison, but have decided to go public with my real name.) The truth is they fired straight at me. The bullet entered through the back of my thigh and out the front. It’s a trajectory that would be impossible for a bullet falling from the sky. The State Department has said they are “aware of the incident,” and the U.S. Embassy has offered me accompaniment to file a report with the Israeli police. But I declined the offer because I believe such reporting whitewashes the systemic impunity Israel wields. The data bears this out.
MIT Coalition for Palestine announces: the MISTI-Israel Lockheed Martin Fund has been shut-down after sustained pressure. This is the first known American-Israeli weapons manufacturer partnership to end at an American university since the war on Gaza began.
posted by toastyk at 8:18 AM on September 14, 2024 [10 favorites]
About CUNY's suppression of Palestinian advocacy: The Organizers Are Jewish. The Cause Is Palestinian. This College Won’t Be Hosting. (archived)
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 1:32 PM on September 14, 2024 [7 favorites]
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 1:32 PM on September 14, 2024 [7 favorites]
Just an FYI, I am seeing various reports going around on X that Paypal and GoFundMe have been shutting down Palestinian accounts. I have not seen any verified articles about it, but something to watch out for. Anyway, Operation Olive Branch is still up and running.
Funeral held for Turkish-American activist Aysenur Eygi as Israeli airstrikes kill 14 in Gaza. NYT's account of the funeral , highlighted that no US officials showed up to her funeral, and calling the funeral "deeply Turkish and profoundly pro-Palestinian".
Apparently the UC Regents system is requesting to purchase weapons (PDF) to use against their students in the name of public safety, justifying my lifelong decision to never donate another dime to them:
UCLA is requesting to purchase (4) FN Herstal 303 launchers, (4) Pepper Ball VK-SBL, (3,000) FTC Pava Capsaicin Rounds, (100) Rounds of Def-Tec 40mm munitions (Model #6320) and (300) rounds of Def-Tec 40mm munitions (Model #6325).
• UCM is requesting to purchase (5) Def-Tec 40mm launchers and (100) Rounds of Model #6324 eXact iMpact™ 40mm Sponge Round munitions. This request was approved in 2023, and UCM intends to purchase during fiscal year 2024-25
AB 481 further requires local community engagement. Specifically, within 30 days of the submission of the annual report to the Regents, each UC Campus Police Department will hold “at least one well-publicized and conveniently located community engagement meeting, at which the general public may discuss and ask questions regarding the annual military equipment report and the law enforcement agency’s funding, acquisition, or use of military equipment” in order to comply with this requirement.
Finally, the UC Board of Regents must review the annual report and approve a renewed military equipment use policy “at least annually,” in an open meeting.
posted by toastyk at 7:03 AM on September 15, 2024 [5 favorites]
Funeral held for Turkish-American activist Aysenur Eygi as Israeli airstrikes kill 14 in Gaza. NYT's account of the funeral , highlighted that no US officials showed up to her funeral, and calling the funeral "deeply Turkish and profoundly pro-Palestinian".
Apparently the UC Regents system is requesting to purchase weapons (PDF) to use against their students in the name of public safety, justifying my lifelong decision to never donate another dime to them:
UCLA is requesting to purchase (4) FN Herstal 303 launchers, (4) Pepper Ball VK-SBL, (3,000) FTC Pava Capsaicin Rounds, (100) Rounds of Def-Tec 40mm munitions (Model #6320) and (300) rounds of Def-Tec 40mm munitions (Model #6325).
• UCM is requesting to purchase (5) Def-Tec 40mm launchers and (100) Rounds of Model #6324 eXact iMpact™ 40mm Sponge Round munitions. This request was approved in 2023, and UCM intends to purchase during fiscal year 2024-25
AB 481 further requires local community engagement. Specifically, within 30 days of the submission of the annual report to the Regents, each UC Campus Police Department will hold “at least one well-publicized and conveniently located community engagement meeting, at which the general public may discuss and ask questions regarding the annual military equipment report and the law enforcement agency’s funding, acquisition, or use of military equipment” in order to comply with this requirement.
Finally, the UC Board of Regents must review the annual report and approve a renewed military equipment use policy “at least annually,” in an open meeting.
posted by toastyk at 7:03 AM on September 15, 2024 [5 favorites]
it's a sad day when regents of a major university have to go shopping for weapons.
posted by clavdivs at 1:12 PM on September 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by clavdivs at 1:12 PM on September 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
"have to"?
posted by busted_crayons at 1:50 PM on September 15, 2024 [9 favorites]
posted by busted_crayons at 1:50 PM on September 15, 2024 [9 favorites]
Apparently a pro-Palestine demonstrator was shot a few days ago in Newton, MA by an anti-Palestine activist (the latter claims self-defense)
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 3:38 PM on September 15, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 3:38 PM on September 15, 2024 [3 favorites]
the various pieces of university news reminded me that: the semester should be starting in Gaza soon, too. and some universities (specifically in the West Bank and in France) are taking their mission more seriously than many US institutions seem to be...
despite having no physical universities to attend and significant understaffing and unimaginable obvious barriers to studying, at least some students in Gaza will hopefully have some chance to access their right to education:
We are gathering a team of external professors in all subjects, able to teach in Arabic or English, who would teach online to Palestinian students, wherever the local faculty is unable to teach. The credits awarded for the course will be validated by the students’ own universities in Gaza.
We have partnered up with An-Najah university (Nablus, West Bank), which sets up the virtual classrooms and organises the courses, according to the needs of Gazan students (https://initiative.najah.edu/invitation/)
my understanding is that that org is really keen for people to volunteer to do some online teaching/TAing, so if you've a lecturer/grad student in your life, pass along the link.
posted by busted_crayons at 5:24 PM on September 15, 2024 [4 favorites]
despite having no physical universities to attend and significant understaffing and unimaginable obvious barriers to studying, at least some students in Gaza will hopefully have some chance to access their right to education:
We are gathering a team of external professors in all subjects, able to teach in Arabic or English, who would teach online to Palestinian students, wherever the local faculty is unable to teach. The credits awarded for the course will be validated by the students’ own universities in Gaza.
We have partnered up with An-Najah university (Nablus, West Bank), which sets up the virtual classrooms and organises the courses, according to the needs of Gazan students (https://initiative.najah.edu/invitation/)
my understanding is that that org is really keen for people to volunteer to do some online teaching/TAing, so if you've a lecturer/grad student in your life, pass along the link.
posted by busted_crayons at 5:24 PM on September 15, 2024 [4 favorites]
Very normal and cool army recruits refugees to fight in Gaza.
If they aren't counting "volunteer" refugee casualties as part of the army's tally that could explain why only ~300 Israeli army personnel have died since October 7th despite heavy vehicle losses (translation via google translate, can't verify, trusting that a highly politicized wiki entry is being judiciously edited).
posted by Slackermagee at 5:38 PM on September 15, 2024 [5 favorites]
If they aren't counting "volunteer" refugee casualties as part of the army's tally that could explain why only ~300 Israeli army personnel have died since October 7th despite heavy vehicle losses (translation via google translate, can't verify, trusting that a highly politicized wiki entry is being judiciously edited).
posted by Slackermagee at 5:38 PM on September 15, 2024 [5 favorites]
Jill Stein, ladies and gentlemen.
What does that have to do with the US enabling a genocide in the Middle East, exactly?
posted by adrienneleigh at 1:33 AM on September 17, 2024 [8 favorites]
What does that have to do with the US enabling a genocide in the Middle East, exactly?
posted by adrienneleigh at 1:33 AM on September 17, 2024 [8 favorites]
A student enumerates the Barnard College administration's efforts to suppress pro-Palestine activism on campus
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 3:23 AM on September 17, 2024 [5 favorites]
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 3:23 AM on September 17, 2024 [5 favorites]
A US party candidate not denouncing a terrible world leader is a joke with the punchline, "which one?"
posted by Slackermagee at 5:28 AM on September 17, 2024 [7 favorites]
posted by Slackermagee at 5:28 AM on September 17, 2024 [7 favorites]
False profits: Why I am not teaching in the classroom this fall - Steven W. Thrasher on American Campus Crackdowns on Free Assembly - And when it comes to faculty, who have more speech protections (at least in theory), it is curious to look around and see how many look like me. Despite there being a dearth of Black professors who teach queer studies on university campuses, there sure were a lot of us getting beaten up at student encampments by cops on the news. Whether it was Black Disability Politics authors Sami Schalk at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, African American and queer studies professor Tiffany Willoughby-Herard at the University of California Irvine, or me, it is amazing how few Black queer professors there are in academia and yet, paradoxically, how many of us are showing up to protect our students and then being singled out for the most violent, racist punishment of anyone.
Polling analysis of PA, WI, and MI: Michigan recently has been the strongest of these three states for Democrats. Not only have Democrats run better there than in the other two in every presidential election since 2000, but the party now controls all four of the elected statewide constitutional offices (three of which are held by women), both US Senate seats and both chambers of the state legislature. (Democrats are defending an open US Senate seat this year.)
But this year, operatives in both parties consider Michigan a closer call for Harris than Wisconsin. “Michigan has some weird things going on,” said GOP pollster Gene Ulm, who is working in the state. “There are some x factors there.” Michigan’s principal “x factor” is anger in its large and previously Democratic-leaning Arab American population over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. That unhappiness has spilled over more broadly among young people on college campuses.
Michigan Democrats must also contend with a concerted push by Trump to convince auto workers that the Biden administration’s efforts to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles (which Harris supports) will destroy domestic jobs. And while Biden was the candidate, Democrats faced the risk of depressed turnout among Black voters, especially younger men.
Hmm, let's see if this moves the needle at all: US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield airs frustration with Israel's habit of targeting schools in strikes - Thomas-Greenfield told council members that the U.S. will keep raising the need for Israel to facilitate humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territory and protect humanitarian workers and facilities like the UNRWA shelter.
She also reiterated U.S. “outrage” at the death of Turkish American activist Aysenur Eygi, who was shot and killed during a protest in the West Bank last week. Israeli Defense Forces said it likely killed Eygi by mistake, and the government has begun a criminal investigation.
“The IDF is a professional military and knows well how to ensure that incidents such as these do not happen,” the U.S. envoy said.
Thomas-Greenfield said the United States expects Israeli military leaders to implement “fundamental changes” in their operations — including to their rules of engagement and procedures to ensure that military operations do not conflict with humanitarian activities and do not target schools and other civilian facilities.
“We have also been unequivocal in communicating to Israel that there is no basis — absolutely none — for its forces to be opening fire on clearly marked U.N. vehicles as recently occurred on numerous occasions,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
posted by toastyk at 6:51 AM on September 17, 2024 [4 favorites]
Polling analysis of PA, WI, and MI: Michigan recently has been the strongest of these three states for Democrats. Not only have Democrats run better there than in the other two in every presidential election since 2000, but the party now controls all four of the elected statewide constitutional offices (three of which are held by women), both US Senate seats and both chambers of the state legislature. (Democrats are defending an open US Senate seat this year.)
But this year, operatives in both parties consider Michigan a closer call for Harris than Wisconsin. “Michigan has some weird things going on,” said GOP pollster Gene Ulm, who is working in the state. “There are some x factors there.” Michigan’s principal “x factor” is anger in its large and previously Democratic-leaning Arab American population over the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. That unhappiness has spilled over more broadly among young people on college campuses.
Michigan Democrats must also contend with a concerted push by Trump to convince auto workers that the Biden administration’s efforts to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles (which Harris supports) will destroy domestic jobs. And while Biden was the candidate, Democrats faced the risk of depressed turnout among Black voters, especially younger men.
Hmm, let's see if this moves the needle at all: US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield airs frustration with Israel's habit of targeting schools in strikes - Thomas-Greenfield told council members that the U.S. will keep raising the need for Israel to facilitate humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territory and protect humanitarian workers and facilities like the UNRWA shelter.
She also reiterated U.S. “outrage” at the death of Turkish American activist Aysenur Eygi, who was shot and killed during a protest in the West Bank last week. Israeli Defense Forces said it likely killed Eygi by mistake, and the government has begun a criminal investigation.
“The IDF is a professional military and knows well how to ensure that incidents such as these do not happen,” the U.S. envoy said.
Thomas-Greenfield said the United States expects Israeli military leaders to implement “fundamental changes” in their operations — including to their rules of engagement and procedures to ensure that military operations do not conflict with humanitarian activities and do not target schools and other civilian facilities.
“We have also been unequivocal in communicating to Israel that there is no basis — absolutely none — for its forces to be opening fire on clearly marked U.N. vehicles as recently occurred on numerous occasions,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
posted by toastyk at 6:51 AM on September 17, 2024 [4 favorites]
Here's the statement by Matt Nelson, the person who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Consulate in Boston.
“I’m Matt Nelson, and I'm about to engage in an extreme act of protest. We are all culpable in the ongoing (Israeli) genocide in Gaza.”posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 6:59 AM on September 17, 2024 [11 favorites]
“We call ourselves the greatest nation in history, yet we spend more on weapons of war than we do on educating our children, helping the homeless, ensuring all Americans have equal rights, and protecting the environment combined. We are slaves to capitalism and a military industrial complex. Most of us are too apathetic to care.
“The protest I'm about to engage in is a call to our government to stop supplying Israel with the money and weapons it uses to imprison and murder innocent Palestinians, to pressure Israel to end the genocide in Gaza and to support the ICC (International Criminal Court) indictment of (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government.
"I urge any of you who are of the same mind to call your senators and representatives and demand that they introduce and advance legislation to achieve these goals. If sitting lawmakers won’t, vote for those who will.
"A democracy is supposed to serve the will of the people, not the interests of the wealthy. Take the power back. Free Palestine,”
Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, it looks like Israel has detonated pagers used by Hezbollah, causing havoc. Outrageous. I mean, I hate Hezbollah’s ideology, but they would be totally justified in escalating here. This is just pure terrorism.
posted by caviar2d2 at 1:07 PM on September 17, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by caviar2d2 at 1:07 PM on September 17, 2024 [4 favorites]
A wave of exploding pagers in Lebanon and Syria kills at least 9, including members of Hezbollah
Canadian press also reports suspicion of Israel being behind this attack.
we spend more on weapons of war than we do on educating our children...
... not to mention making sure rapists and pedophiles have all the finest technology the West can offer at their leisurely disposal so that they might continue living their best lives literally at expense of the species. Unless the rest of the species, they never have to justify their existance, why they're alive, or why they can travel the world while owning us as casually as they do. They never have to contribute any solutions to cancer and instead simply continue fueling the disease-related outcomes, and then bury the truth by creating "war" 🚩
posted by human ecologist at 2:43 PM on September 17, 2024 [6 favorites]
Canadian press also reports suspicion of Israel being behind this attack.
we spend more on weapons of war than we do on educating our children...
... not to mention making sure rapists and pedophiles have all the finest technology the West can offer at their leisurely disposal so that they might continue living their best lives literally at expense of the species. Unless the rest of the species, they never have to justify their existance, why they're alive, or why they can travel the world while owning us as casually as they do. They never have to contribute any solutions to cancer and instead simply continue fueling the disease-related outcomes, and then bury the truth by creating "war" 🚩
posted by human ecologist at 2:43 PM on September 17, 2024 [6 favorites]
Lebanon has a right to defend itself.
posted by adrienneleigh at 6:18 PM on September 17, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by adrienneleigh at 6:18 PM on September 17, 2024 [4 favorites]
The pager attack has its own thread now, fyi.
posted by mediareport at 7:06 PM on September 17, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by mediareport at 7:06 PM on September 17, 2024 [3 favorites]
Until today if someone had said a pager can be made to explode by software attack I'd have brushed it aside as conspiracy nonsense.
And maybe I'd be right to. The security experts say its pretty unlikely a purely software attack could heat the battery enough to set it on fire. And some ordinance people say it doesn't look like a battery ignition.
So now they're speculating that at some point the supply chain was compromised and plastic explosive was built into the pagers.
Which sounds really damn hard to keep secret for long. But with global supply chains and factories assembling various balck box components into a pager it would presumably be possible without the assembly line workers knowing about it.
JFC this is going to be a mess, I can see inspection by third parties being mandated at every step for every component in just about anything now.
A laptop has plenty of space to hide enough plastic explosive to be really deadly and now everyone needs to start wondering which devices have built in.bombs.
This is going to be worse than the time America fucked with PLCs to sabotage Iran's centrifuges
posted by sotonohito at 7:11 PM on September 17, 2024 [1 favorite]
And maybe I'd be right to. The security experts say its pretty unlikely a purely software attack could heat the battery enough to set it on fire. And some ordinance people say it doesn't look like a battery ignition.
So now they're speculating that at some point the supply chain was compromised and plastic explosive was built into the pagers.
Which sounds really damn hard to keep secret for long. But with global supply chains and factories assembling various balck box components into a pager it would presumably be possible without the assembly line workers knowing about it.
JFC this is going to be a mess, I can see inspection by third parties being mandated at every step for every component in just about anything now.
A laptop has plenty of space to hide enough plastic explosive to be really deadly and now everyone needs to start wondering which devices have built in.bombs.
This is going to be worse than the time America fucked with PLCs to sabotage Iran's centrifuges
posted by sotonohito at 7:11 PM on September 17, 2024 [1 favorite]
From memory the NSA used to redirect Cisco switches and 'interfere' with them before going out to customers. I believe they had their own replacement tamper-proof stickers and everything. Probably pretty easy to get explode-y things into consumer devices if you know the supply-chain - particularly if potential targets are getting the same kit from the same place.
The PLC thing in Iran was Israel (altho Stuxnet was jointly developed by the US/Israel) - the US was pissed that it was used and knowledge of the exploit went overground and caused global chaos (but as we know Israel gets a pass so I guess all the US could do was shrug and pretend not to know...). Can recommend the Zero Days doc.
posted by phigmov at 7:48 PM on September 17, 2024 [5 favorites]
The PLC thing in Iran was Israel (altho Stuxnet was jointly developed by the US/Israel) - the US was pissed that it was used and knowledge of the exploit went overground and caused global chaos (but as we know Israel gets a pass so I guess all the US could do was shrug and pretend not to know...). Can recommend the Zero Days doc.
posted by phigmov at 7:48 PM on September 17, 2024 [5 favorites]
Well, I'm looking forward to being a casualty, and I can't even vote in the US elections (chain of thought: IDF joint training with American police, eg NYPD; NYPD has Asia-Pacific office, in Australia; NYPD and the FBI and the US Coast Guard plus who knows what else has been known to provide training to our security forces here). Ah, what more those who can - such as those being impacted by Cop City(ies)
posted by cendawanita at 8:21 PM on September 17, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 8:21 PM on September 17, 2024 [4 favorites]
Columbia Spectator: Inside Columbia’s surveillance and disciplinary operation for student protesters
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 5:24 AM on September 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 5:24 AM on September 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
The 'Germany slow-rolling its arms support' news reminds me that just before the Houthis actually striking Tel Aviv (again) with its hypersonic missile became news, I was reading this Sept 2 Haaretz article (ungated) based on an interview with an Air Force officer who said that without US support, they could only go on in Gaza for a few more months, and only now is about to (???) implement greater domestic production:
This is the air force's stance on the back of the seven-front war all over the Middle East that has been underway for 11 months. Such a change would take a few years to implement – and an extra tens of billions of shekels in funding – because most of the air force's equipment in the war so far was bought from American companies using U.S. military aid.
(...) The air force's stance echoes one by Israel in 1967. After the Six-Day War, French President Charles de Gaulle imposed an arms embargo on Israel, which included tanks, missile boats and Mirage jets.
Israel then switched over its dependence on a foreign power to the United States, which provides the air force with all of its fighter planes and some of its bombs, missiles and intelligence equipment – on top of the development of joint weapons systems for all three layers of air defense.
The senior air force official told Haaretz that without the Americans' supply of weapons to the Israel Defense Forces, especially the air force, Israel would have had a hard time sustaining its war for more than a few months.
Re: that Iranian strike: Thus, the air force's planes and air defense systems inflicted a serious defeat on the Iranians. But this was also done with the vital help of American, British and French planes, and reportedly also from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and with the coordination of radar and warning systems between Israel and those five countries.
Only four surface-to-surface missiles hit Israel, a building at Nevatim. Fragments of another missile landed in the Dead Sea.
posted by cendawanita at 8:00 AM on September 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
This is the air force's stance on the back of the seven-front war all over the Middle East that has been underway for 11 months. Such a change would take a few years to implement – and an extra tens of billions of shekels in funding – because most of the air force's equipment in the war so far was bought from American companies using U.S. military aid.
(...) The air force's stance echoes one by Israel in 1967. After the Six-Day War, French President Charles de Gaulle imposed an arms embargo on Israel, which included tanks, missile boats and Mirage jets.
Israel then switched over its dependence on a foreign power to the United States, which provides the air force with all of its fighter planes and some of its bombs, missiles and intelligence equipment – on top of the development of joint weapons systems for all three layers of air defense.
The senior air force official told Haaretz that without the Americans' supply of weapons to the Israel Defense Forces, especially the air force, Israel would have had a hard time sustaining its war for more than a few months.
Re: that Iranian strike: Thus, the air force's planes and air defense systems inflicted a serious defeat on the Iranians. But this was also done with the vital help of American, British and French planes, and reportedly also from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and with the coordination of radar and warning systems between Israel and those five countries.
Only four surface-to-surface missiles hit Israel, a building at Nevatim. Fragments of another missile landed in the Dead Sea.
posted by cendawanita at 8:00 AM on September 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
Haaretz (ungated): UN Overwhelmingly Votes on Resolution to Impose Sanctions, Arms Embargo on Israel -
The U.S. urged the General Assembly to vote no but lacked veto power, arguing that the resolution undermined the prospects for a two-state solution
posted by cendawanita at 9:10 AM on September 18, 2024 [4 favorites]
The U.S. urged the General Assembly to vote no but lacked veto power, arguing that the resolution undermined the prospects for a two-state solution
posted by cendawanita at 9:10 AM on September 18, 2024 [4 favorites]
The U.S. urged the General Assembly to vote no ...arguing that the resolution undermined the prospects for a two-state solution
The US can only be seen as a bad faith actor in the "peace process" at this point, since its every action is undertaken to shield Israel from (deserved and overdue) consequence.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 9:39 AM on September 18, 2024 [7 favorites]
The US can only be seen as a bad faith actor in the "peace process" at this point, since its every action is undertaken to shield Israel from (deserved and overdue) consequence.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 9:39 AM on September 18, 2024 [7 favorites]
Oh should add that Bernie Sanders announcement to file a Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to stop the sale of U.S. arms to Israel here for record keeping.
posted by cendawanita at 9:42 AM on September 18, 2024 [5 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 9:42 AM on September 18, 2024 [5 favorites]
Bloomberg columnist, Javier Blas (with screenshot of transcript; NDTV article): And so dies another Middle East dream of the Biden administration.
In televised speech, Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says the kingdom won't establish diplomatic relations with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state.
posted by cendawanita at 9:48 AM on September 18, 2024 [6 favorites]
In televised speech, Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says the kingdom won't establish diplomatic relations with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state.
posted by cendawanita at 9:48 AM on September 18, 2024 [6 favorites]
You do not, under any circumstances, have to hand it to "bone saw" MBS. But i'm glad that Saudi-Israel normalization is off the table.
posted by adrienneleigh at 10:22 AM on September 18, 2024 [6 favorites]
posted by adrienneleigh at 10:22 AM on September 18, 2024 [6 favorites]
Follow up on the Haaretz report which is based on data, Reuters is reporting an exclusive: Germany has stopped approving war weapons exports to Israel, source says
A source close to the ministry cited a senior government official as saying it had stopped work on approving export licences for arms to Israel pending a resolution of legal cases arguing that such exports from Germany breached humanitarian law.
(This would include the Nicaragua suit.)
Anyway: Alexander Schwarz, a lawyer at ECCHR, which has filed five lawsuits against Berlin, suggested that the significant decline in approvals for 2024 indicated a genuine, though possibly temporary, reluctance to supply weapons to Israel.
"However, I would not interpret this as a conscious change in policy," Schwarz added.
posted by cendawanita at 11:07 AM on September 18, 2024 [5 favorites]
A source close to the ministry cited a senior government official as saying it had stopped work on approving export licences for arms to Israel pending a resolution of legal cases arguing that such exports from Germany breached humanitarian law.
(This would include the Nicaragua suit.)
Anyway: Alexander Schwarz, a lawyer at ECCHR, which has filed five lawsuits against Berlin, suggested that the significant decline in approvals for 2024 indicated a genuine, though possibly temporary, reluctance to supply weapons to Israel.
"However, I would not interpret this as a conscious change in policy," Schwarz added.
posted by cendawanita at 11:07 AM on September 18, 2024 [5 favorites]
In other news, Canada misplaced its newly found balls just as quickly as it discovered them... so soon too.
posted by human ecologist at 5:42 AM on September 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by human ecologist at 5:42 AM on September 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
I can't access it, what is it about?
posted by cendawanita at 5:50 AM on September 19, 2024
posted by cendawanita at 5:50 AM on September 19, 2024
Canada abstained Wednesday from a high-profile United Nations vote demanding that Israel end its "unlawful presence" in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank within a year. The motion pertained to Israel's decades of occupation in the West Bank, as well as its war against Hamas in Gaza. It comes as the first anniversary of the war approaches and as violence in the West Bank reaches new highs.
"We cannot support a resolution where one party, the State of Israel, is held solely responsible for the conflict," Canada's ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, told the General Assembly. Rae said Canada abstained despite agreeing that Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian territories, because the resolution calls for isolating Israel and contains language around boycotting the country, which he said will not lead to peace. He said the violence in Israel and the territories it occupies is "a conflict where everyone in this room knows that many other states and non-state actors are also directly involved."
While the resolution is not legally binding, the extent of its support reflects world opinion.
Clearly we have buy-in to the conflict. Somehow, somewhere, we are still invested ...though not nearly as much as the US but still.
posted by human ecologist at 6:08 AM on September 19, 2024 [4 favorites]
"We cannot support a resolution where one party, the State of Israel, is held solely responsible for the conflict," Canada's ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, told the General Assembly. Rae said Canada abstained despite agreeing that Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian territories, because the resolution calls for isolating Israel and contains language around boycotting the country, which he said will not lead to peace. He said the violence in Israel and the territories it occupies is "a conflict where everyone in this room knows that many other states and non-state actors are also directly involved."
While the resolution is not legally binding, the extent of its support reflects world opinion.
Clearly we have buy-in to the conflict. Somehow, somewhere, we are still invested ...though not nearly as much as the US but still.
posted by human ecologist at 6:08 AM on September 19, 2024 [4 favorites]
Everything Canada says has to be filtered through the ongoing occupation of its aboriginal people's lands and recent attempts at genocide of same.
posted by Mitheral at 9:21 AM on September 19, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by Mitheral at 9:21 AM on September 19, 2024 [4 favorites]
HuffPost: Major Critics Of Gaza War Will Not Endorse Harris — But Say Trump Will ‘Accelerate The Killing’ -
In a careful Thursday statement, the “Uncommitted” movement decried the Republican presidential nominee and third parties who could help him win while expressing frustration with Democrats.
Nearly two months later, “Vice President Harris’s unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy or to even make a clear campaign statement in support of upholding existing U.S. and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her,” leaders in Uncommitted said in a carefully worded statement.
The Uncommitted group “opposes a Donald Trump presidency, whose agenda includes plans to accelerate the killing in Gaza while intensifying the suppression of anti-war organizing,” the statement continues. Additionally, the group is “not recommending a third-party vote in the Presidential election, especially as third party votes in key swing states could help inadvertently deliver a Trump presidency given our country’s broken electoral college system.”
“Our organizing around the presidential election was never about endorsing a specific candidate; it has always been about building a movement that saves lives,” the statement also notes.
In a press conference on Thursday morning after the message was released, Uncommitted leaders said they hoped to build on their voter mobilization to back Harris, but the Democratic Party and her campaign made that impossible.
They are not asking voters to avoid indicating their preference for president and are making different choices themselves, they added. One, Abbas Alawieh, said he will vote for Harris because he sees that as “not a love letter but a chess move” and he is alarmed by Republican plans to crack down on pro-Palestinian organizing. Two others, Layla Elabed and Lexis Zeidan, said they are not currently planning to vote for Harris.
(Unrelated to this foreign policy plank exclusively, Teamsters also broke tradition by not endorsing either candidate but internal polling showed more members preferred to vote for Trump. Putting a pin here for one day if Arab and Muslim Americans get blamed by how the election goes)
posted by cendawanita at 9:42 AM on September 19, 2024 [4 favorites]
In a careful Thursday statement, the “Uncommitted” movement decried the Republican presidential nominee and third parties who could help him win while expressing frustration with Democrats.
Nearly two months later, “Vice President Harris’s unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy or to even make a clear campaign statement in support of upholding existing U.S. and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her,” leaders in Uncommitted said in a carefully worded statement.
The Uncommitted group “opposes a Donald Trump presidency, whose agenda includes plans to accelerate the killing in Gaza while intensifying the suppression of anti-war organizing,” the statement continues. Additionally, the group is “not recommending a third-party vote in the Presidential election, especially as third party votes in key swing states could help inadvertently deliver a Trump presidency given our country’s broken electoral college system.”
“Our organizing around the presidential election was never about endorsing a specific candidate; it has always been about building a movement that saves lives,” the statement also notes.
In a press conference on Thursday morning after the message was released, Uncommitted leaders said they hoped to build on their voter mobilization to back Harris, but the Democratic Party and her campaign made that impossible.
They are not asking voters to avoid indicating their preference for president and are making different choices themselves, they added. One, Abbas Alawieh, said he will vote for Harris because he sees that as “not a love letter but a chess move” and he is alarmed by Republican plans to crack down on pro-Palestinian organizing. Two others, Layla Elabed and Lexis Zeidan, said they are not currently planning to vote for Harris.
(Unrelated to this foreign policy plank exclusively, Teamsters also broke tradition by not endorsing either candidate but internal polling showed more members preferred to vote for Trump. Putting a pin here for one day if Arab and Muslim Americans get blamed by how the election goes)
posted by cendawanita at 9:42 AM on September 19, 2024 [4 favorites]
AP: Bernie Sanders preparing resolutions to block $20B in US arms sales to Israel
Huh, plural.
While it’s doubtful the politically split Senate would pass the measures, the move is designed to send a message to the Netanyahu regime that its war effort is eroding the U.S.'s longtime bipartisan support for Israel. Sanders said he is working with other colleagues on the measures.
Key Senate Democrats have been pushing the Biden administration to end the Israel-Hamas war and lessen the humanitarian crisis, particularly in Gaza, where people’s homes, hospitals, schools and entire Palestinian families are being wiped out.
Sanders’ resolutions would halt sales of missile systems, tank rounds and other weaponry, some that has been singled out for causing some of the most severe destruction in Gaza, and new fighter jets. Congress had temporarily stalled some arms sales to Israel earlier this year, as lawmakers have tried to warn against the rising death toll.
posted by cendawanita at 10:11 AM on September 19, 2024 [5 favorites]
Huh, plural.
While it’s doubtful the politically split Senate would pass the measures, the move is designed to send a message to the Netanyahu regime that its war effort is eroding the U.S.'s longtime bipartisan support for Israel. Sanders said he is working with other colleagues on the measures.
Key Senate Democrats have been pushing the Biden administration to end the Israel-Hamas war and lessen the humanitarian crisis, particularly in Gaza, where people’s homes, hospitals, schools and entire Palestinian families are being wiped out.
Sanders’ resolutions would halt sales of missile systems, tank rounds and other weaponry, some that has been singled out for causing some of the most severe destruction in Gaza, and new fighter jets. Congress had temporarily stalled some arms sales to Israel earlier this year, as lawmakers have tried to warn against the rising death toll.
posted by cendawanita at 10:11 AM on September 19, 2024 [5 favorites]
As shared in the genocide thread:
Noga Tarnopolsky: 💥#Boom. This may mean the hostages story is, to all effects, over.
WSJ news burst, but here's the Reuters copy:
U.S. officials now believe that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza is unlikely before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The newspaper cited top-level officials in the White House, State Department and Pentagon without naming them. Those bodies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"I can tell you that we do not believe that deal is falling apart," Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters on Thursday before the report was published.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said two weeks ago that 90% of a ceasefire deal had been agreed upon.
The United States and mediators Qatar and Egypt have for months attempted to secure a ceasefire but have failed to bring Israel and Hamas to a final agreement.
posted by cendawanita at 8:26 PM on September 19, 2024 [4 favorites]
Noga Tarnopolsky: 💥#Boom. This may mean the hostages story is, to all effects, over.
WSJ news burst, but here's the Reuters copy:
U.S. officials now believe that a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza is unlikely before President Joe Biden leaves office in January, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The newspaper cited top-level officials in the White House, State Department and Pentagon without naming them. Those bodies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"I can tell you that we do not believe that deal is falling apart," Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters on Thursday before the report was published.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said two weeks ago that 90% of a ceasefire deal had been agreed upon.
The United States and mediators Qatar and Egypt have for months attempted to secure a ceasefire but have failed to bring Israel and Hamas to a final agreement.
posted by cendawanita at 8:26 PM on September 19, 2024 [4 favorites]
Jonathan Greenblatt Trusts Donald Trump
What is striking about this is how it bends over backwards to assume Trump is actually an ally of the Jews. He's a good guy! He's our friend! It opens, incredibly enough, by lauding Trump for having "called out antisemitism", and closes by praising him for "calling out hate". The framing is entirely centered around a premise that Trump is trying his level best to help the Jews, but is sadly undercutting his own best efforts by ill-chosen rhetoric or misplaced blame.posted by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 7:19 AM on September 21, 2024 [4 favorites]
This is the theme. His efforts against antisemitism are "undermined" by his antisemitic tropes -- not that his antisemitic tropes are promoting exactly the sort of antisemitism he intends to promote. His setting up Jews to take the blame "does zero to help American Jews" -- again, assuming the goal is to help American Jews and he's failing, not that he's trying to threaten American Jews and succeeding. There's the de rigueur (for Greenblatt) pivot to taking a shot at left-wing antizionists who, whatever their sins, have nothing to do with this conversation. And finally, he concludes by saying that Trump's efforts are "diluted" and "damaged" by his forays into hate -- again, a framing that takes as a given that Trump is intending to be a friend of the Jews but is inexplicably hurting his own cause.
This is a framing I've seen regularly in how Greenblatt talks about Trump's antisemitism (and Elon Musk, for that matter). And it stands in obvious contrast to how he speaks of perceived antisemitism on the left -- say, from campus pro-Palestine encampments -- whom, it should be said, also frame their actions as in pursuit of a broader paradigm of opposing bigotry and inequality, antisemitism included. Needless to say, antizionist protesters accused of antisemitism are not given Trump's courtesy treatment of a compliment sandwich. One cannot imagine Greenblatt opening his remarks about antisemitic invective in collegiate encampments by frontloading his appreciation that they "called out antisemitism." One can scarcely fathom him framing his criticisms of antisemitic tropes or actions in terms of the protesters "undermining" their attempts at showing solidarity with Jews, or "doing zero to help" the Jews on campus, or "diluting" their anti-racist message, or anything else that suggests that the protesters' antisemitism is some sort of accidental stumble at odds with their true intention of being allies of the Jews.
[. . .]
As an organization, the ADL, I have to reemphasize, has many people doing absolutely invaluable work on antisemitism. They have some incredible staff who are doing amazing things. I still do not see any other group in the American Jewish space capable of replacing what the ADL does for us.
But as the ADL's head, Greenblatt has proven, time and time again, that when it comes to Donald Trump and mainstream conservative antisemitism he cannot rise to the demands of the moment. Ultimately, despite all the evidence, despite all the history, despite all the hatred, Jonathan Greenblatt fundamentally trusts Donald Trump to be a friend of the Jews. So long as he cleaves to that nightmarish delusion, he will never oppose Trump's bigotry with the moral clarity and decisiveness the Jewish people need.
Netanyahu considering plan to force all Palestinian civilians out of northern Gaza to besiege Hamas
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a plan to force all Palestinian civilians out of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, in order to lay siege to Hamas and force the release of hostages. The goal... is to use siege tactics to starve Hamas fighters and force them to release 101 hostages still held in the territory. “Those who leave will receive food and water...”
Is this supposed to be virtue signaling??? Did I fall out of virtue by posting Canadian content? I thought this was a thread for posting news updates wherever we're legitimately getting them representative of where we're from. Are you suggesting that because I posted a Canadian news article that I'm not intelligent enough to understand Canada's colonial history? Considering I've made many comments regarding Canada's ongoing colonization of Indian bodies that are consistently deleted from Metafilter, the fact that Canada is a colonial entity aggressively incesticizing Indian bodies wherever it can get hands on them is not at all lost on me. So I'm not sure what this comment was supposed to be. Are you agreeing that Canada's news coverage is quite sh*tty? Or are you kneejerk Amerisplaining my own reality to me?
Btw it's considered politically correct to use the term "Indigenous" up here rather than "aboriginal", but I wouldn't want to burst anyone's bubble by insisting on relevant protocol, not with the actual Truth and Reconciliation Commission and all. Anyhow.
posted by human ecologist at 8:27 PM on September 22, 2024 [2 favorites]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a plan to force all Palestinian civilians out of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, in order to lay siege to Hamas and force the release of hostages. The goal... is to use siege tactics to starve Hamas fighters and force them to release 101 hostages still held in the territory. “Those who leave will receive food and water...”
Is this supposed to be virtue signaling??? Did I fall out of virtue by posting Canadian content? I thought this was a thread for posting news updates wherever we're legitimately getting them representative of where we're from. Are you suggesting that because I posted a Canadian news article that I'm not intelligent enough to understand Canada's colonial history? Considering I've made many comments regarding Canada's ongoing colonization of Indian bodies that are consistently deleted from Metafilter, the fact that Canada is a colonial entity aggressively incesticizing Indian bodies wherever it can get hands on them is not at all lost on me. So I'm not sure what this comment was supposed to be. Are you agreeing that Canada's news coverage is quite sh*tty? Or are you kneejerk Amerisplaining my own reality to me?
Btw it's considered politically correct to use the term "Indigenous" up here rather than "aboriginal", but I wouldn't want to burst anyone's bubble by insisting on relevant protocol, not with the actual Truth and Reconciliation Commission and all. Anyhow.
posted by human ecologist at 8:27 PM on September 22, 2024 [2 favorites]
Haaretz: Analysis | As U.S Election Nears, the Biden Administration Is Paralyzed in Face of Israel-Hezbollah Escalation -
The U.S. faces a strategic dilemma as Israel escalates attacks on Hezbollah, risking broader conflict. While Washington seeks to prevent war, it's constrained by limited policy options, political timing, and Netanyahu's brinkmanship (ungated)
From an American point of view, a low-intensity war is not desirable because of its built-in escalation mechanism. However, given the alternative, the U.S. could live with it as long as it was somewhat confined.
But an escalatory chain reaction 45 days before a presidential election is entirely unwelcome. Now that chain reaction may have been set in motion. The question is, what can the U.S. realistically do about it? The answer is "not much."
(...)Two things are worth emphasizing: Even if U.S. President Joe Biden constantly misinterpreted Netanyahu, wrongly thought he could rein him in and was amenable to his constant and blatant manipulations, he cannot induce immediate results.
The myth that "Biden should have picked up the phone" and forced Netanyahu's hand is just that – a myth. The American management of the crisis and of Netanyahu was glaringly unimpressive, but escalation was averted, at least until now.
Second, Netanyahu will not engage in any cease-fire and hostage talks in the next 45 days, nor will he accept any diplomatic ideas concerning Lebanon.
He has a vested interest in prolonging the war for his political survival and in making it an election issue that could potentially harm Vice President Kamala Harris. It seems that the U.S. finally and very belatedly realized it last week, which is why, however unfortunate, there is little the U.S. will do until the election, unless it's forced to act in the case of a major escalation.
Nobody remembers the civil servants....
Speaking of, Annelle Sheline (the one who resigned from the State Dept) wrote her analysis contextualizing the death of the Saudi-Israel normalization process for Responsible Statecraft: No Saudi-Israel normalization until Palestinians get a state - The Kingdom's crown prince throws cold water on Biden’s ‘grand bargain,’ days after Oman does the same
Idk I guess we can credit Biden for getting the Saudis and Iranians to agree on one thing.
Zeteo: New Poll Suggests Gaza Ceasefire and Arms Embargo Would Help Dems with Swing State Voters -
The YouGov/IMEU Policy Project poll found over a third of voters in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia are more likely to vote for a Democratic nominee who pledges to withhold weapons to Israel.
Sorry this is from 10 days ago but I don't think anything changed: Seven Days After Israeli Forces Kill American, Biden and Harris Haven’t Spoken to Victim’s Family -
And any Israeli “investigation” apparently hasn’t even reached out to other eyewitnesses.
posted by cendawanita at 10:38 AM on September 23, 2024 [6 favorites]
The U.S. faces a strategic dilemma as Israel escalates attacks on Hezbollah, risking broader conflict. While Washington seeks to prevent war, it's constrained by limited policy options, political timing, and Netanyahu's brinkmanship (ungated)
From an American point of view, a low-intensity war is not desirable because of its built-in escalation mechanism. However, given the alternative, the U.S. could live with it as long as it was somewhat confined.
But an escalatory chain reaction 45 days before a presidential election is entirely unwelcome. Now that chain reaction may have been set in motion. The question is, what can the U.S. realistically do about it? The answer is "not much."
(...)Two things are worth emphasizing: Even if U.S. President Joe Biden constantly misinterpreted Netanyahu, wrongly thought he could rein him in and was amenable to his constant and blatant manipulations, he cannot induce immediate results.
The myth that "Biden should have picked up the phone" and forced Netanyahu's hand is just that – a myth. The American management of the crisis and of Netanyahu was glaringly unimpressive, but escalation was averted, at least until now.
Second, Netanyahu will not engage in any cease-fire and hostage talks in the next 45 days, nor will he accept any diplomatic ideas concerning Lebanon.
He has a vested interest in prolonging the war for his political survival and in making it an election issue that could potentially harm Vice President Kamala Harris. It seems that the U.S. finally and very belatedly realized it last week, which is why, however unfortunate, there is little the U.S. will do until the election, unless it's forced to act in the case of a major escalation.
Nobody remembers the civil servants....
Speaking of, Annelle Sheline (the one who resigned from the State Dept) wrote her analysis contextualizing the death of the Saudi-Israel normalization process for Responsible Statecraft: No Saudi-Israel normalization until Palestinians get a state - The Kingdom's crown prince throws cold water on Biden’s ‘grand bargain,’ days after Oman does the same
Idk I guess we can credit Biden for getting the Saudis and Iranians to agree on one thing.
Zeteo: New Poll Suggests Gaza Ceasefire and Arms Embargo Would Help Dems with Swing State Voters -
The YouGov/IMEU Policy Project poll found over a third of voters in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia are more likely to vote for a Democratic nominee who pledges to withhold weapons to Israel.
Sorry this is from 10 days ago but I don't think anything changed: Seven Days After Israeli Forces Kill American, Biden and Harris Haven’t Spoken to Victim’s Family -
And any Israeli “investigation” apparently hasn’t even reached out to other eyewitnesses.
posted by cendawanita at 10:38 AM on September 23, 2024 [6 favorites]
Israeli strikes kill 492 in Lebanon's deadliest day of conflict since 2006
Israeli strikes on Lebanon Monday killed more than 490 people, including more than 90 women and children, Lebanese authorities said, in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. The Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of its widening air campaign against Hezbollah.
“We are not looking for wars...
Could have fooled me.
...We are looking to take down the threats...”
Reminds me of how a given EuroSettler government has been willing to do whatever is necessary and rape child virgins these past ~200 years in the name of curing their incest problems or what have you. But hey, we're the barbaric ones, right, because we don't consume alcohol and participate in North American family dater*pe night. I guess what really matter is that as long as there's brown bodies visible in the family unit, that means Racism is Over. Our cultural pedophilias as North Americans must be too then. So long as the new phase is justified, eh.
posted by human ecologist at 2:52 AM on September 24, 2024
Israeli strikes on Lebanon Monday killed more than 490 people, including more than 90 women and children, Lebanese authorities said, in the deadliest barrage since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. The Israeli military warned residents in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate ahead of its widening air campaign against Hezbollah.
“We are not looking for wars...
Could have fooled me.
...We are looking to take down the threats...”
Reminds me of how a given EuroSettler government has been willing to do whatever is necessary and rape child virgins these past ~200 years in the name of curing their incest problems or what have you. But hey, we're the barbaric ones, right, because we don't consume alcohol and participate in North American family dater*pe night. I guess what really matter is that as long as there's brown bodies visible in the family unit, that means Racism is Over. Our cultural pedophilias as North Americans must be too then. So long as the new phase is justified, eh.
posted by human ecologist at 2:52 AM on September 24, 2024
The Return of Ta-Nehisi Coates (ungated) : This is a NY mag profile of Ta-Nehisi Coates that previews his new book, The Message, which is set to be released in October. The relevant part is that one of the essays in his book discusses his trip to Israel, and how it opened his eyes to the lie that the situation is "complex".
On the ground in the occupied territories, he saw the segregated roads, the soldiers with their American-made weapons, the surveillance cameras, and the whole archipelago of impoverished ghettos. “I felt a mix of astonishment, betrayal, and anger,” he writes. “The astonishment was for me — for my own ignorance, for my own incuriosity … The betrayal was for my colleagues in journalism — betrayal for the way they reported, for the way they’d laundered ethnic cleansing, for the voices they’d erased. And the anger was for my own past — for Black Bottom, for Rosewood, for Tulsa — which I could not help but feel being evoked here.”
One of his first encounters with the Israeli state is a soldier stopping him on the street to ask him his religion, a confusing question for an atheist. It becomes clear that if he does not give the correct answer — “Jew,” “Christian,” anything but “Muslim” — he will not be allowed to pass. “On that street so far from home,” he writes, “I suddenly felt that I had traveled through time as much as through space. For as sure as my ancestors were born into a country where none of them was the equal of any white man, Israel was revealing itself to be a country where no Palestinian is ever the equal of any Jewish person anywhere.”
There is already a response from the Atlantic, titled The Problem with Moral Purity (ungated) - which rehashes all the usual arguments that don't fly anymore if you are interested.
Currently House Rep Rashida Tlaib is being targeted and accused of anti-semitism for something she never said. After backlash of CNN anchor Jake Tapper's coverage of the situation, Jake Tapper walks back his claims and says that he "misspoke".
Two US government bodies came to the conclusion that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza. Blinken and the Biden administration rejected the findings - The question of whether Israel was impeding humanitarian aid has garnered widespread attention. Before Blinken’s statement to Congress, Reuters reported concerns from USAID about the death toll in Gaza, which now stands at about 42,000, and that some officials inside the State Department, including the refugees bureau, had warned him that the Israelis’ assurances were not credible. The existence of USAID’s memo and its broad conclusion was also previously reported by the global development publication Devex.
But the full accounting of USAID’s evidence, the determination of the refugees bureau in April and the statements from experts at the embassy — along with Lew’s decision to undermine them — reveal new aspects of the striking split within the Biden administration and how the highest-ranking American diplomats have justified his policy of continuing to flood Israel with arms over the objections of their own experts.
Stacy Gilbert, a former senior civil military adviser in the refugees bureau who had been working on drafts of Blinken’s report to Congress, resigned over the language in the final version. “There is abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid,” she wrote in a statement shortly after leaving, which The Washington Post and other outlets reported on. “To deny this is absurd and shameful.
Cornell University issued a second suspension against a British student who participated in pro-Palestinian protests, which effectively means that he faces deportation - He was suspended in the spring for helping organize the pro-Palestinian encampment on the Arts Quad. Now, Momodou Taal, an international graduate student from the United Kingdom, says he faces “effectively being deported by the weekend” after the University sent him an email on Monday informing him of a second suspension.
The suspension comes after Taal and other Cornell students shut down a career fair in Statler Hall last Wednesday attended by defense contractors L3Harris and Boeing. In the email to Taal, which The Sun obtained, Christina Liang, who directs the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, said that Taal had been reported to the University by Cornell University Police Department Lieutenant Scott Grantz ’99 for not complying with orders from University officials at last week’s protest.
According to Grantz’s complaint, Taal entered the career fair alongside other protesters after being warned not to by University officials and participated in “unreasonably loud” chants.
posted by toastyk at 6:30 AM on September 24, 2024 [14 favorites]
On the ground in the occupied territories, he saw the segregated roads, the soldiers with their American-made weapons, the surveillance cameras, and the whole archipelago of impoverished ghettos. “I felt a mix of astonishment, betrayal, and anger,” he writes. “The astonishment was for me — for my own ignorance, for my own incuriosity … The betrayal was for my colleagues in journalism — betrayal for the way they reported, for the way they’d laundered ethnic cleansing, for the voices they’d erased. And the anger was for my own past — for Black Bottom, for Rosewood, for Tulsa — which I could not help but feel being evoked here.”
One of his first encounters with the Israeli state is a soldier stopping him on the street to ask him his religion, a confusing question for an atheist. It becomes clear that if he does not give the correct answer — “Jew,” “Christian,” anything but “Muslim” — he will not be allowed to pass. “On that street so far from home,” he writes, “I suddenly felt that I had traveled through time as much as through space. For as sure as my ancestors were born into a country where none of them was the equal of any white man, Israel was revealing itself to be a country where no Palestinian is ever the equal of any Jewish person anywhere.”
There is already a response from the Atlantic, titled The Problem with Moral Purity (ungated) - which rehashes all the usual arguments that don't fly anymore if you are interested.
Currently House Rep Rashida Tlaib is being targeted and accused of anti-semitism for something she never said. After backlash of CNN anchor Jake Tapper's coverage of the situation, Jake Tapper walks back his claims and says that he "misspoke".
Two US government bodies came to the conclusion that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza. Blinken and the Biden administration rejected the findings - The question of whether Israel was impeding humanitarian aid has garnered widespread attention. Before Blinken’s statement to Congress, Reuters reported concerns from USAID about the death toll in Gaza, which now stands at about 42,000, and that some officials inside the State Department, including the refugees bureau, had warned him that the Israelis’ assurances were not credible. The existence of USAID’s memo and its broad conclusion was also previously reported by the global development publication Devex.
But the full accounting of USAID’s evidence, the determination of the refugees bureau in April and the statements from experts at the embassy — along with Lew’s decision to undermine them — reveal new aspects of the striking split within the Biden administration and how the highest-ranking American diplomats have justified his policy of continuing to flood Israel with arms over the objections of their own experts.
Stacy Gilbert, a former senior civil military adviser in the refugees bureau who had been working on drafts of Blinken’s report to Congress, resigned over the language in the final version. “There is abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid,” she wrote in a statement shortly after leaving, which The Washington Post and other outlets reported on. “To deny this is absurd and shameful.
Cornell University issued a second suspension against a British student who participated in pro-Palestinian protests, which effectively means that he faces deportation - He was suspended in the spring for helping organize the pro-Palestinian encampment on the Arts Quad. Now, Momodou Taal, an international graduate student from the United Kingdom, says he faces “effectively being deported by the weekend” after the University sent him an email on Monday informing him of a second suspension.
The suspension comes after Taal and other Cornell students shut down a career fair in Statler Hall last Wednesday attended by defense contractors L3Harris and Boeing. In the email to Taal, which The Sun obtained, Christina Liang, who directs the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, said that Taal had been reported to the University by Cornell University Police Department Lieutenant Scott Grantz ’99 for not complying with orders from University officials at last week’s protest.
According to Grantz’s complaint, Taal entered the career fair alongside other protesters after being warned not to by University officials and participated in “unreasonably loud” chants.
posted by toastyk at 6:30 AM on September 24, 2024 [14 favorites]
Bomb makers exposed to unreasonably loud noises? Heaven forfend.
posted by flabdablet at 7:50 AM on September 24, 2024 [5 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 7:50 AM on September 24, 2024 [5 favorites]
There is already a response from the Atlantic, titled The Problem with Moral Purity - which rehashes all the usual arguments that don't fly anymore
Of course it's in the Atlantic, and of course it does, one would expect nothing less from a publication edited by a former IDF torture camp guard (towards whom Coates was remarkably circumspect, when asked pointedly whether he thought editorial fiat was directing the Atlantic's coverage of I/P issues). Also feels like the author bio ought to include "is a Zionist", the way that academics are required to declare conflicts of interest, just so it's clear where the biases are and that this is not by any means an objective response.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 7:52 AM on September 24, 2024 [6 favorites]
Of course it's in the Atlantic, and of course it does, one would expect nothing less from a publication edited by a former IDF torture camp guard (towards whom Coates was remarkably circumspect, when asked pointedly whether he thought editorial fiat was directing the Atlantic's coverage of I/P issues). Also feels like the author bio ought to include "is a Zionist", the way that academics are required to declare conflicts of interest, just so it's clear where the biases are and that this is not by any means an objective response.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 7:52 AM on September 24, 2024 [6 favorites]
Two US government bodies came to the conclusion that Israel was blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza. Blinken and the Biden administration rejected the findings
I have nothing kind to say about these people, only that you better hope your demographic never suffers the same curse of having to bite your tongue until it's nearly gone, because can't I see how much of good people they are, they're working so tirelessly.
On that note, Haaretz: After Failing to Prevent Escalation, the U.S. Focuses on Trying to Prevent an Israeli Invasion of Lebanon -
Washington supports Israel's extensive airstrikes against Hezbollah, but is unconvinced that they will achieve their goal. The U.S. Secretary of Defense expressed concern to Gallant that the Israeli move would lead to a state of escalation that would last for weeks or months (ungated)
Every twenty years or so, this is the price. And this time, it's the feckless racist liberals, so enough Blue MAGAs are their human shields, like I don't know Republicans are worse but also like I don't know Democrats barely try.
Oh and speaking of Democrats of the previous twenty year cycle (but who wasn't the party of the administration, so somehow everybody can remember to have a moral backbone about invasion and sieging and endless wars in the Middle East, and none of this bleating of, but what can we doooo it's not like things can change tomorrooooow), in case you missed Hillary Clinton on Fareed Zakaria, per Prem Thakker: An almost-Democratic President of the United States disparaging thousands of American students on behalf of another country accused of war crimes
posted by cendawanita at 10:01 AM on September 24, 2024 [7 favorites]
I have nothing kind to say about these people, only that you better hope your demographic never suffers the same curse of having to bite your tongue until it's nearly gone, because can't I see how much of good people they are, they're working so tirelessly.
On that note, Haaretz: After Failing to Prevent Escalation, the U.S. Focuses on Trying to Prevent an Israeli Invasion of Lebanon -
Washington supports Israel's extensive airstrikes against Hezbollah, but is unconvinced that they will achieve their goal. The U.S. Secretary of Defense expressed concern to Gallant that the Israeli move would lead to a state of escalation that would last for weeks or months (ungated)
Every twenty years or so, this is the price. And this time, it's the feckless racist liberals, so enough Blue MAGAs are their human shields, like I don't know Republicans are worse but also like I don't know Democrats barely try.
Oh and speaking of Democrats of the previous twenty year cycle (but who wasn't the party of the administration, so somehow everybody can remember to have a moral backbone about invasion and sieging and endless wars in the Middle East, and none of this bleating of, but what can we doooo it's not like things can change tomorrooooow), in case you missed Hillary Clinton on Fareed Zakaria, per Prem Thakker: An almost-Democratic President of the United States disparaging thousands of American students on behalf of another country accused of war crimes
posted by cendawanita at 10:01 AM on September 24, 2024 [7 favorites]
It's been pretty easy to see over the last few decades that the right wing of every party is its worst wing, and the Clintons and their ilk have always been part of the right wing of the Democratic Party.
posted by flabdablet at 10:11 AM on September 24, 2024 [7 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 10:11 AM on September 24, 2024 [7 favorites]
Cornell is attempting to deport foreign student for engaging in Palestine protest
Bilnken lied about the US governments' own assessments which found that Israel had deliberately blocked food aid to Gaza
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 11:19 AM on September 24, 2024 [7 favorites]
Bilnken lied about the US governments' own assessments which found that Israel had deliberately blocked food aid to Gaza
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 11:19 AM on September 24, 2024 [7 favorites]
Who knew I was sharing the same mental space as Jon Stewart and the TDS writers' room: Israel's Widening War and Biden Admin's Stalled Ceasefire Attempts. Just play the supercuts of him/them saying how close they are as a background track whenever I say "tirelessly" I guess.
posted by cendawanita at 7:18 PM on September 24, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 7:18 PM on September 24, 2024 [3 favorites]
Is this supposed to be virtue signaling??? Did I fall out of virtue by posting Canadian content
No. As a Canadian Aboriginal person I'm well aware of our government's short comings on these issues.
I guess it might have been Amerisplaining but it was directed at people who might be wondering why Canada would be abstaining despite their statement agreeing with the broad strokes. The quoted statement is nonsensical without that context.
Rae's words We cannot support a resolution where one party, the State of Israel, is held solely responsible for the conflict," As if the people been occupied are some how at fault for their own genocide is fricken' infuriating. But to say otherwise is to admit maybe Canada shouldn't be treating its own people this way.
So here we (Canada) are being wishy washy at best with our response to genocide. I'm ashamed of my country as much for the abstention as for how entirely predictable it was.
posted by Mitheral at 7:42 AM on September 25, 2024 [7 favorites]
No. As a Canadian Aboriginal person I'm well aware of our government's short comings on these issues.
I guess it might have been Amerisplaining but it was directed at people who might be wondering why Canada would be abstaining despite their statement agreeing with the broad strokes. The quoted statement is nonsensical without that context.
Rae's words We cannot support a resolution where one party, the State of Israel, is held solely responsible for the conflict," As if the people been occupied are some how at fault for their own genocide is fricken' infuriating. But to say otherwise is to admit maybe Canada shouldn't be treating its own people this way.
So here we (Canada) are being wishy washy at best with our response to genocide. I'm ashamed of my country as much for the abstention as for how entirely predictable it was.
posted by Mitheral at 7:42 AM on September 25, 2024 [7 favorites]
Haaretz: Columbia University Updates Guidelines: 'Zionist' as a Pejorative Term Classified as Harassment (archived)
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 3:14 AM on September 26, 2024 [5 favorites]
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 3:14 AM on September 26, 2024 [5 favorites]
Emgage Action, a Muslim political group, endorsed Kamala Harris, despite opposition to the Biden-Harris admin's policies on Gaza.
Pop star Chappell Roan says she'll vote for Kamala Harris but will not endorse her, citing the Democratic Party's insufficient action on trans issues and Palestine. (ungated)
"It's Bisan From Gaza and I'm Still Alive" won a News and Documentary Emmy despite a letter from U.S.-based nonprofit Creative Community For Peace calling for the nomination to be rescinded, signed by people like Debra Messing, Sherry Lansing, Haim Saban.
Bernie Sanders has introduced Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to block the sale of more than $20 billion in US offensive weaponry to Israel.
Hind's Hall 2 is out - Macklemore also released a statement on him saying "fuck America" at a "Palestine will live forever" fest.
Update from Momoudou Taal, the international Cornell U student possibly facing deportation after participating in pro-Palestinian protest: I have until 5pm tomorrow to appeal to the provost. If the provost rejects this appeal, then I believe my withdrawal will be processed and I will promptly have to leave the country.
Once again, there has been no investigation, nor have I had a chance to even respond to the allegations against me. I maintain that all my actions have been peaceful and in accordance with my First Amendment rights.
posted by toastyk at 7:19 AM on September 26, 2024 [10 favorites]
Pop star Chappell Roan says she'll vote for Kamala Harris but will not endorse her, citing the Democratic Party's insufficient action on trans issues and Palestine. (ungated)
"It's Bisan From Gaza and I'm Still Alive" won a News and Documentary Emmy despite a letter from U.S.-based nonprofit Creative Community For Peace calling for the nomination to be rescinded, signed by people like Debra Messing, Sherry Lansing, Haim Saban.
Bernie Sanders has introduced Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to block the sale of more than $20 billion in US offensive weaponry to Israel.
Hind's Hall 2 is out - Macklemore also released a statement on him saying "fuck America" at a "Palestine will live forever" fest.
Update from Momoudou Taal, the international Cornell U student possibly facing deportation after participating in pro-Palestinian protest: I have until 5pm tomorrow to appeal to the provost. If the provost rejects this appeal, then I believe my withdrawal will be processed and I will promptly have to leave the country.
Once again, there has been no investigation, nor have I had a chance to even respond to the allegations against me. I maintain that all my actions have been peaceful and in accordance with my First Amendment rights.
posted by toastyk at 7:19 AM on September 26, 2024 [10 favorites]
The first tenured professor to be fired for pro-Palestine speech is Jewish: Until Finkelstein, however, no other tenured professor has reported losing their long-held job for speech or expression relating to Israel–Palestine, let alone sharing a social media post.
“This is the first case that we’ve seen,” said Anita Levy, senior program officer at the American Association of University Professors, a nonprofit organization that advocates for faculty rights and academic freedom and seeks to hold higher education institutions accountable when standards are violated. “The apparent violations of her academic freedom are quite egregious, especially because they appear to primarily involve her posts on social media, what we would call her extramural speech.”
posted by toastyk at 7:29 AM on September 26, 2024 [10 favorites]
“This is the first case that we’ve seen,” said Anita Levy, senior program officer at the American Association of University Professors, a nonprofit organization that advocates for faculty rights and academic freedom and seeks to hold higher education institutions accountable when standards are violated. “The apparent violations of her academic freedom are quite egregious, especially because they appear to primarily involve her posts on social media, what we would call her extramural speech.”
posted by toastyk at 7:29 AM on September 26, 2024 [10 favorites]
Canadian news appears to be on top of it this week.
Netanyahu will address the UN as Israel, bogged down by one war, barrels toward another
From the dais of the UN General Assembly just a year ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu triumphantly hailed a new peace he said would sweep through the Middle East. A year later, as he travels back to that same world stage, that vision is in tatters.
Canada and allies call for immediate 21-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel
Canada joined the United States, other G7 allies and several Middle Eastern nations Thursday to call for an immediate ceasefire at the Israel-Lebanon border after a dramatic increase in airstrikes in recent days, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained defiant as he arrived in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly.
In a joint statement published Thursday morning, all G7 nations and the European Union, along with Australia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, said the fighting in Lebanon that escalated after the Hamas attack on Israel almost a year ago, "presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation... This is in nobody's interest, neither of the people of Israel nor of the people of Lebanon..."
Netanyahu vows to use 'full force' against Hezbollah and dims hopes for a ceasefire
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday vowed to carry out "full force" strikes against Hezbollah until it ceases firing rockets across the border, dimming hopes for a ceasefire proposal put forth by U.S. and European officials. Israel's "policy is clear," Netanyahu said. "We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force. And we will not stop until we reach all our goals, chief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes."
With nearly 700 killed in a week, Lebanon fears Gaza-level violence
Nearly 700 people have been killed in Lebanon this week, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel has dramatically escalated strikes, saying it is targeting Hezbollah’s military capacities and senior Hezbollah commanders. Top Israeli officials have threatened to repeat the destruction of Gaza in Lebanon if the Hezbollah fire continues, raising fears that Israel’s actions in Gaza since Oct. 7 would be repeated in Lebanon.
More than 30,000 people crossed from Lebanon into Syria in 3 days.. Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, the representative for refugee agency UNHCR in Syria, said roughly half of the people who have fled were children and adolescents. He said about 80 per cent were Syrians returning to their home country and the rest were Lebanese. “I think that this just illustrates the kind of extremely difficult choices both Syrians and Lebanese are having to make,” he said.
I know a local Syrian refugee family in which the father is originally from Lebanon. Sometimes when I feel like emotionally dissociating from society, I go and spend time with them. I'll be honest though, there are times when I don't because I am so outraged that so many immigrants are being allowed to come here while so many from the local First Nations communities are dead. Sure, that sounds racist, but it's so visually evident I don't how to not-see it... Just the other day I was watching one of these international students crossing the street in the middle of traffic, fully expecting cars to slow down, when there were two pedestrian crosswalks within very reasonable walking distance on either side of them... Back in the day say ~10-20 years, when it was a native person you'd easily see EuroSettlers swearing at them from within their vehicles. Now, you see them suck it in while pretending this is what progress was supposed to look like all along.
The Philippine government is bracing to evacuate thousands of Filipino workers in Lebanon in case the deadly conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group further escalates, Philippine officials said Friday. More than 11,000 Filipinos live and work in Lebanon, often as house cleaners... Many Filipinos were adamant not to leave their jobs in Lebanon and return to uncertainties at home, but they have been told to be ready to evacuate any time, Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega told a news briefing in Manila. They say "it's better for them to die in war than to die of hunger..." Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Raymond Balatbat told reporters in Manila via video on Friday that many Filipinos there "will only decide to leave when the situation is so bad, when the war is at their doorsteps."
... I wish I had a place to put this grief, this piece of knowledge, instead of rage-posting here or whatever... There are Filipinos (or Southeast Asian survivors of Trans-Pacific Indenture, at least) who have been caught up in the undercurrent of Canada's colonial situation as well. How meaningless this tidbit is to most people, but I see it -- the incidental invisibilization and the pure invisibility of the human suffering attached to it.
@Mitheral, The more Indian/Aboriginal/Muslim EuroSettlers in this country insist on blindly going without slowing down to re-assess (because of the blind insatiable pursuit of the "dream" whether it be the Western/American/Canadian/etc to own multiple oversized trophy vehicles burning excess fossil fuels and then on top of that travel via airplanes to other people's lands in the Global South as part of seasonal proof of one's winner status in the Global North, all because we can't learn to make peace happen at home...), the worse it seems to get.
posted by human ecologist at 7:20 AM on September 27, 2024 [2 favorites]
Netanyahu will address the UN as Israel, bogged down by one war, barrels toward another
From the dais of the UN General Assembly just a year ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu triumphantly hailed a new peace he said would sweep through the Middle East. A year later, as he travels back to that same world stage, that vision is in tatters.
Canada and allies call for immediate 21-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel
Canada joined the United States, other G7 allies and several Middle Eastern nations Thursday to call for an immediate ceasefire at the Israel-Lebanon border after a dramatic increase in airstrikes in recent days, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained defiant as he arrived in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly.
In a joint statement published Thursday morning, all G7 nations and the European Union, along with Australia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, said the fighting in Lebanon that escalated after the Hamas attack on Israel almost a year ago, "presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation... This is in nobody's interest, neither of the people of Israel nor of the people of Lebanon..."
Netanyahu vows to use 'full force' against Hezbollah and dims hopes for a ceasefire
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday vowed to carry out "full force" strikes against Hezbollah until it ceases firing rockets across the border, dimming hopes for a ceasefire proposal put forth by U.S. and European officials. Israel's "policy is clear," Netanyahu said. "We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force. And we will not stop until we reach all our goals, chief among them the return of the residents of the north securely to their homes."
With nearly 700 killed in a week, Lebanon fears Gaza-level violence
Nearly 700 people have been killed in Lebanon this week, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel has dramatically escalated strikes, saying it is targeting Hezbollah’s military capacities and senior Hezbollah commanders. Top Israeli officials have threatened to repeat the destruction of Gaza in Lebanon if the Hezbollah fire continues, raising fears that Israel’s actions in Gaza since Oct. 7 would be repeated in Lebanon.
More than 30,000 people crossed from Lebanon into Syria in 3 days.. Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, the representative for refugee agency UNHCR in Syria, said roughly half of the people who have fled were children and adolescents. He said about 80 per cent were Syrians returning to their home country and the rest were Lebanese. “I think that this just illustrates the kind of extremely difficult choices both Syrians and Lebanese are having to make,” he said.
I know a local Syrian refugee family in which the father is originally from Lebanon. Sometimes when I feel like emotionally dissociating from society, I go and spend time with them. I'll be honest though, there are times when I don't because I am so outraged that so many immigrants are being allowed to come here while so many from the local First Nations communities are dead. Sure, that sounds racist, but it's so visually evident I don't how to not-see it... Just the other day I was watching one of these international students crossing the street in the middle of traffic, fully expecting cars to slow down, when there were two pedestrian crosswalks within very reasonable walking distance on either side of them... Back in the day say ~10-20 years, when it was a native person you'd easily see EuroSettlers swearing at them from within their vehicles. Now, you see them suck it in while pretending this is what progress was supposed to look like all along.
The Philippine government is bracing to evacuate thousands of Filipino workers in Lebanon in case the deadly conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group further escalates, Philippine officials said Friday. More than 11,000 Filipinos live and work in Lebanon, often as house cleaners... Many Filipinos were adamant not to leave their jobs in Lebanon and return to uncertainties at home, but they have been told to be ready to evacuate any time, Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo De Vega told a news briefing in Manila. They say "it's better for them to die in war than to die of hunger..." Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon Raymond Balatbat told reporters in Manila via video on Friday that many Filipinos there "will only decide to leave when the situation is so bad, when the war is at their doorsteps."
... I wish I had a place to put this grief, this piece of knowledge, instead of rage-posting here or whatever... There are Filipinos (or Southeast Asian survivors of Trans-Pacific Indenture, at least) who have been caught up in the undercurrent of Canada's colonial situation as well. How meaningless this tidbit is to most people, but I see it -- the incidental invisibilization and the pure invisibility of the human suffering attached to it.
@Mitheral, The more Indian/Aboriginal/Muslim EuroSettlers in this country insist on blindly going without slowing down to re-assess (because of the blind insatiable pursuit of the "dream" whether it be the Western/American/Canadian/etc to own multiple oversized trophy vehicles burning excess fossil fuels and then on top of that travel via airplanes to other people's lands in the Global South as part of seasonal proof of one's winner status in the Global North, all because we can't learn to make peace happen at home...), the worse it seems to get.
posted by human ecologist at 7:20 AM on September 27, 2024 [2 favorites]
Shared Zones of Interest - The American Prospect provides a clear-eyed assessment about both Trump and Harris' foreign policy with regards to the Middle East - basically, that there is little daylight between them:
A Harris administration, in classic Democratic fashion, would wring its hands, wag its finger, and ramp up rhetorical condemnation of Israel were it to move on annexation. But it’s doubtful that it would stop arms transfers or support U.N. Security Council sanctions for such an unlawful and dangerous act. If the horrors in Gaza have not been enough to persuade candidate Harris to demand even a mere suspension of U.S. weapons transfers to Israel, it’s doubtful that annexation would persuade a President Harris to do so.
Sadly, international law prohibitions on acquiring territory by force are now greatly eroded, thanks in no small part to the United States. The Trump administration not only recognized smaller Israeli annexations of Palestinian territory but Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara. The U.S. has completely ignored the International Court of Justice ruling that Israel’s occupation is illegal and that it must remove its forces and citizens from the occupied Palestinian territories, so it’s hard to see how even more “illegal acts” would tip the Harris administration into abiding by international law.
Author Jhumpa Lahiri declines award from Noguchi Museum because of its keffiyeh ban.
Author Sally Rooney kicked off a book event with an impassioned speech about Palestine: She urged: “I want to urge you all just as I also urge myself not to turn away, not to give in to despair or fatigue, to keep protesting, to keep speaking out to keep landing an end to this horrifying war. It is the least we can do.”
I just checked X and apparently they are carpet-bombing Beirut now.
posted by toastyk at 9:15 AM on September 27, 2024 [4 favorites]
A Harris administration, in classic Democratic fashion, would wring its hands, wag its finger, and ramp up rhetorical condemnation of Israel were it to move on annexation. But it’s doubtful that it would stop arms transfers or support U.N. Security Council sanctions for such an unlawful and dangerous act. If the horrors in Gaza have not been enough to persuade candidate Harris to demand even a mere suspension of U.S. weapons transfers to Israel, it’s doubtful that annexation would persuade a President Harris to do so.
Sadly, international law prohibitions on acquiring territory by force are now greatly eroded, thanks in no small part to the United States. The Trump administration not only recognized smaller Israeli annexations of Palestinian territory but Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara. The U.S. has completely ignored the International Court of Justice ruling that Israel’s occupation is illegal and that it must remove its forces and citizens from the occupied Palestinian territories, so it’s hard to see how even more “illegal acts” would tip the Harris administration into abiding by international law.
Author Jhumpa Lahiri declines award from Noguchi Museum because of its keffiyeh ban.
Author Sally Rooney kicked off a book event with an impassioned speech about Palestine: She urged: “I want to urge you all just as I also urge myself not to turn away, not to give in to despair or fatigue, to keep protesting, to keep speaking out to keep landing an end to this horrifying war. It is the least we can do.”
I just checked X and apparently they are carpet-bombing Beirut now.
posted by toastyk at 9:15 AM on September 27, 2024 [4 favorites]
Bleakly hilarious - Liel Leibovitz is worried about what the indictment of Eric Adams portends for the Jews: Adams may also be the canary in a very deep and very dark coal mine. For here is where the logic of this indictment is leading: Small-scale donations by disfavored political players—like Turks in Queens, or Zionist Jews who support AIPAC, the ADL, or Bnai Brith, let alone those who have a nephew studying in a yeshiva in the West Bank—will be criminalized, with every donation subject to suspicion of a violation of the fuzzy laws governing interactions with foreign governments, followed by federal prosecutors (remember when that term was a synonym for apolitical application of the law?) and SWAT teams. One might reasonably suspect that the sequel to the Adams horror show will be an investigation of a major Jewish organization for “bribing” legislators with fact-finding trips to Israel, and thereby acting as arms of the Israeli government—which will make anything connected to the “Jewish lobby” politically radioactive.
posted by toastyk at 9:25 AM on September 27, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by toastyk at 9:25 AM on September 27, 2024 [4 favorites]
I’m not putting any stock into comparisons of Harris and Trump polices. As she is not yet President, she does not yet have a policy or a Cabinet or anything else. Right now she’s doing the smart thing, which is to just say Israel has a right to defend, blah blah two state solution. It’s frustrating but anything else would cost her the election. Despite Uncommitted and some communities in Michigan, polls consistently show that Gaza is not a top issue for voters or even swing voters. So I suspect her moving at least a little away from Biden’s full throated Israel support, but there’s no way to really know. In a way young people have sort of made things worse by being flaky at turning out to vote when they don’t feel like it. Therefore campaigns aren’t going to risk everything on them.
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:36 AM on September 27, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:36 AM on September 27, 2024 [1 favorite]
Also I’d love a new thread. I think the war with Lebanon merits it and traffic on the one has faded away.
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:36 AM on September 27, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by caviar2d2 at 9:36 AM on September 27, 2024 [2 favorites]
For here is where the logic of this indictment is leading: Small-scale donations by disfavored political players—like Turks in Queens, or Zionist Jews who support AIPAC, the ADL, or Bnai Brith, let alone those who have a nephew studying in a yeshiva in the West Bank—will be criminalized
Enforcement of law worrying for law breakers, foreign patrons.
posted by pattern juggler at 5:48 AM on September 28, 2024 [4 favorites]
Enforcement of law worrying for law breakers, foreign patrons.
posted by pattern juggler at 5:48 AM on September 28, 2024 [4 favorites]
Despite Uncommitted and some communities in Michigan, polls consistently show that Gaza is not a top issue for voters or even swing voters.
"But the number that some Harris supporters in Saginaw are focused on is Trump’s victory in Michigan in 2016 by fewer than 11,000 votes – only slightly more than the number of registered voters who did not cast a ballot in the city of Saginaw. Although Joe Biden narrowly won the state back four years later, Michigan is again on a knife edge. Michigan could help decide the whole US election, and Saginaw could help decide the whole of Michigan."
posted by clavdivs at 8:01 PM on September 28, 2024 [3 favorites]
"But the number that some Harris supporters in Saginaw are focused on is Trump’s victory in Michigan in 2016 by fewer than 11,000 votes – only slightly more than the number of registered voters who did not cast a ballot in the city of Saginaw. Although Joe Biden narrowly won the state back four years later, Michigan is again on a knife edge. Michigan could help decide the whole US election, and Saginaw could help decide the whole of Michigan."
posted by clavdivs at 8:01 PM on September 28, 2024 [3 favorites]
Tim Kaine released statement opposing offensive weapons transfers to Israel: “Since February, I have called on the Biden Administration to support Israel through the provision of defensive weapons, such as those used to defeat the Iranian drone and missile attacks in April. But I have also urged a pause in transfer of any offensive weapons because of the serious harm they will likely cause to Palestinian civilians in Gaza and in the West Bank. I also believe that the U.S. transferring more offensive weapons into the region right now will be an accelerant to ongoing hostilities, jeopardizing the prospects for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza—the surest path to de-escalation and to a sustainable peace that would provide for the safety and security of the Israeli, Palestinian and Lebanese people, and for U.S. servicemembers deployed to the Middle East. I am closely reviewing the resolutions and, consistent with my longstanding position, I will vote to oppose transfers of weapons that are primarily offensive in nature.”
Not sure if this means he is joining Sanders, Welch, and Merkley in supporting the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval?
Ta-Nehisi Coates goes on the CBS Morning Show and is interrogated by Tony Dokoupil on whether he thinks Israel has the right to exist.
Wasn't sure whether to include this in the Lebanon thread, but Akbar Shahid Ahmed provides more background on Israel invading Lebanon: “Everyone internally is just shocked at the across-the-board weakness” given U.S. sway over Israel, a career U.S. official working on Middle East policy told HuffPost. The official said Washington is permitting “a nihilistic regional murder spree.”
Some government staff “are just stunned and speechless about what we’ve become. Biden and his crew have taken the region and world to a dark place,” the official added.
Another U.S. official familiar with discussions about Lebanon told HuffPost they see the Israeli moves as “an invasion.”
Asked about the suggestion the ground operation will be “limited,” the second official responded: “It will be big. Everyone who says it’s going to be ‘limited’ is a white man who thinks a million dead brown people is ‘limited.’”
posted by toastyk at 4:40 PM on September 30, 2024 [10 favorites]
Not sure if this means he is joining Sanders, Welch, and Merkley in supporting the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval?
Ta-Nehisi Coates goes on the CBS Morning Show and is interrogated by Tony Dokoupil on whether he thinks Israel has the right to exist.
Wasn't sure whether to include this in the Lebanon thread, but Akbar Shahid Ahmed provides more background on Israel invading Lebanon: “Everyone internally is just shocked at the across-the-board weakness” given U.S. sway over Israel, a career U.S. official working on Middle East policy told HuffPost. The official said Washington is permitting “a nihilistic regional murder spree.”
Some government staff “are just stunned and speechless about what we’ve become. Biden and his crew have taken the region and world to a dark place,” the official added.
Another U.S. official familiar with discussions about Lebanon told HuffPost they see the Israeli moves as “an invasion.”
Asked about the suggestion the ground operation will be “limited,” the second official responded: “It will be big. Everyone who says it’s going to be ‘limited’ is a white man who thinks a million dead brown people is ‘limited.’”
posted by toastyk at 4:40 PM on September 30, 2024 [10 favorites]
Washington is permitting “a nihilistic regional murder spree.”
I hate this soft language phrasing. They aren't passively permitting; they are actively enabling with money and material (and likely intelligence in the military sense).
posted by Mitheral at 5:51 PM on September 30, 2024 [8 favorites]
I hate this soft language phrasing. They aren't passively permitting; they are actively enabling with money and material (and likely intelligence in the military sense).
posted by Mitheral at 5:51 PM on September 30, 2024 [8 favorites]
likely intelligence in the military sense
I need to track which commentator put their name to the following, but I've seen it pointed out (in response to the victory lap being taken on how Israel got Nasrallah never mind the hundreds of other casualties) that the quality of intelligence has so much more to do with the fact that the US maintains resources/staff on keeping up with Iran and its allies (and I guess, with the fact that Hezb went in with Assad thereby aligning with Russian interests, so there's cross-validation via that too), as opposed to Palestine and with it the freedom/resistance movement inc Hamas as it was decided this is more to do with domestic Israeli intelligence. Which tracks with the number of tactical wins like taking out people associated with quiescent Palestinian movements (the secular left ones) residing in Lebanon.
posted by cendawanita at 7:40 PM on September 30, 2024 [4 favorites]
I need to track which commentator put their name to the following, but I've seen it pointed out (in response to the victory lap being taken on how Israel got Nasrallah never mind the hundreds of other casualties) that the quality of intelligence has so much more to do with the fact that the US maintains resources/staff on keeping up with Iran and its allies (and I guess, with the fact that Hezb went in with Assad thereby aligning with Russian interests, so there's cross-validation via that too), as opposed to Palestine and with it the freedom/resistance movement inc Hamas as it was decided this is more to do with domestic Israeli intelligence. Which tracks with the number of tactical wins like taking out people associated with quiescent Palestinian movements (the secular left ones) residing in Lebanon.
posted by cendawanita at 7:40 PM on September 30, 2024 [4 favorites]
Ta-Nehisi Coates goes on the CBS Morning Show and is interrogated by Tony Dokoupil on whether he thinks Israel has the right to exist.
Current American mainstream media is cooked. I've heard more intelligent mainstream discourse from the time when the US President is actually senile -- intelligent, or at least more abreast with the actual happenings in the world. What a tired canard. And managed to take up 3/4s at least of the interview runtime. The rhetorical rope-a-dope.
posted by cendawanita at 7:50 PM on September 30, 2024 [4 favorites]
Current American mainstream media is cooked. I've heard more intelligent mainstream discourse from the time when the US President is actually senile -- intelligent, or at least more abreast with the actual happenings in the world. What a tired canard. And managed to take up 3/4s at least of the interview runtime. The rhetorical rope-a-dope.
posted by cendawanita at 7:50 PM on September 30, 2024 [4 favorites]
Shot/chaser with that Akbar Shahid Ahmed piece (especially in reading between the lines of the bureaucracy vs Biden's circle): (Politico) US officials quietly backed Israel’s military push against Hezbollah -
The officials urged caution and stressed the need for diplomacy. But the timing was right for such a military shift, they concluded.
Senior White House figures privately told Israel that the U.S. would support its decision to ramp up military pressure against Hezbollah — even as the Biden administration publicly urged the Israeli government in recent weeks to curtail its strikes, according to American and Israeli officials.
Presidential adviser Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East, told top Israeli officials in recent weeks that the U.S. agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broad strategy to shift Israel’s military focus to the north against Hezbollah in order to convince the group to engage in diplomatic talks to end the conflict, the officials told POLITICO.
Not everyone in the administration was on board with Israel’s shift, despite support inside the White House, the officials said. The decision to focus on Hezbollah sparked division within the U.S. government, drawing opposition from people inside the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence community who believed Israel’s move against the Iran-backed militia could drag American forces into yet another Middle East conflict.
posted by cendawanita at 8:53 PM on September 30, 2024 [6 favorites]
The officials urged caution and stressed the need for diplomacy. But the timing was right for such a military shift, they concluded.
Senior White House figures privately told Israel that the U.S. would support its decision to ramp up military pressure against Hezbollah — even as the Biden administration publicly urged the Israeli government in recent weeks to curtail its strikes, according to American and Israeli officials.
Presidential adviser Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East, told top Israeli officials in recent weeks that the U.S. agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s broad strategy to shift Israel’s military focus to the north against Hezbollah in order to convince the group to engage in diplomatic talks to end the conflict, the officials told POLITICO.
Not everyone in the administration was on board with Israel’s shift, despite support inside the White House, the officials said. The decision to focus on Hezbollah sparked division within the U.S. government, drawing opposition from people inside the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence community who believed Israel’s move against the Iran-backed militia could drag American forces into yet another Middle East conflict.
posted by cendawanita at 8:53 PM on September 30, 2024 [6 favorites]
Ok: (CNN) Biden administration fears Iranian attack and is working with Israel on defenses, US official says
Interestingly: Biden administration officials are also defending their decision to announce the “breakthrough” of a ceasefire proposal last week between Israel and Hezbollah that quickly turned into an embarrassment for the administration when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear Israeli forces would instead continue to pound the Lebanese militant group.
US officials argue that Israel changed its mind Wednesday night after the proposal – which was signed onto by 11 other allies - was announced. Israel decided they had an opportunity to target Nasrallah, a US official said.
Clown car operations: Israeli officials tried to explain what happened as an “honest misunderstanding.”
They say they thought what the US, France and other countries were proposing “was the start of a process that could ultimately lead to a ceasefire.”
But “Americans thought it was the end of the process and the start of a ceasefire,” a senior Israeli official told CNN.
posted by cendawanita at 11:09 PM on September 30, 2024 [4 favorites]
Interestingly: Biden administration officials are also defending their decision to announce the “breakthrough” of a ceasefire proposal last week between Israel and Hezbollah that quickly turned into an embarrassment for the administration when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear Israeli forces would instead continue to pound the Lebanese militant group.
US officials argue that Israel changed its mind Wednesday night after the proposal – which was signed onto by 11 other allies - was announced. Israel decided they had an opportunity to target Nasrallah, a US official said.
Clown car operations: Israeli officials tried to explain what happened as an “honest misunderstanding.”
They say they thought what the US, France and other countries were proposing “was the start of a process that could ultimately lead to a ceasefire.”
But “Americans thought it was the end of the process and the start of a ceasefire,” a senior Israeli official told CNN.
posted by cendawanita at 11:09 PM on September 30, 2024 [4 favorites]
I thought Coates did an excellent job of defending his position and pushing back on the assumptions built into the accusations of the host there. As one would expect of a man who is such an excellent wordsmith.
And I also think that more generally we need to push back against those sort of non-questions.
"Do you think Israel has a right to exist" is not a question. It is not meant to be answered. It is meant to silence the person being asked. The people asking it imagine it as a sort of ultimate rhetorical weapon and generally act as if simply by asking it they have won and the other person has lost so you don't need to listen to what they're saying anymore.
That phrase is supposed to be the magic words which instantly guarantee victory and which are so devistating to hear that the other side must fall silent in shame and slink away defeated.
We can prove it's not a real question by looking at the obvious next question: "does Palestine have a right to exist"?
And I don't think that's some sort of ultimate devistating gotcha that will make Zionists STFU and slink away in shame because we're so witty and awesome. I think it just shows that "does Israel have a right to exist" is not actually a real question.
It's like asking "how high is up" or "what does justice taste like" When looked at from a purely grammatical standpoint they're valid sentences and questions, but from a rational standpoint they're just nonsense.
Same applies to "do you think the Israeli people have a right to self determination". That's not a question.
posted by sotonohito at 7:09 AM on October 1, 2024 [11 favorites]
And I also think that more generally we need to push back against those sort of non-questions.
"Do you think Israel has a right to exist" is not a question. It is not meant to be answered. It is meant to silence the person being asked. The people asking it imagine it as a sort of ultimate rhetorical weapon and generally act as if simply by asking it they have won and the other person has lost so you don't need to listen to what they're saying anymore.
That phrase is supposed to be the magic words which instantly guarantee victory and which are so devistating to hear that the other side must fall silent in shame and slink away defeated.
We can prove it's not a real question by looking at the obvious next question: "does Palestine have a right to exist"?
And I don't think that's some sort of ultimate devistating gotcha that will make Zionists STFU and slink away in shame because we're so witty and awesome. I think it just shows that "does Israel have a right to exist" is not actually a real question.
It's like asking "how high is up" or "what does justice taste like" When looked at from a purely grammatical standpoint they're valid sentences and questions, but from a rational standpoint they're just nonsense.
Same applies to "do you think the Israeli people have a right to self determination". That's not a question.
posted by sotonohito at 7:09 AM on October 1, 2024 [11 favorites]
I should note there is now a MetaFilter thread on Ta-Nehisi Coates and his book.
According to the IDF, Iran has launched ballistic missiles at Israel.
posted by toastyk at 10:32 AM on October 1, 2024 [4 favorites]
According to the IDF, Iran has launched ballistic missiles at Israel.
posted by toastyk at 10:32 AM on October 1, 2024 [4 favorites]
'The U.S. is sending a “few thousand” troops to the Middle East to bolster security and to defend Israel if necessary, the Pentagon said Monday.'
It's possible the US wants excuses to hit Iranian ports, given Irans support of Russian in Ukraine.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:57 PM on October 1, 2024 [2 favorites]
It's possible the US wants excuses to hit Iranian ports, given Irans support of Russian in Ukraine.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:57 PM on October 1, 2024 [2 favorites]
US Jewish institutions are purging their staffs of anti-Zionists: In These Times interviewed 18 Jewish professionals with 16 different Jewish organizations across the country, all of whom describe being fired, quitting under pressure, or seeing their roles disappear since October 7 for issues surrounding criticism of Israel or support for a permanent cease-fire. These stories are just a snapshot of what appears to be a growing trend across the Jewish professional world. At the time of publication, In These Times was continuing to receive tips about similar cases.
They largely tell similar stories. They care deeply about working in Jewish communities and were devastated at having to leave their positions for caring about Palestinian rights and liberation. Among their transgressions: Going to a protest, wearing a keffiyeh to work, liking an Instagram post.
Trump campaign releases ad blaming Kamala Harris for Iran missile strike.
posted by toastyk at 1:53 PM on October 1, 2024 [7 favorites]
They largely tell similar stories. They care deeply about working in Jewish communities and were devastated at having to leave their positions for caring about Palestinian rights and liberation. Among their transgressions: Going to a protest, wearing a keffiyeh to work, liking an Instagram post.
Trump campaign releases ad blaming Kamala Harris for Iran missile strike.
posted by toastyk at 1:53 PM on October 1, 2024 [7 favorites]
Of interest, I guess the ILA will break their strike to handle military cargo and also passenger cruise ships are unaffected...
I guess that answers my question of why Biden said he didn't believe in Taft-Hartley for this particular strike, but why he invoked it for the railroad workers.
posted by toastyk at 2:04 PM on October 1, 2024 [8 favorites]
I guess that answers my question of why Biden said he didn't believe in Taft-Hartley for this particular strike, but why he invoked it for the railroad workers.
posted by toastyk at 2:04 PM on October 1, 2024 [8 favorites]
Pro-Palestine students banned from Widener Library at Harvard University for 2 weeks after "study-in" protest.
At Cornell, administrators outline how they surveil and discipline pro-Palestine students and faculty: Two high-level administrators outlined how the University monitors and disciplines pro-Palestinian activists, including by boosting security and surveillance around campus and “scrutinizing” faculty members’ in-class behavior, in a private Zoom meeting with more than 220 Jewish parents Monday night.
Both administrators conceded that identifying masked pro-Palestinian activists is difficult. Malina explained that Nassau County, the first in the nation to sign a mask ban into law, has faced “strenuous litigation” opposing the measure. He said that after discussing the issue with the Office of General Counsel, he does not expect Cornell to “take on the litigation risk” of introducing a similar ban on non-medical facial coverings.
“Our police are doing some incredible work investigating, even in spite of such facial covering, to help in the identification of individuals,” Malina assured the parents.
Additionally, black students do not feel safe at Cornell:
“How can we feel safe when this University has the power to silence and criminalize a powerful Black voice without due process or just cause?” said a BSU representative.
Additionally, as Black students, we remain distressed by a pattern of racialized rhetoric on the part of Kotlikoff. His statements justifying Taal’s unfair and punitive treatment are infused with language that reflects the painful legacies of enslavement, Jim Crow and modern-day policing that continue to infect every inch of American society today.
In campus-wide emails sent on Wednesday, Sept. 23 and Monday, Sept. 30, Kotlikoff and Interim Provost Siliciano drew on a long lineage of white supremacist caricatures of Black people, referring to Taal’s actions as “aggressive,” “intimidat[ing],” “frightening,” “highly disruptive and intentionally menacing” and “harassing,” thus depicting a Black graduate student as a violent person who is a threat to campus security.
Let us be clear. There is no evidence that Taal has engaged in any violent activity. He has resorted to peaceful means to protest a violent genocide in which Cornell is complicit.
The VP debate the candidates discussing their views on the Middle East: causing minor controversy, Tim Walz said: “the expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute fundamental necessity for the US to have steady leadership there”.
posted by toastyk at 6:55 AM on October 3, 2024 [6 favorites]
At Cornell, administrators outline how they surveil and discipline pro-Palestine students and faculty: Two high-level administrators outlined how the University monitors and disciplines pro-Palestinian activists, including by boosting security and surveillance around campus and “scrutinizing” faculty members’ in-class behavior, in a private Zoom meeting with more than 220 Jewish parents Monday night.
Both administrators conceded that identifying masked pro-Palestinian activists is difficult. Malina explained that Nassau County, the first in the nation to sign a mask ban into law, has faced “strenuous litigation” opposing the measure. He said that after discussing the issue with the Office of General Counsel, he does not expect Cornell to “take on the litigation risk” of introducing a similar ban on non-medical facial coverings.
“Our police are doing some incredible work investigating, even in spite of such facial covering, to help in the identification of individuals,” Malina assured the parents.
Additionally, black students do not feel safe at Cornell:
“How can we feel safe when this University has the power to silence and criminalize a powerful Black voice without due process or just cause?” said a BSU representative.
Additionally, as Black students, we remain distressed by a pattern of racialized rhetoric on the part of Kotlikoff. His statements justifying Taal’s unfair and punitive treatment are infused with language that reflects the painful legacies of enslavement, Jim Crow and modern-day policing that continue to infect every inch of American society today.
In campus-wide emails sent on Wednesday, Sept. 23 and Monday, Sept. 30, Kotlikoff and Interim Provost Siliciano drew on a long lineage of white supremacist caricatures of Black people, referring to Taal’s actions as “aggressive,” “intimidat[ing],” “frightening,” “highly disruptive and intentionally menacing” and “harassing,” thus depicting a Black graduate student as a violent person who is a threat to campus security.
Let us be clear. There is no evidence that Taal has engaged in any violent activity. He has resorted to peaceful means to protest a violent genocide in which Cornell is complicit.
The VP debate the candidates discussing their views on the Middle East: causing minor controversy, Tim Walz said: “the expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute fundamental necessity for the US to have steady leadership there”.
posted by toastyk at 6:55 AM on October 3, 2024 [6 favorites]
Washington Post: How Joe Biden lost his grip on Israel’s war for ‘total victory’ in Gaza
posted by BungaDunga at 8:19 AM on October 3, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by BungaDunga at 8:19 AM on October 3, 2024 [2 favorites]
Biden says he is 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
posted by BungaDunga at 8:34 AM on October 3, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by BungaDunga at 8:34 AM on October 3, 2024 [1 favorite]
> Biden says he is 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
This is such a nightmare fucking scenario. Do you want to lose the election?? That's how you lose the election. Iran has promised to respond to strikes on its oil infrastructure with strikes on Saudi Arabia's oil infra. Do you want $10 a gallon gas when people go to the polls in exactly one month? You fucking morons
posted by dis_integration at 11:19 AM on October 3, 2024 [11 favorites]
This is such a nightmare fucking scenario. Do you want to lose the election?? That's how you lose the election. Iran has promised to respond to strikes on its oil infrastructure with strikes on Saudi Arabia's oil infra. Do you want $10 a gallon gas when people go to the polls in exactly one month? You fucking morons
posted by dis_integration at 11:19 AM on October 3, 2024 [11 favorites]
I wonder if the US is a bit insulated from the effects of turmoil in middle east now that we have like, shale oil. As I understand it, the US has light sweet and the middle east has heavy sour, and I imagine the refining capacity is built to match. But really, best not to test this theory.
posted by pwnguin at 12:28 PM on October 3, 2024
posted by pwnguin at 12:28 PM on October 3, 2024
Biden says he is 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
'The U.S. is sending a “few thousand” troops to the Middle East to bolster security and to defend Israel if necessary, the Pentagon said Monday.'
I think Biden may have finally found a way to be worse than Trump on an issue.
posted by pattern juggler at 12:31 PM on October 3, 2024 [6 favorites]
'The U.S. is sending a “few thousand” troops to the Middle East to bolster security and to defend Israel if necessary, the Pentagon said Monday.'
I think Biden may have finally found a way to be worse than Trump on an issue.
posted by pattern juggler at 12:31 PM on October 3, 2024 [6 favorites]
Oil is a global market—-no one is insulated from it.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 2:21 PM on October 3, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 2:21 PM on October 3, 2024 [4 favorites]
Absolutely zero chance Biden blows up Iranian oil facilities, probably not even if Trump wins, but..
Iran produces like 4% of the world's oil, so their facilities being destroyed would reduce CO2 emissions somewhat, which easily outweights all other concerns morally.
It'd be nice timing if Biden knocks out Irans oil production, but then all the peak oil guys shale decline predictions finally kick in. lol
posted by jeffburdges at 3:13 PM on October 3, 2024
Iran produces like 4% of the world's oil, so their facilities being destroyed would reduce CO2 emissions somewhat, which easily outweights all other concerns morally.
It'd be nice timing if Biden knocks out Irans oil production, but then all the peak oil guys shale decline predictions finally kick in. lol
posted by jeffburdges at 3:13 PM on October 3, 2024
Do you want to lose the election?? That's how you lose the election.
I'm seeing more and more comments of this nature elsewhere too, and I've realized, maybe my mistake is that what I've been saying ("it's like Biden wants Harris to lose") came too early. Prognosticated too close to the sun etc etc etc
posted by cendawanita at 5:34 PM on October 3, 2024 [8 favorites]
I'm seeing more and more comments of this nature elsewhere too, and I've realized, maybe my mistake is that what I've been saying ("it's like Biden wants Harris to lose") came too early. Prognosticated too close to the sun etc etc etc
posted by cendawanita at 5:34 PM on October 3, 2024 [8 favorites]
Iran produces like 4% of the world's oil, so their facilities being destroyed would reduce CO2 emissions somewhat, which easily outweights all other concerns morally.
Killing a bunch of people to reduce carbon emissions is just ecofascism, which really isn't what Malm is advocating for,
posted by pattern juggler at 5:37 PM on October 3, 2024 [9 favorites]
Killing a bunch of people to reduce carbon emissions is just ecofascism, which really isn't what Malm is advocating for,
posted by pattern juggler at 5:37 PM on October 3, 2024 [9 favorites]
Asked why he had not spoken to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent days after he said he would on Sunday he replied: "Because there’s no action going on right now."what are you doing joe
Asked if he worried an Israeli strike on Iran’s oil facilities would raise oil prices, he said;
"If a hurricane hits, prices are going to go up. I don’t know; who knows."...
Following on from US President’s Joe Biden’s earlier comment that the US was “discussing” possible Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities, he has now been asked by reporters whether he had urged Israel not to do so.
“I know not to negotiate in public,” he said in response, according to Reuters.
posted by BungaDunga at 6:25 PM on October 3, 2024 [5 favorites]
Over the summer I was pretty skeptical of the sourcing for the various streams of pieces how Biden is sundowning or whatever.
but jesus if you're pro democracy why are you stepping on its dick mid-shamble
posted by away for regrooving at 10:49 PM on October 3, 2024 [5 favorites]
but jesus if you're pro democracy why are you stepping on its dick mid-shamble
posted by away for regrooving at 10:49 PM on October 3, 2024 [5 favorites]
I think Biden is just extremely racist. He doesn't view Arab and Persians as full human beings. Their deaths don't matter to him, and he doesn't respect their right (nor believe in their capacity) to self-government. This is the same man who backed Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq throughout his time in the Obama White House.
Biden resisted desegregation on the grounds it would turn schools into "racial jungles". If you imagine he sees the Mideast through the same lens, with civilized Israelis surrounded by savage brown skinned people who can't be trusted, his policies are no longer incomprehensible.
posted by pattern juggler at 4:01 AM on October 4, 2024 [9 favorites]
Biden resisted desegregation on the grounds it would turn schools into "racial jungles". If you imagine he sees the Mideast through the same lens, with civilized Israelis surrounded by savage brown skinned people who can't be trusted, his policies are no longer incomprehensible.
posted by pattern juggler at 4:01 AM on October 4, 2024 [9 favorites]
Call your reps: Key House Democrats say US must end Israeli culture of impunity - A group of prominent Democrats in the House of Representatives has urged President Joe Biden’s administration to end the “lack of U.S. enforcement” of human rights law as the country continues its military support for Israel — suggesting an Israeli “culture of impunity” is driving bloodshed in the Palestinian territories and in Lebanon, which Israel invaded earlier this week.
“The failure of the United States to consistently apply our own laws … actively endangers the lives of US citizens,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and four colleagues argue in a letter they sent the Pentagon and State Department this week and exclusively shared with HuffPost.
Though small, the Democratic group includes heavyweights: McGovern is the top Democrat on the powerful House Rules Committee, and his co-signatories include Reps. Barbara Lee (Calif.), Mark Pocan (Wis.) and Betty McCollum (Minn.), key players on the House Appropriations Committee that oversees government funding, as well as Rep. Joaquin Castro (Texas) of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Reuters Special Report: Emails show early US concerns over Gaza offensive, risk of Israeli war crimes - The emails, which haven’t been reported before, reveal alarm early on in the State Department and Pentagon that a rising death toll in Gaza could violate international law and jeopardize U.S. ties in the Arab world. The messages also show internal pressure in the Biden administration to shift its messaging from showing solidarity with Israel to including sympathy for Palestinians and the need to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
After Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza’s hospitals, schools and mosques, the U.S. State Department’s top public diplomacy official, Bill Russo, told senior State officials that Washington was “losing credibility among Arab-speaking audiences” by not directly addressing the humanitarian crisis, according to an Oct. 11 email. Gaza’s health authorities reported that day a death toll of about 1,200.
As Israel defended the strikes, saying Hamas was using civilian buildings for military purposes, Russo wrote that U.S. diplomats in the Middle East were monitoring Arab media reports that accused Israel of waging a “genocide” and Washington of complicity in war crimes.
“The U.S.’s lack of response on the humanitarian conditions for Palestinians is not only ineffective and counterproductive, but we are also being accused of being complicit to potential war crimes by remaining silent on Israel’s actions against civilians,” Russo wrote.
At the time, emergency workers were struggling to save people buried under rubble from Israel airstrikes and the world’s sympathies were beginning to shift from murdered Israelis to besieged Palestinian civilians.
Addressing State Department leaders, Russo urged quick action to shift the administration’s public stance of unqualified support for Israel and its military operation in Gaza. “If this course is not quickly reversed by not only messaging, but action, it risks damaging our stance in the region for years to come,” he wrote. Russo resigned in March, citing personal reasons. He declined to comment.
posted by toastyk at 8:26 AM on October 4, 2024 [7 favorites]
“The failure of the United States to consistently apply our own laws … actively endangers the lives of US citizens,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and four colleagues argue in a letter they sent the Pentagon and State Department this week and exclusively shared with HuffPost.
Though small, the Democratic group includes heavyweights: McGovern is the top Democrat on the powerful House Rules Committee, and his co-signatories include Reps. Barbara Lee (Calif.), Mark Pocan (Wis.) and Betty McCollum (Minn.), key players on the House Appropriations Committee that oversees government funding, as well as Rep. Joaquin Castro (Texas) of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Reuters Special Report: Emails show early US concerns over Gaza offensive, risk of Israeli war crimes - The emails, which haven’t been reported before, reveal alarm early on in the State Department and Pentagon that a rising death toll in Gaza could violate international law and jeopardize U.S. ties in the Arab world. The messages also show internal pressure in the Biden administration to shift its messaging from showing solidarity with Israel to including sympathy for Palestinians and the need to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
After Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza’s hospitals, schools and mosques, the U.S. State Department’s top public diplomacy official, Bill Russo, told senior State officials that Washington was “losing credibility among Arab-speaking audiences” by not directly addressing the humanitarian crisis, according to an Oct. 11 email. Gaza’s health authorities reported that day a death toll of about 1,200.
As Israel defended the strikes, saying Hamas was using civilian buildings for military purposes, Russo wrote that U.S. diplomats in the Middle East were monitoring Arab media reports that accused Israel of waging a “genocide” and Washington of complicity in war crimes.
“The U.S.’s lack of response on the humanitarian conditions for Palestinians is not only ineffective and counterproductive, but we are also being accused of being complicit to potential war crimes by remaining silent on Israel’s actions against civilians,” Russo wrote.
At the time, emergency workers were struggling to save people buried under rubble from Israel airstrikes and the world’s sympathies were beginning to shift from murdered Israelis to besieged Palestinian civilians.
Addressing State Department leaders, Russo urged quick action to shift the administration’s public stance of unqualified support for Israel and its military operation in Gaza. “If this course is not quickly reversed by not only messaging, but action, it risks damaging our stance in the region for years to come,” he wrote. Russo resigned in March, citing personal reasons. He declined to comment.
posted by toastyk at 8:26 AM on October 4, 2024 [7 favorites]
Unforgivable that it needed so much digging to prove what is evident for the last 10 months - and previous political behaviour besides- because it's unthinkable a president who's not Trump can be as racist only not as venal (and cannier and more clever, as warned against when it comes to Republicans but never Democrats or else fandom habits can't abide), and exactly for the negative consequences as projected, that loss of credibility (never mind the loss of lives) needed for other work. He and his circle basically spat on all those career bureaucrats who're closer to the average American who volunteers at polling booths than his echelon.
posted by cendawanita at 8:52 AM on October 4, 2024 [5 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 8:52 AM on October 4, 2024 [5 favorites]
Anyway - Trump is so useless Biden had to October Surprise his own party himself.
posted by cendawanita at 9:03 AM on October 4, 2024 [5 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 9:03 AM on October 4, 2024 [5 favorites]
maybe my mistake is that what I've been saying ("it's like Biden wants Harris to lose") came too early
Possibly not even just Biden, possibly "the Democratic Party" (as in: the elites at the top), who can see how very bad things are likely to be in the next few years (certainly over the next presidential term), with oil prices (and thus the overall cost of pretty much everything) likely to increase dramatically, and the climate crisis likely to lead to things like famines and rationing (there have been a *lot* of crop failures of staples like wheat and corn in a lot of the world in the past few years), they'd rather leave Republicans holding the bag as part of a frankly stupid long-term strategy that idiotically discounts the very real threat of fascism (because a lot of senior Democrats are honestly morons who don't actually believe the Republicans are *serious* about what they say they want to do and they're only cynically exploiting the rubes who vote for them, despite evidence to the contrary).
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 9:28 AM on October 4, 2024 [4 favorites]
Possibly not even just Biden, possibly "the Democratic Party" (as in: the elites at the top), who can see how very bad things are likely to be in the next few years (certainly over the next presidential term), with oil prices (and thus the overall cost of pretty much everything) likely to increase dramatically, and the climate crisis likely to lead to things like famines and rationing (there have been a *lot* of crop failures of staples like wheat and corn in a lot of the world in the past few years), they'd rather leave Republicans holding the bag as part of a frankly stupid long-term strategy that idiotically discounts the very real threat of fascism (because a lot of senior Democrats are honestly morons who don't actually believe the Republicans are *serious* about what they say they want to do and they're only cynically exploiting the rubes who vote for them, despite evidence to the contrary).
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 9:28 AM on October 4, 2024 [4 favorites]
Muslim advocacy group Emgage Action held a virtual summit in which Tim Walz and Keith Ellison both attended and pledged to work "side by side" with Muslim Americans - Along with Ellison, several Muslim leaders have endorsed Harris and Walz in recent months, including the Black Muslim Leadership Council and the US representative Ilhan Omar. The group Muslim Women for Harris-Walz disbanded when the DNC denied a Palestinian American speaker, but later reaffirmed their support for the Democratic candidate.
The push to court Muslim voters 32 days before the election comes after months of criticism from Arab and Muslim American communities that the Democratic candidates – first Biden and then Harris – have failed to effectively engage them. Two weeks ago the Uncommitted National Movement, which mobilized more than 700,000 citizens to vote “uncommitted” or its equivalent in Democratic primaries throughout the nation, declined to endorse the Harris-Walz ticket. The Uncommitted National Movement said that Harris failed to meet a 15 September deadline to meet with Palestinian families and engage in discussions about a ceasefire deal.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is campaigning with Liz Cheney and praising her father - It was the first time Cheney campaigned with Harris since she endorsed the vice president last month. Cheney, a former House member, lost her Wyoming seat in 2022 after voting to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 riot. Her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, is also backing Harris.
At the Wisconsin event, Harris expressed thanks “for his support and what he has done to serve our country.”
Harris’ strategy of courting Trump-skeptical Republicans is not new for Democrats in the Trump era. President Joe Biden’s team spotlighted an endorsement by former Ohio Gov. John Kasich at his 2020 convention. In the 2022 midterms, down-ballot Democrats likewise won support from disaffected GOP officials who helped make the case that their opponents were extreme.
posted by toastyk at 10:30 AM on October 4, 2024 [5 favorites]
The push to court Muslim voters 32 days before the election comes after months of criticism from Arab and Muslim American communities that the Democratic candidates – first Biden and then Harris – have failed to effectively engage them. Two weeks ago the Uncommitted National Movement, which mobilized more than 700,000 citizens to vote “uncommitted” or its equivalent in Democratic primaries throughout the nation, declined to endorse the Harris-Walz ticket. The Uncommitted National Movement said that Harris failed to meet a 15 September deadline to meet with Palestinian families and engage in discussions about a ceasefire deal.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is campaigning with Liz Cheney and praising her father - It was the first time Cheney campaigned with Harris since she endorsed the vice president last month. Cheney, a former House member, lost her Wyoming seat in 2022 after voting to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 riot. Her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, is also backing Harris.
At the Wisconsin event, Harris expressed thanks “for his support and what he has done to serve our country.”
Harris’ strategy of courting Trump-skeptical Republicans is not new for Democrats in the Trump era. President Joe Biden’s team spotlighted an endorsement by former Ohio Gov. John Kasich at his 2020 convention. In the 2022 midterms, down-ballot Democrats likewise won support from disaffected GOP officials who helped make the case that their opponents were extreme.
posted by toastyk at 10:30 AM on October 4, 2024 [5 favorites]
pretty grim, if understandable, that the argument that the State Department people were making to the White House was "our Arab allies will hate and blame us for this"- not that the US would be complicit, but it would be seen as complicit
posted by BungaDunga at 11:08 AM on October 4, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by BungaDunga at 11:08 AM on October 4, 2024 [2 favorites]
Gulf Arab states sought to reassure Iran of their neutrality in the conflict between Tehran and Israel in meetings in Doha this week on the back of concerns that a wider escalation in violence could threaten their oil facilities, two sources told Reuters.
posted by ndr at 12:56 PM on October 4, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by ndr at 12:56 PM on October 4, 2024 [3 favorites]
> At the Wisconsin event, Harris expressed thanks “for [Dick Cheney's] support and what he has done to serve our country.”
20 years ago, I would have been VIBRATING in fury about this. I guess I've lost my edge because now all I can do is grumble about it. This is how low American politics have fallen, that I'm going to vote for the candidate that thinks it's a good thing that one of the most singularly evil men in the history of US politics, who broke the Middle East, laid it to waste, destroyed millions of lives, a genuine, true blue war criminal who should be rotting in the Hague, endorses her.
posted by dis_integration at 12:58 PM on October 4, 2024 [9 favorites]
20 years ago, I would have been VIBRATING in fury about this. I guess I've lost my edge because now all I can do is grumble about it. This is how low American politics have fallen, that I'm going to vote for the candidate that thinks it's a good thing that one of the most singularly evil men in the history of US politics, who broke the Middle East, laid it to waste, destroyed millions of lives, a genuine, true blue war criminal who should be rotting in the Hague, endorses her.
posted by dis_integration at 12:58 PM on October 4, 2024 [9 favorites]
it is hard to get mad about rehabilitating old war criminals while we're habilitating new ones right now
posted by BungaDunga at 1:52 PM on October 4, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by BungaDunga at 1:52 PM on October 4, 2024 [4 favorites]
20 years ago, I would have been VIBRATING in fury about this. I guess I've lost my edge because now all I can do is grumble about it. This is how low American politics have fallen
I'm honestly surprised it took this long. The primary process that produces radical GOP nominees should mean it's easier for their opposition to grab a few percent of the centrists / never-Trumpers and win elections. It's really surprising to me though how loyal GOP politicians are to Trump, when they can't even agree on who should be Speaker of the House for longer than five minutes.
posted by pwnguin at 3:01 PM on October 4, 2024 [2 favorites]
I'm honestly surprised it took this long. The primary process that produces radical GOP nominees should mean it's easier for their opposition to grab a few percent of the centrists / never-Trumpers and win elections. It's really surprising to me though how loyal GOP politicians are to Trump, when they can't even agree on who should be Speaker of the House for longer than five minutes.
posted by pwnguin at 3:01 PM on October 4, 2024 [2 favorites]
Biden crashed the press briefing today. Here's the transcript:
This week, Senator Chris Murphy said, “It’s certainly a possibility that the Israeli government is not going to sign any diplomatic agreement prior to the election,” which is what you have been calling for for so long, “potentially to try to influence the result.”
Do you agree? Do you have any worries that Netanyahu may be trying to influence the election, and that’s why he has not agreed to a diplomatic solution?
THE PRESIDENT: No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None. None. None. And I think Bibi should remember that.
And whether he’s trying to influence the election, I don’t know, but I’m not counting on that.
Q You’ve said many times recently that you want to speak to him, that you plan to —
THE PRESIDENT: No, I didn’t say “plan to.” I didn’t say “want to.”
Q You don’t want to?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I didn’t say that. You’re making it sound like I’m seeking an inv- — speak- — I’m assuming when they make their judgment of how they’re going to respond, we will then have a discussion.
posted by toastyk at 3:53 PM on October 4, 2024 [5 favorites]
This week, Senator Chris Murphy said, “It’s certainly a possibility that the Israeli government is not going to sign any diplomatic agreement prior to the election,” which is what you have been calling for for so long, “potentially to try to influence the result.”
Do you agree? Do you have any worries that Netanyahu may be trying to influence the election, and that’s why he has not agreed to a diplomatic solution?
THE PRESIDENT: No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None. None. None. And I think Bibi should remember that.
And whether he’s trying to influence the election, I don’t know, but I’m not counting on that.
Q You’ve said many times recently that you want to speak to him, that you plan to —
THE PRESIDENT: No, I didn’t say “plan to.” I didn’t say “want to.”
Q You don’t want to?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I didn’t say that. You’re making it sound like I’m seeking an inv- — speak- — I’m assuming when they make their judgment of how they’re going to respond, we will then have a discussion.
posted by toastyk at 3:53 PM on October 4, 2024 [5 favorites]
Biden crashed the press briefing today
And if reporting elsewhere is accurate, lied his ass off while continuing inexplicably to give Israel and Netanyahu cover.
Biden deemed Israel’s response “over the top” and did stop one shipment of American arms to Israel. But even as pressure grew from fellow Democrats to create distance from Netanyahu, Biden’s reflexive instinct was to support Israel despite the swelling humanitarian crisis. As his influence over Netanyahu shrunk, the president’s anger grew. Phone calls between the two men were increasingly turned into shouting matches, according to one of the officials and one other senior official not authorized to discuss private conversations. Biden told confidants that he did not believe his Israeli counterpart wanted a cease-fire deal, arguing that Netanyahu was trying to perpetuate the conflict to save his political future and assist Trump in November’s election, the officials said.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 5:05 PM on October 4, 2024 [6 favorites]
And if reporting elsewhere is accurate, lied his ass off while continuing inexplicably to give Israel and Netanyahu cover.
Biden deemed Israel’s response “over the top” and did stop one shipment of American arms to Israel. But even as pressure grew from fellow Democrats to create distance from Netanyahu, Biden’s reflexive instinct was to support Israel despite the swelling humanitarian crisis. As his influence over Netanyahu shrunk, the president’s anger grew. Phone calls between the two men were increasingly turned into shouting matches, according to one of the officials and one other senior official not authorized to discuss private conversations. Biden told confidants that he did not believe his Israeli counterpart wanted a cease-fire deal, arguing that Netanyahu was trying to perpetuate the conflict to save his political future and assist Trump in November’s election, the officials said.
posted by Pseudonymous Cognomen at 5:05 PM on October 4, 2024 [6 favorites]
Reuters: In Michigan, Harris meets Arab American leaders angry over Israel
Vice President Kamala Harris met with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Flint, Michigan, on Friday, as her presidential campaign seeks to win back voters angry at U.S. support for Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon.posted by runcifex at 9:13 PM on October 4, 2024 [3 favorites]
The meeting is one of several attempts in recent days to mend fences with Muslim and Arab voters, who resoundingly backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 but could withhold their votes from Harris in numbers that would cost her the key state of Michigan.
During the half-hour meeting, Harris expressed her concern on the scale of suffering in Gaza, civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon and discussed efforts to end the war, according to a campaign official. She also discussed efforts to prevent a regional war, the official added.
Wa'el Alzayat, CEO of Emgage Action which recently endorsed her, said participants shared their deep disappointment with the U.S. handling of the crisis and called on her to do everything in her power to end the war and reset U.S. policy in the region.
I've seen this ProPublica report is being described as a one-two whammy as it's come out at the same time as the Reuters one.
Inside the State Department’s Weapons Pipeline to Israel
Reporting Highlights
- More Bombs: Ambassador Jack Lew urged Washington to give thousands more bombs to the Israelis because they have a “decades-long proven track record” of avoiding killing civilians.
- A Thank-You: After State Department officials spent months working through weekends and after hours on arms sales, the Israelis sent cases of wine to them just before Christmas.
- A Lobbying Push: Defense contractors and lobbyists have also helped push along valuable sales by leaning on State Department officials and lawmakers whenever there’s a holdup.
These two articles should go into whichever fresh thread that's due soon too.
posted by cendawanita at 10:03 PM on October 4, 2024 [6 favorites]
Inside the State Department’s Weapons Pipeline to Israel
Reporting Highlights
- More Bombs: Ambassador Jack Lew urged Washington to give thousands more bombs to the Israelis because they have a “decades-long proven track record” of avoiding killing civilians.
- A Thank-You: After State Department officials spent months working through weekends and after hours on arms sales, the Israelis sent cases of wine to them just before Christmas.
- A Lobbying Push: Defense contractors and lobbyists have also helped push along valuable sales by leaning on State Department officials and lawmakers whenever there’s a holdup.
These two articles should go into whichever fresh thread that's due soon too.
posted by cendawanita at 10:03 PM on October 4, 2024 [6 favorites]
In the months before and since, an array of State Department officials urged that Israel be completely or partially cut off from weapons sales under laws that prohibit arming countries with a pattern or clear risk of violations. Top State Department political appointees repeatedly rejected those appeals. Government experts have for years unsuccessfully tried to withhold or place conditions on arms sales to Israel because of credible allegations that the country had violated Palestinians’ human rights using American-made weapons.
Repeating myself: He and his circle basically spat on all those career bureaucrats who're closer to the average American who volunteers at polling booths than his echelon.
posted by cendawanita at 10:06 PM on October 4, 2024 [6 favorites]
Repeating myself: He and his circle basically spat on all those career bureaucrats who're closer to the average American who volunteers at polling booths than his echelon.
posted by cendawanita at 10:06 PM on October 4, 2024 [6 favorites]
Oh, word? State Department acknowledges mistake in calling American killed in Lebanon non-citizen
The State Department acknowledged on Friday that it mistakenly referred to a Michigan native killed in Lebanon as a non-citizen and offered “condolences” to the man’s family.
Kamel Ahmad Jawad, from Dearborn, Mich., was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon on Tuesday, according to a statement released by his family.
“We are aware and alarmed of reports of the death of Kamel Jawad, who we have confirmed is a U.S. citizen,” said the department, which referred to him on Wednesday as “a lawful permanent resident” otherwise known as a non-citizen green card holder.
The mistake may deepen a sense of alienation among the state’s large Lebanese-American community already reeling over what many view as the administration’s indifference toward Arabs lives impacted by the escalating violence in the Middle East. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who represents Dearborn, criticized the department on Thursday for referring to Jawad as a non-citizen, noting that the remarks came “while the family is mourning and having services for Hajj Kamel in our community this week.”
The department says it is still "working to understand the circumstances of the incident. “As we have noted repeatedly, it is a moral and strategic imperative that Israel take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”
The Washington Post can’t independently verify the circumstances of his death in the country, where Israel has mounted an expanding military operation that has killed more than 1,400 people, according to Lebanese health authorities. The IDF did not provide comment when asked about his death.
On Thursday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller acknowledged that the department was less confident in Jawad’s status.
“We believed he was a legal permanent resident — I see now that the family has described him as a U.S. citizen,” Miller said. “That may very well be true. We are looking through our records now to verify whether he was an American citizen, or whether a legal, whether he’s a legal permanent resident. Either way, he was an American.”
"That may very well be true"???? jfc
posted by cendawanita at 10:11 PM on October 4, 2024 [8 favorites]
The State Department acknowledged on Friday that it mistakenly referred to a Michigan native killed in Lebanon as a non-citizen and offered “condolences” to the man’s family.
Kamel Ahmad Jawad, from Dearborn, Mich., was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon on Tuesday, according to a statement released by his family.
“We are aware and alarmed of reports of the death of Kamel Jawad, who we have confirmed is a U.S. citizen,” said the department, which referred to him on Wednesday as “a lawful permanent resident” otherwise known as a non-citizen green card holder.
The mistake may deepen a sense of alienation among the state’s large Lebanese-American community already reeling over what many view as the administration’s indifference toward Arabs lives impacted by the escalating violence in the Middle East. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who represents Dearborn, criticized the department on Thursday for referring to Jawad as a non-citizen, noting that the remarks came “while the family is mourning and having services for Hajj Kamel in our community this week.”
The department says it is still "working to understand the circumstances of the incident. “As we have noted repeatedly, it is a moral and strategic imperative that Israel take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm.”
The Washington Post can’t independently verify the circumstances of his death in the country, where Israel has mounted an expanding military operation that has killed more than 1,400 people, according to Lebanese health authorities. The IDF did not provide comment when asked about his death.
On Thursday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller acknowledged that the department was less confident in Jawad’s status.
“We believed he was a legal permanent resident — I see now that the family has described him as a U.S. citizen,” Miller said. “That may very well be true. We are looking through our records now to verify whether he was an American citizen, or whether a legal, whether he’s a legal permanent resident. Either way, he was an American.”
"That may very well be true"???? jfc
posted by cendawanita at 10:11 PM on October 4, 2024 [8 favorites]
To be fair, he does have one a them furriner names.
posted by flabdablet at 10:43 PM on October 4, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by flabdablet at 10:43 PM on October 4, 2024 [4 favorites]
Pro-Israel/anti-Palestine bias at CNN and BBC (previously NYT)
posted by rubatan at 5:28 AM on October 5, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by rubatan at 5:28 AM on October 5, 2024 [3 favorites]
Meant to include "'In a situation where Western governments like the United States, the UK and others have been complicit, you’ve got Western media that have actually become a part of the mechanism of genocide. That’s what’s different. That’s what’s frightening.'" - Craig Mokhiber
posted by rubatan at 5:38 AM on October 5, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by rubatan at 5:38 AM on October 5, 2024 [4 favorites]
I made a new post. (It's not US-specific, but I include some links regarding US legislation.)
posted by toastyk at 7:53 AM on October 5, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by toastyk at 7:53 AM on October 5, 2024 [4 favorites]
CENTCOM is located at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, likely where Hurricane Milton hits.
posted by jeffburdges at 9:02 AM on October 8, 2024
posted by jeffburdges at 9:02 AM on October 8, 2024
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Aysenur_Eygi
posted by constraint at 7:31 AM on September 12, 2024 [1 favorite]