15 months, genocide and ethnic cleansing intensifying
December 29, 2024 6:30 AM Subscribe
During the holiday season, Israel burned northern Gaza's last functioning hospital; staff and patients removed. Israel detained the hospital's director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and other medical staff. This is the last known picture of the director surrendering himself to the IDF. We are up to 4 babies freezing to death in Gaza. Meanwhile, the US pushed for retraction of a famine warning for northern Gaza.
From the previous thread, h/t cendawanita NYT reports on Israel's loosening of rules of war conduct to allow for more civilians to be killed.
AlJazeera liveblog - Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador, says he does not know why Israel continues to pound Gaza and target its medical facilities, saying Israel’s operation in Gaza has “exhausted itself”.
“It achieved the military objectives that it had, and that was to degrade Hamas, to render Hamas incapacitated to the point of not being able to govern,” he told Al Jazeera. “That has been achieved.”
I thought this was a joke at first, but apparently it's not: Netanyahu to undergo prostate removal operation, court testimony delayed. Meanwhile, Israel's attorney general orders an investigation of Sara Netanyahu on suspicion of witness harassment/tampering.
Israel pushes deeper into Lebanon despite ceasefire agreement. Syrian villagers bristle at Israeli incursions (ungated) Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen, killing six (headline leaves out that one of the targets is Yemen's airport). WHO director almost killed in attack. US THAAD system used in Israel for first time to intercept attack from Houthis.
In the US:
Although Trump threatened "hell to pay" if Hamas did not release hostages, ceasefire talks are still stuck.
Months later, few charges for UCLA attacks, no new charges for Pico-Robertson violence.
UC campuses resolve discrimination complaints stemming from Gaza protests - The department’s Office for Civil Rights said it investigated nine complaints against University of California schools in Los Angeles (UCLA), Santa Barbara, San Diego, Davis and Santa Cruz. The complaints alleged the schools failed to respond effectively to antisemitic and anti-Arab harassment.
The civil rights office concluded the universities “appear not to have responded promptly or effectively” to allegations of discrimination and harassment that were brought to the administrations’ attention.
Under the agreement, the schools must step up reporting of complaints to the OCR office and review all complaints and reports of harassment from the past two academic years to determine if further action is needed. The agreement also calls for more training of university employees and campus police officers about their obligations under federal law.
A cathartic essay from Hamilton Nolan: The death of the Democratic Party’s claim to respectability looks like a dead child in Gaza, killed by a bomb supplied by our government. It looks like five more dead journalists in Gaza, assassinated by our ally with our blessing. It looks like one more bombed hospital in Gaza, the endpoint of the road away from humanity and towards barbarity. It looks like our government burying official warnings of a famine in Gaza, because it doesn’t suit our political purposes. All of these things were done by the Biden administration. All of these things were done by the Democrats. When Joe Biden thinks back on his time as president, he should see nothing but an image of a mother crying over a dead child with its limbs blown off by an American bomb. That is the most morally significant thing that Joe Biden accomplished in the White House. No bit of positive domestic policy or sense of personal empathy is more important than the reasoned decision to supply the tools used to conduct tens of thousands of murders. That is what Joe Biden’s half century political career adds up to. When murderers die, their crimes are the first paragraphs of their obituaries. There is no reason to treat Joe Biden differently than that. Like other criminals, he was a complex man who did many things and had many redeeming qualities, in addition to being a mass murderer.
Ways to assist/donate/fundraising:
Operation Olive Branch
PCRF
GazaFunds
Doctors Without Borders
Workshops4Gaza
eSIMs for Gaza
Gaza Soup Kitchen
(previously)
From the previous thread, h/t cendawanita NYT reports on Israel's loosening of rules of war conduct to allow for more civilians to be killed.
AlJazeera liveblog - Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador, says he does not know why Israel continues to pound Gaza and target its medical facilities, saying Israel’s operation in Gaza has “exhausted itself”.
“It achieved the military objectives that it had, and that was to degrade Hamas, to render Hamas incapacitated to the point of not being able to govern,” he told Al Jazeera. “That has been achieved.”
I thought this was a joke at first, but apparently it's not: Netanyahu to undergo prostate removal operation, court testimony delayed. Meanwhile, Israel's attorney general orders an investigation of Sara Netanyahu on suspicion of witness harassment/tampering.
Israel pushes deeper into Lebanon despite ceasefire agreement. Syrian villagers bristle at Israeli incursions (ungated) Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen, killing six (headline leaves out that one of the targets is Yemen's airport). WHO director almost killed in attack. US THAAD system used in Israel for first time to intercept attack from Houthis.
In the US:
Although Trump threatened "hell to pay" if Hamas did not release hostages, ceasefire talks are still stuck.
Months later, few charges for UCLA attacks, no new charges for Pico-Robertson violence.
UC campuses resolve discrimination complaints stemming from Gaza protests - The department’s Office for Civil Rights said it investigated nine complaints against University of California schools in Los Angeles (UCLA), Santa Barbara, San Diego, Davis and Santa Cruz. The complaints alleged the schools failed to respond effectively to antisemitic and anti-Arab harassment.
The civil rights office concluded the universities “appear not to have responded promptly or effectively” to allegations of discrimination and harassment that were brought to the administrations’ attention.
Under the agreement, the schools must step up reporting of complaints to the OCR office and review all complaints and reports of harassment from the past two academic years to determine if further action is needed. The agreement also calls for more training of university employees and campus police officers about their obligations under federal law.
A cathartic essay from Hamilton Nolan: The death of the Democratic Party’s claim to respectability looks like a dead child in Gaza, killed by a bomb supplied by our government. It looks like five more dead journalists in Gaza, assassinated by our ally with our blessing. It looks like one more bombed hospital in Gaza, the endpoint of the road away from humanity and towards barbarity. It looks like our government burying official warnings of a famine in Gaza, because it doesn’t suit our political purposes. All of these things were done by the Biden administration. All of these things were done by the Democrats. When Joe Biden thinks back on his time as president, he should see nothing but an image of a mother crying over a dead child with its limbs blown off by an American bomb. That is the most morally significant thing that Joe Biden accomplished in the White House. No bit of positive domestic policy or sense of personal empathy is more important than the reasoned decision to supply the tools used to conduct tens of thousands of murders. That is what Joe Biden’s half century political career adds up to. When murderers die, their crimes are the first paragraphs of their obituaries. There is no reason to treat Joe Biden differently than that. Like other criminals, he was a complex man who did many things and had many redeeming qualities, in addition to being a mass murderer.
Ways to assist/donate/fundraising:
Operation Olive Branch
PCRF
GazaFunds
Doctors Without Borders
Workshops4Gaza
eSIMs for Gaza
Gaza Soup Kitchen
(previously)
The image of the director of the hospital surrendering.. the rubble, I can't believe we've let this happen.
posted by ginger.beef at 8:12 AM on December 29, 2024 [28 favorites]
posted by ginger.beef at 8:12 AM on December 29, 2024 [28 favorites]
Scott Carrier’s Home of the Brave podcast recently highlighted the testimony given to the UK Parliament of a visiting surgeon working at the Nassar Hospital in Gaza’s green zone. It’s 30+ minutes of humanization of what’s happening on the ground, the tragedy of withheld medical aid and the terrifying things you see and hear from wounded children.
Dr Nizam Mamode‘s testimony begins at 14:42.
posted by neuracnu at 8:26 AM on December 29, 2024 [11 favorites]
Dr Nizam Mamode‘s testimony begins at 14:42.
posted by neuracnu at 8:26 AM on December 29, 2024 [11 favorites]
Turns out, "We can do something about this after the election" was just lies by democrats. Literally no downside after November to withdrawing aid from Israel for the remaining three months. No one in the US is going to remember or care in two years or four years what a one term president did in the final weeks in office.
posted by Slackermagee at 8:32 AM on December 29, 2024 [35 favorites]
posted by Slackermagee at 8:32 AM on December 29, 2024 [35 favorites]
It's like they couldn't stand not being in the headlines for a week or two. Trying to blame this on Biden is laughable and indicates a lack of comprehension of what actually is happening and what is getting reported on.
Bombing hospitals is fucking barbaric, full stop. Fifty NYT/WSJ opinion "pieces" wholeheartedly defending this shit and using the time tested tactic of "Please don't look at us performing war crimes, look at this outrage instead!" isn't going to change the atrocities, aren't going to make me forget, aren't going to shut us up.
posted by Sphinx at 8:50 AM on December 29, 2024 [9 favorites]
Bombing hospitals is fucking barbaric, full stop. Fifty NYT/WSJ opinion "pieces" wholeheartedly defending this shit and using the time tested tactic of "Please don't look at us performing war crimes, look at this outrage instead!" isn't going to change the atrocities, aren't going to make me forget, aren't going to shut us up.
posted by Sphinx at 8:50 AM on December 29, 2024 [9 favorites]
It wasn't that long ago that our outrage at the Nazi regime pushed Americans to support the establishment of Israel. Jewish people were the Gazans then.
And then as now the activist machinery was miraculous, prompting the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. and the establishment of a homeland for a people that many European regimes had decided were subhuman.
The compromise was, of course, for the international community to recognize that what we now call "settler colonialism" was justified in this case, and to prop up a loose coalition of countries with sometimes unsavory intent.
The challenge governments face now is exactly the same. But I think what's most interesting to me is how the slide into totalitarian horror, the compassionate-left backlash, and the complicated allies appear to be a well-established pattern.
We have, maybe, an opportunity to get this right in a way we haven't before -- to condemn the use of military might, settlements and right-wing propaganda to kill tens of thousands of people -- **without** aligning ourselves with hate groups, selfish opportunists or paramilitaries.
I believe in human rights, so I believe Israel must be stopped. They have destroyed their credibility by allowing the public to believe that "protection" and mass murder are one and the same.
However, with the massing far-right movements throughout Eurasia blooming, it's clear basic white supremacy/colonial thinking ultimately endangers Jewish people globally. That's why there's still shreds of international support for Israel - because WWII wasn't that long ago, and the goal of that war wasn't confined to hate, it was also about ending rules-based, democratic world consensus.
When people uncritically repeat slogans like "from the river to the sea" and express that ending democracy as an idea is acceptable to end genocidal wars, I think they begin to express the "nihilism" that Hamilton Nolan touches on in this piece.
Despite America's outsize role in this war, to frame the conversation as though the main American takeaway should be a reappraisal of our president is extremely unproductive at best and bordering on racist at worst.
Israel is not the fledgling it was. America could well stop sending arms today; Israel has plenty of right-aligned allies it can seek arms and intelligence from.
That tension, of the US attempting to **remain** a powerful proxy power via Israel and failing, explains our public stance. We intend to be allied long enough for the far-right to collapse in Israel, and hopefully in much of MENA too.
None of this matters when your children are dead. Nolan is a great writer and this small exploitation is worth it, in a sense, for those who aren't awake enough to see that atrocities are being committed.
But this needle, threaded carelessly, is absolutely encouraging the decent people of the international community to start to conflate "decolonization" or "post-colonial" possible futures with hate, terror and authoritarianism.
If the Left and Right both agree we need strongmen, we are in a lot of trouble.
posted by mathjus at 8:55 AM on December 29, 2024 [11 favorites]
And then as now the activist machinery was miraculous, prompting the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. and the establishment of a homeland for a people that many European regimes had decided were subhuman.
The compromise was, of course, for the international community to recognize that what we now call "settler colonialism" was justified in this case, and to prop up a loose coalition of countries with sometimes unsavory intent.
The challenge governments face now is exactly the same. But I think what's most interesting to me is how the slide into totalitarian horror, the compassionate-left backlash, and the complicated allies appear to be a well-established pattern.
We have, maybe, an opportunity to get this right in a way we haven't before -- to condemn the use of military might, settlements and right-wing propaganda to kill tens of thousands of people -- **without** aligning ourselves with hate groups, selfish opportunists or paramilitaries.
I believe in human rights, so I believe Israel must be stopped. They have destroyed their credibility by allowing the public to believe that "protection" and mass murder are one and the same.
However, with the massing far-right movements throughout Eurasia blooming, it's clear basic white supremacy/colonial thinking ultimately endangers Jewish people globally. That's why there's still shreds of international support for Israel - because WWII wasn't that long ago, and the goal of that war wasn't confined to hate, it was also about ending rules-based, democratic world consensus.
When people uncritically repeat slogans like "from the river to the sea" and express that ending democracy as an idea is acceptable to end genocidal wars, I think they begin to express the "nihilism" that Hamilton Nolan touches on in this piece.
Despite America's outsize role in this war, to frame the conversation as though the main American takeaway should be a reappraisal of our president is extremely unproductive at best and bordering on racist at worst.
Israel is not the fledgling it was. America could well stop sending arms today; Israel has plenty of right-aligned allies it can seek arms and intelligence from.
That tension, of the US attempting to **remain** a powerful proxy power via Israel and failing, explains our public stance. We intend to be allied long enough for the far-right to collapse in Israel, and hopefully in much of MENA too.
None of this matters when your children are dead. Nolan is a great writer and this small exploitation is worth it, in a sense, for those who aren't awake enough to see that atrocities are being committed.
But this needle, threaded carelessly, is absolutely encouraging the decent people of the international community to start to conflate "decolonization" or "post-colonial" possible futures with hate, terror and authoritarianism.
If the Left and Right both agree we need strongmen, we are in a lot of trouble.
posted by mathjus at 8:55 AM on December 29, 2024 [11 favorites]
And AIPAC is currently going after Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock for being enemies of Israel for having the temerity to vote against weapons sales. Their spend got 318 candidates elected in this past cycle. Politicians are afraid to push back on Israel because they know there is a high chance AIPAC will unseat them. Sarah Kendzior has written extensively about this, but it is frankly a really hard topic to write about without coming off as anti-Semitic.
posted by rednikki at 8:57 AM on December 29, 2024 [15 favorites]
posted by rednikki at 8:57 AM on December 29, 2024 [15 favorites]
.
posted by limeonaire at 8:59 AM on December 29, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by limeonaire at 8:59 AM on December 29, 2024 [2 favorites]
It wasn't that long ago that our outrage at the Nazi regime pushed Americans to support the establishment of Israel.
Who is "our"? The antisemitic USA turned away Jewish refugees trying to escape Nazi Germany as recently as 1939. When the US finally entered WW2 it was not out of any concern for the plight of Jews but rather in response to a Japanese attack on a US military base in the Pacific.
The history of the US is antisemitic and White-supremacist. Our current support for the genocidal state of Israel is because of this, not despite it.
posted by splitpeasoup at 9:39 AM on December 29, 2024 [29 favorites]
Who is "our"? The antisemitic USA turned away Jewish refugees trying to escape Nazi Germany as recently as 1939. When the US finally entered WW2 it was not out of any concern for the plight of Jews but rather in response to a Japanese attack on a US military base in the Pacific.
The history of the US is antisemitic and White-supremacist. Our current support for the genocidal state of Israel is because of this, not despite it.
posted by splitpeasoup at 9:39 AM on December 29, 2024 [29 favorites]
I have what I believe to be a reliable local contact in Gaza who is helping organize food and water distribution. If you're interested in donating, lmk via PM.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 9:47 AM on December 29, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 9:47 AM on December 29, 2024 [4 favorites]
Bottom line: The world was a worse place for Joe Biden being in it.
He improved the conditions for Americans, which is what most Americans care about. What other U.S. president has made the world a better place? FDR, I guess?
Turns out, "We can do something about this after the election" was just lies by democrats.
Didn't that rest on the supposition of the Democrats winning? The only thing that matters now is what Trump will do. What will Trump do?
posted by gwint at 10:01 AM on December 29, 2024 [6 favorites]
He improved the conditions for Americans, which is what most Americans care about. What other U.S. president has made the world a better place? FDR, I guess?
Turns out, "We can do something about this after the election" was just lies by democrats.
Didn't that rest on the supposition of the Democrats winning? The only thing that matters now is what Trump will do. What will Trump do?
posted by gwint at 10:01 AM on December 29, 2024 [6 favorites]
However, with the massing far-right movements throughout Eurasia blooming, it's clear basic white supremacy/colonial thinking ultimately endangers Jewish people globally. That's why there's still shreds of international support for Israel - because WWII wasn't that long ago, and the goal of that war wasn't confined to hate, it was also about ending rules-based, democratic world consensus.
@mathjus : I'm jewish and I live in France. Call me crazy, but I have an increasingly bad feeling about this. It's all started about 10 years ago. Let me list a few dots :
- Do you remember the movie "Look who's back" from 2015 ? There exist a lesser-known Italian movie with exactly the same plot but Mussolini as its protagonist, Sono Tornato.
- On X and Telegram, there's more and more "cute" memes featuring Hitler or negationism. An early example : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEGeHxF0tF4 - now you have AI edited videos of a dancing Hitler, Kim Dotcom openly quoting from the protocols and Elon Musk supporting the AfD. Oh, and bankrolling Reform UK.
- Remember how in 2014 the press did its job and was alerting about the over the top, unnecessary nazi imagery of the Ukrainian paramilitary groups which had seized power? This is a verboten (ah) topic since 2022, but how do NATO instructors accept to train guys with swastika tattoos or SS patches? This kind of paraphernalia is illegal in Germany, where training takes place. This also means we (Europeans) have financed nazis.
- Do you think the "Ausländer raus" flashmobs this summer were organic?
- Don't you think the official Russian SMO goal of "denazification" was weird, in retrospect?
- Did you see since last year the various British and German high ranking officials talk openly of conscription and war with Russia in 2028-29 ?
Here's a disgusting way to connect the dots : Nazism never really died. It's a method. Like Gaza is a method.
The plebs have been deliberately whipped into a frenzy by populists, and it's all about to hit a paroxysm with the (avoidable) economic devastation in Germany (loss of cheap natural gas, Chinese EV competition, Trump's tariffs). The subtle "dediabolization" (a word we use in French wrt our own far right party, the RN) ongoing since 10 years provides a familiar but previously forbidden ideological wellspring to quench their thirst for revenge and easy solution. The right wing movements will stop being Euroskeptic, since all Europe (including Romania!) will be ruled by the far right. Instead, they will use the European construct to deploy the same methods everywhere at once. Then, when an older Putin has no choice but to hand over the power to a heir, around 2028, the nazified EU will go to war against Russia probably due to some pretext related to Russian "denazification" in Ukraine. Putin's heir (still wet behind the ears, and whose selection is bound to have created tensions) may be successfully destabilized in such a large scale war, leading to the dislocation of the Russian Federation. The nazified EU takes the Western part, up to Georgia (currently being nazified as well), and China the Eastern part.
Don't try to console me by saying Europe has no weapons and no serious army, remember that Hitler went from 0 to Blitzkrieg in only 6 years. Are we really sure 4 years is impossible in the 21th century? Especially since I think a big part of how they are going to remilitarize Western societies, including the US, is by building the infrastructure needed to catch, detain and deport millions of people, with possibly resulting urban warfare. Gaza may be some kind of military laboratory in that regard. Have a look at this French movie trailer.
I sure do hope I am wrong, but everything smells to high heavens, it's too fast and coordinated to be organic. And current events are fucking disgusting, even if I'm wrong.
posted by dragondollar at 10:11 AM on December 29, 2024 [15 favorites]
@mathjus : I'm jewish and I live in France. Call me crazy, but I have an increasingly bad feeling about this. It's all started about 10 years ago. Let me list a few dots :
- Do you remember the movie "Look who's back" from 2015 ? There exist a lesser-known Italian movie with exactly the same plot but Mussolini as its protagonist, Sono Tornato.
- On X and Telegram, there's more and more "cute" memes featuring Hitler or negationism. An early example : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEGeHxF0tF4 - now you have AI edited videos of a dancing Hitler, Kim Dotcom openly quoting from the protocols and Elon Musk supporting the AfD. Oh, and bankrolling Reform UK.
- Remember how in 2014 the press did its job and was alerting about the over the top, unnecessary nazi imagery of the Ukrainian paramilitary groups which had seized power? This is a verboten (ah) topic since 2022, but how do NATO instructors accept to train guys with swastika tattoos or SS patches? This kind of paraphernalia is illegal in Germany, where training takes place. This also means we (Europeans) have financed nazis.
- Do you think the "Ausländer raus" flashmobs this summer were organic?
- Don't you think the official Russian SMO goal of "denazification" was weird, in retrospect?
- Did you see since last year the various British and German high ranking officials talk openly of conscription and war with Russia in 2028-29 ?
Here's a disgusting way to connect the dots : Nazism never really died. It's a method. Like Gaza is a method.
The plebs have been deliberately whipped into a frenzy by populists, and it's all about to hit a paroxysm with the (avoidable) economic devastation in Germany (loss of cheap natural gas, Chinese EV competition, Trump's tariffs). The subtle "dediabolization" (a word we use in French wrt our own far right party, the RN) ongoing since 10 years provides a familiar but previously forbidden ideological wellspring to quench their thirst for revenge and easy solution. The right wing movements will stop being Euroskeptic, since all Europe (including Romania!) will be ruled by the far right. Instead, they will use the European construct to deploy the same methods everywhere at once. Then, when an older Putin has no choice but to hand over the power to a heir, around 2028, the nazified EU will go to war against Russia probably due to some pretext related to Russian "denazification" in Ukraine. Putin's heir (still wet behind the ears, and whose selection is bound to have created tensions) may be successfully destabilized in such a large scale war, leading to the dislocation of the Russian Federation. The nazified EU takes the Western part, up to Georgia (currently being nazified as well), and China the Eastern part.
Don't try to console me by saying Europe has no weapons and no serious army, remember that Hitler went from 0 to Blitzkrieg in only 6 years. Are we really sure 4 years is impossible in the 21th century? Especially since I think a big part of how they are going to remilitarize Western societies, including the US, is by building the infrastructure needed to catch, detain and deport millions of people, with possibly resulting urban warfare. Gaza may be some kind of military laboratory in that regard. Have a look at this French movie trailer.
I sure do hope I am wrong, but everything smells to high heavens, it's too fast and coordinated to be organic. And current events are fucking disgusting, even if I'm wrong.
posted by dragondollar at 10:11 AM on December 29, 2024 [15 favorites]
Apparently, to justify the recent murder of five journalists, the IDF is using the term combat propaganda (?), but I can't easily find a western media source corroborating the Hebrew announcements, at best it's stuff like PBS that went with "militants" to massage the insanity.
---
In other, "do you guys even hear yourself", a lot of people were pointing out that this US Amb Jack Lew's statement is basically an acknowledgement that an ethnic cleansing (via displacement at the very least) has occured, with no moral judgement:
The report issued today on Gaza by FEWS NET relies on data that is outdated and inaccurate. We have worked closely with the Government of lsrael and the UN to provide greater access to the North Governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000-75,000 which is the basis of this report.
COGAT estimates the population in this area is between 5,000 and 9,000.
UNRWA estimates the population is between 10,000 and 15,000.(...)
---
Summary of an announcement on Fake Reporter (Israeli news watchdog/debunking team: Released Israeli captive Hanna Katzir passed away at the age of 78. Right wing Israelis are celebrating: "One less leftist".
---
Itay Epshtain: (thread is English summary)
ALERT: The #Israeli think-tank that outlined the war of aggression laid on #Gaza, Misgav (headed by former National Security Advisor and #Netanyahu confidant, Meir Ben-Shabbat), suggests, in a new white paper, a "reboot of Israel's approach to international law,": - some ideas include exempting the military from judicial oversight
Summary of this Hebrew news: Israeli NGO Physicians for Human Rights wanted to transfer money from its account for the purpose of purchasing medical aid to be sent to Gaza, which is in dire need of medical supply. The Israeli bank refused to carry out the transfer.
---
MSF recent report also joins HRW and Amnesty, but stops short at "genocide", and went with ethnic cleansing: Gaza: Life in a Death Trap (PDF).
But uh, don't be relieved if you're the sort to be relieved, as this is their phrasing: In the north of the Strip in particular, the recent military offensive is a clear illustration of the brutal war the Israeli forces are waging on Gaza, and we are witnessing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinian life is being wiped off the area. Our firsthand observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza. While we don’t have legal authority to establish intentionality, the signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation—including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment—are undeniable.
---
FT: Christians huddled in Gaza speak to the Pope every night -
Nightly calls from pontiff comfort Palestinians sheltering in churches for a second Christmas
(Good thing that there have been even worse Catholics in history or else I'd think someone close to his death is about to get excommunicated)
---
This is the Reviving Gaza fundraising linktree - they work with the Sameer Project that is currently working to provide waterproofed tents.
---
Another expert report finds Israel is committing genocide. The West yawns
posted by cendawanita at 10:22 AM on December 29, 2024 [22 favorites]
---
In other, "do you guys even hear yourself", a lot of people were pointing out that this US Amb Jack Lew's statement is basically an acknowledgement that an ethnic cleansing (via displacement at the very least) has occured, with no moral judgement:
The report issued today on Gaza by FEWS NET relies on data that is outdated and inaccurate. We have worked closely with the Government of lsrael and the UN to provide greater access to the North Governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000-75,000 which is the basis of this report.
COGAT estimates the population in this area is between 5,000 and 9,000.
UNRWA estimates the population is between 10,000 and 15,000.(...)
---
Summary of an announcement on Fake Reporter (Israeli news watchdog/debunking team: Released Israeli captive Hanna Katzir passed away at the age of 78. Right wing Israelis are celebrating: "One less leftist".
---
Itay Epshtain: (thread is English summary)
ALERT: The #Israeli think-tank that outlined the war of aggression laid on #Gaza, Misgav (headed by former National Security Advisor and #Netanyahu confidant, Meir Ben-Shabbat), suggests, in a new white paper, a "reboot of Israel's approach to international law,": - some ideas include exempting the military from judicial oversight
Summary of this Hebrew news: Israeli NGO Physicians for Human Rights wanted to transfer money from its account for the purpose of purchasing medical aid to be sent to Gaza, which is in dire need of medical supply. The Israeli bank refused to carry out the transfer.
---
MSF recent report also joins HRW and Amnesty, but stops short at "genocide", and went with ethnic cleansing: Gaza: Life in a Death Trap (PDF).
But uh, don't be relieved if you're the sort to be relieved, as this is their phrasing: In the north of the Strip in particular, the recent military offensive is a clear illustration of the brutal war the Israeli forces are waging on Gaza, and we are witnessing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinian life is being wiped off the area. Our firsthand observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza. While we don’t have legal authority to establish intentionality, the signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation—including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment—are undeniable.
---
FT: Christians huddled in Gaza speak to the Pope every night -
Nightly calls from pontiff comfort Palestinians sheltering in churches for a second Christmas
(Good thing that there have been even worse Catholics in history or else I'd think someone close to his death is about to get excommunicated)
---
This is the Reviving Gaza fundraising linktree - they work with the Sameer Project that is currently working to provide waterproofed tents.
---
Another expert report finds Israel is committing genocide. The West yawns
posted by cendawanita at 10:22 AM on December 29, 2024 [22 favorites]
The EU right loves Putin and are deeply entangled with Russian dark money and business interests. For what possible reason would they want war with Russia? And carving it up together with China? China’s interests are far better served using Russia as a cats paw and by sucking up their resources on the cheap while they’re sanctioned by the west.
posted by Room 101 at 10:22 AM on December 29, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Room 101 at 10:22 AM on December 29, 2024 [2 favorites]
@Room101: For the same reason Hitler wanted war with Russia, its immense natural ressources.
posted by dragondollar at 10:25 AM on December 29, 2024
posted by dragondollar at 10:25 AM on December 29, 2024
When people uncritically repeat slogans like "from the river to the sea" and express that ending democracy as an idea is acceptable to end genocidal wars ….
1. That’s not what “from the river to the sea means”.
2. I am as pro-democracy as it gets, but what good is a democracy if people continually vote for genocide? I don’t mean that rhetorically; we need to know clearly what the value of democracy is and what it is not, and to not uncritically paint ostensibly-democratic countries as democratic if the reality is far from that.
posted by wemayfreeze at 11:37 AM on December 29, 2024 [11 favorites]
1. That’s not what “from the river to the sea means”.
2. I am as pro-democracy as it gets, but what good is a democracy if people continually vote for genocide? I don’t mean that rhetorically; we need to know clearly what the value of democracy is and what it is not, and to not uncritically paint ostensibly-democratic countries as democratic if the reality is far from that.
posted by wemayfreeze at 11:37 AM on December 29, 2024 [11 favorites]
Bottom line: The world was a worse place for Joe Biden being in it.
I have good news for you!
posted by 2N2222 at 12:43 PM on December 29, 2024 [1 favorite]
I have good news for you!
posted by 2N2222 at 12:43 PM on December 29, 2024 [1 favorite]
The only thing that matters now is what Trump will do. What will Trump do?
You have a point, true, but her emails.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:00 PM on December 29, 2024 [3 favorites]
You have a point, true, but her emails.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:00 PM on December 29, 2024 [3 favorites]
What other U.S. president has made the world a better place?
Back during the Obama years, when I struggled to get Democrats to acknowledge the murderous criminality of his drone bombing, one of them asked me, "Well, what do you want done about it? Have him prosecuted for war crimes?"
That my answer would be "yes, obviously, and the sooner the better" was literally unimaginable to them. Like 99.99% of their countrypersons, their mind was so poisoned by American Exceptionalism that they didn't even understand it had happened.
posted by Lemkin at 1:01 PM on December 29, 2024 [28 favorites]
Back during the Obama years, when I struggled to get Democrats to acknowledge the murderous criminality of his drone bombing, one of them asked me, "Well, what do you want done about it? Have him prosecuted for war crimes?"
That my answer would be "yes, obviously, and the sooner the better" was literally unimaginable to them. Like 99.99% of their countrypersons, their mind was so poisoned by American Exceptionalism that they didn't even understand it had happened.
posted by Lemkin at 1:01 PM on December 29, 2024 [28 favorites]
I think that maybe calling it American Exceptionalism is itself an exceptionalist fallacy, as if no other nation engages in basic tribal loyalty. There is nothing exceptional about wanting Our Guy to be protected against prosecution as they work towards Our Interest. Presuming this to be an exceptionally American quality is falling into the same trap, erroneously believing there's something uniquely special about us. I think it's more useful to frame this as Tribalism, a quality that all humans must watch out for, American or not.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 1:15 PM on December 29, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by I-Write-Essays at 1:15 PM on December 29, 2024 [2 favorites]
> What other U.S. president has made the world a better place?
How about Jimmy Carter? Who died today, don't you know.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 1:22 PM on December 29, 2024 [3 favorites]
How about Jimmy Carter? Who died today, don't you know.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 1:22 PM on December 29, 2024 [3 favorites]
I had a baby in the middle of this genocide and his early months have been filled with moments where I saw a mirror image of motherhood in Gaza. As I sat in the car on the way to the hospital I thought of a mother in Gaza who could gave birth with a helper who was on the phone with a medical professional, because she could not access in person medical care. When I had excess milk production I thought of parents in Gaza for whom it would probably be a miracle to have too much. Often when I carry my sleeping children in my arms and gently lay them down I think of the thousands of families in Gaza who have held their precious children just like that for the last time. When my children tell me they are hungry I can feed them, easily, and I think of how it would break us to have to say no, we have nothing else.
My life feels to tied to theirs in a way I will probably never feel toward the politicians I have voted for all my life who are willing to give up their humanity (without any visible struggle) for the genocidal aims of a right wing authoritarian. It's like that line about how we are all closer to being homeless than to being billionaires. I feel closer to desperately attempting to protect my family from the violent onslaught than I do to casually voting to hand over billions of dollars to kill children and I hope I always will.
posted by Emmy Rae at 1:27 PM on December 29, 2024 [26 favorites]
My life feels to tied to theirs in a way I will probably never feel toward the politicians I have voted for all my life who are willing to give up their humanity (without any visible struggle) for the genocidal aims of a right wing authoritarian. It's like that line about how we are all closer to being homeless than to being billionaires. I feel closer to desperately attempting to protect my family from the violent onslaught than I do to casually voting to hand over billions of dollars to kill children and I hope I always will.
posted by Emmy Rae at 1:27 PM on December 29, 2024 [26 favorites]
How about Jimmy Carter? Who died today, don't you know.
He did his best work after he left politics.
posted by gwint at 1:45 PM on December 29, 2024 [2 favorites]
He did his best work after he left politics.
posted by gwint at 1:45 PM on December 29, 2024 [2 favorites]
When people uncritically repeat slogans like "from the river to the sea" and express that ending democracy as an idea is acceptable to end genocidal wars, I think they begin to express the "nihilism" that Hamilton Nolan touches on in this piece.
This is a strange strawman argument, if for no other reason than that it assumes that Israel is or was ever a "democracy." It's an ethnostate, for heaven's sake.
posted by fifthrider at 2:13 PM on December 29, 2024 [11 favorites]
This is a strange strawman argument, if for no other reason than that it assumes that Israel is or was ever a "democracy." It's an ethnostate, for heaven's sake.
posted by fifthrider at 2:13 PM on December 29, 2024 [11 favorites]
It's a weird stance to believe there has never been a democracy if you believe that being an ethnostate is disqualifying. All democracies define who "the people" are, and it is never all of the humans who reside within the territory. I don't think you're using the word the way it is normally understood.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 2:22 PM on December 29, 2024
posted by I-Write-Essays at 2:22 PM on December 29, 2024
It's a weird stance to believe there has never been a democracy if you believe that being an ethnostate is disqualifying.
Was apartheid era South Africa a democracy? And if your answer is "yes," why do you think so?
posted by fifthrider at 3:33 PM on December 29, 2024 [9 favorites]
Was apartheid era South Africa a democracy? And if your answer is "yes," why do you think so?
posted by fifthrider at 3:33 PM on December 29, 2024 [9 favorites]
MSF recent report also joins HRW and Amnesty, but stops short at "genocide", and went with ethnic cleansing: Gaza: Life in a Death Trap (PDF).
But uh, don't be relieved if you're the sort to be relieved, as this is their phrasing: In the north of the Strip in particular, the recent military offensive is a clear illustration of the brutal war the Israeli forces are waging on Gaza, and we are witnessing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinian life is being wiped off the area. Our firsthand observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza. While we don’t have legal authority to establish intentionality, the signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation—including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment—are undeniable.
I read that as MSF in effect stating it's genocide, but refraining from saying so explicitly as they're not a legal organization (so restricting themselves to non-legal terms like "ethnic cleansing" and "devastation").
posted by mydonkeybenjamin at 4:25 PM on December 29, 2024 [5 favorites]
But uh, don't be relieved if you're the sort to be relieved, as this is their phrasing: In the north of the Strip in particular, the recent military offensive is a clear illustration of the brutal war the Israeli forces are waging on Gaza, and we are witnessing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinian life is being wiped off the area. Our firsthand observations of the medical and humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on Gaza are consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organisations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza. While we don’t have legal authority to establish intentionality, the signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation—including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment—are undeniable.
I read that as MSF in effect stating it's genocide, but refraining from saying so explicitly as they're not a legal organization (so restricting themselves to non-legal terms like "ethnic cleansing" and "devastation").
posted by mydonkeybenjamin at 4:25 PM on December 29, 2024 [5 favorites]
It's a weird stance to believe there has never been a democracy if you believe that being an ethnostate is disqualifying
Since this is all in response to the "river to sea" thing, let me once again point out: Likud's party charter.
15 months in, but I guess I can be comforted at least no one's willing to put their names in support to crimes actively being committed except for the part that musty basic arguments still get trotted out.
Palestinians and Israelis deserve equal human rights but not sure why it's so hard to wrap people's heads around that these are not parties with equal power or even responsibility to end the violence. And how this isn't something that won't impede Americans' quality of life? Gaza as a method isn't a hyperbole - look again at the photo of the doctor walking towards the tank. Notice how well the tank blends in against the rubble? Do you want to wait until the next stage of urban warfare arrives at your doorstep, because Cop City isn't urgent enough, the defanging of civil society isn't urgent enough, the shattering of student activism isn't urgent enough - the last two being critical components to build any coalition worth a damn if you still believe electoralism is viable to kick out fascists?
posted by cendawanita at 4:38 PM on December 29, 2024 [21 favorites]
Since this is all in response to the "river to sea" thing, let me once again point out: Likud's party charter.
15 months in, but I guess I can be comforted at least no one's willing to put their names in support to crimes actively being committed except for the part that musty basic arguments still get trotted out.
Palestinians and Israelis deserve equal human rights but not sure why it's so hard to wrap people's heads around that these are not parties with equal power or even responsibility to end the violence. And how this isn't something that won't impede Americans' quality of life? Gaza as a method isn't a hyperbole - look again at the photo of the doctor walking towards the tank. Notice how well the tank blends in against the rubble? Do you want to wait until the next stage of urban warfare arrives at your doorstep, because Cop City isn't urgent enough, the defanging of civil society isn't urgent enough, the shattering of student activism isn't urgent enough - the last two being critical components to build any coalition worth a damn if you still believe electoralism is viable to kick out fascists?
posted by cendawanita at 4:38 PM on December 29, 2024 [21 favorites]
And of course Americans aren't exceptional in not being being able to wrap their heads around their beloved leader being culpable for anything nasty. America is exceptional for having the ability to materially make other (non-voting) people suffer from their provincialism. The rump states of the Western order can only dream of having the cultural reach of Americana due to its hard power (both trade and military, like noting the breadth of foreign bases and outposts) - and they do dream, as that was them in the age of Colonialism.
posted by cendawanita at 4:43 PM on December 29, 2024 [9 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 4:43 PM on December 29, 2024 [9 favorites]
I-P is fucked and I have nothing other that Ashleigh Brilliant's "I don't have any solution, but I certainly admire the problem" , so wrt this above:
... buuuut, the one thing that united left, right, and center in 1930s Germany was re-starting WW I as soon as possible since the forced postwar territorial cessations were unacceptable.
posted by torokunai2 at 4:47 PM on December 29, 2024
Hitler went from 0 to Blitzkrieg in only 6 yearsis certainly accurate that Germany went from a gelded 100,000-man army in 1933 to a competent combined-arms army with modern equipment for two panzer corps spearheads and a doctrine 2-3 years ahead of its opponents (the Polish, French, and British in turn 1939 - 41).
... buuuut, the one thing that united left, right, and center in 1930s Germany was re-starting WW I as soon as possible since the forced postwar territorial cessations were unacceptable.
posted by torokunai2 at 4:47 PM on December 29, 2024
Oh damn, to be infected by l'esprit de l'escalier: Not only would I point out to Likud's own party founding documents and subsequent political statements, unless western media has been spectacularly bad and derelict, which nation-state has now annexed more land from neighbouring territories in this last year? Sure, at least half of the open war fronts is because "they're pointing rockets at us", but Jordan is feeling the heat, and Egypt's Sinai is feeling the same because Syria at present is doing everything possible to be nonconfrontational as the new leaders are trying to rebuild the country yet somehow Israel can preemptively air strike them (???) while taking more of the Golan Heights gets normalised and the ceasefire in Lebanon is still being broken daily. Which insane politicians are given the red carpet whenever they step foot in Wash. DC? Or even a mealy-mouthed announcement that in the end, they wouldn't be sanctioned?
posted by cendawanita at 4:54 PM on December 29, 2024 [12 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 4:54 PM on December 29, 2024 [12 favorites]
Was apartheid era South Africa a democracy?
I don't think you even need to go as far as that analogy with Israel and Palestine/Gaza. Even non-Jewish citizens do not have the same rights as their Jewish counterparts, and Jewish people who are critical of the state or the PM have their rights abrogated. At this juncture, the country is not really a democracy in the sense of the word as it has been classically defined.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 6:06 PM on December 29, 2024 [7 favorites]
I don't think you even need to go as far as that analogy with Israel and Palestine/Gaza. Even non-Jewish citizens do not have the same rights as their Jewish counterparts, and Jewish people who are critical of the state or the PM have their rights abrogated. At this juncture, the country is not really a democracy in the sense of the word as it has been classically defined.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 6:06 PM on December 29, 2024 [7 favorites]
At this juncture, the country is not really a democracy in the sense of the word as it has been classically defined.
This is the New Democracy
The dipshits bleating about "democracy" have not been paying attention
posted by ginger.beef at 6:27 PM on December 29, 2024 [1 favorite]
This is the New Democracy
The dipshits bleating about "democracy" have not been paying attention
posted by ginger.beef at 6:27 PM on December 29, 2024 [1 favorite]
I read that as MSF in effect stating it's genocide, but refraining from saying so explicitly as they're not a legal organization (so restricting themselves to non-legal terms like "ethnic cleansing" and "devastation").
That, and MSF's main priority is and has always been access to patients. They've generally maintained a pretty studious neutrality about any given conflict, because they want all the parties to continue to allow them access. Given that that's their default, they've been remarkably clear and forceful about Gaza for basically this whole past year.
posted by adrienneleigh at 7:15 PM on December 29, 2024 [12 favorites]
That, and MSF's main priority is and has always been access to patients. They've generally maintained a pretty studious neutrality about any given conflict, because they want all the parties to continue to allow them access. Given that that's their default, they've been remarkably clear and forceful about Gaza for basically this whole past year.
posted by adrienneleigh at 7:15 PM on December 29, 2024 [12 favorites]
Those of you who couldn’t bear to get your hands dirty by voting for Harris because you were convinced other Americans would do it for you helped elect someone far worse for every vulnerable group, foreign and domestic, so that point has become moot.
but her emails
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:00 PM on December 29, 2024 [1 favorite]
but her emails
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:00 PM on December 29, 2024 [1 favorite]
If you're blaming Harris' loss on anti genocide activism, you're a liar. It's a trivially falsifiable claim.
Moving on:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/29/ai-israel-war-gaza-idf/ [ungated]
"Another machine learning tool, called Lavender, uses a percentage score to predict how likely a Palestinian is to be a member of a militant group, allowing the IDF to quickly generate a large volume of potential human targets."
posted by constraint at 9:07 PM on December 29, 2024 [13 favorites]
Moving on:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/29/ai-israel-war-gaza-idf/ [ungated]
"Another machine learning tool, called Lavender, uses a percentage score to predict how likely a Palestinian is to be a member of a militant group, allowing the IDF to quickly generate a large volume of potential human targets."
posted by constraint at 9:07 PM on December 29, 2024 [13 favorites]
Mod note: It would be great if folks could concentrate on the post (which took a lot of work), and not on sniping at each other about the US election. Also, one deleted. Still not okay to "fuck you" at people here. This is supposed to get a time-out, at least, and a ban if it continues. I'll ask you, please, just don't do this. A site full of that kind of engagement is useless to everyone except the person doing the "fuck-you"-ing, for maybe a nano-second. If you are doing this and relying on the fact that other people follow the guidelines and refrain, and that's what keeps the site from being garbage, then you are taking advantage of your fellow members.
posted by taz (staff) at 9:16 PM on December 29, 2024 [11 favorites]
posted by taz (staff) at 9:16 PM on December 29, 2024 [11 favorites]
It's just crazy how +972 broke the stories now being reported on WaPo and NYT this week months ago, and apparently after months of pooh-poohing it, at least for NYT: (with video from the Global Security Forum panel)
This week @nytimes reported on Israel’s use of AI in mass killing Palestinians in Gaza but in May when one of the reporters Ronen Bergman was asked about @972mag reporting he mocked it calling it a Netflix show.
Will there ever be a mea culpa? A Hollywood treatment about how complicated it all was would come sooner, I think.
posted by cendawanita at 9:21 PM on December 29, 2024 [10 favorites]
This week @nytimes reported on Israel’s use of AI in mass killing Palestinians in Gaza but in May when one of the reporters Ronen Bergman was asked about @972mag reporting he mocked it calling it a Netflix show.
Will there ever be a mea culpa? A Hollywood treatment about how complicated it all was would come sooner, I think.
posted by cendawanita at 9:21 PM on December 29, 2024 [10 favorites]
Thank you for posting this. It's a wonderful thing you have done.
I try and do what I can with extremely meagre resources, and part of that is trying to learn as well. Sometimes I just have to shut down, the horror is overwhelming.
And almost as overwhelming is the massive indifference.
At this point the IDF is its own rogue terrorist state, and no one cares in the official West.
I'm Canadian, and as we are so very good at the tut tut but don't really take action as a country on any valid level. Even our state sanctioned media, the CBC, bends over backwards to justify the horror of what's going on. Every single Palestinian hospital levelled by the IDF is 'Run by the Hamas hHealth Authority.' Orwellian to an extreme from a supposedly liberal media outlet.
And yes, Joe, he tried with domestic policies, bit the simplest of solutions, stopping the flow of arms to Israel, was too much for him.
May they all rot in hell.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 1:58 AM on December 30, 2024 [11 favorites]
I try and do what I can with extremely meagre resources, and part of that is trying to learn as well. Sometimes I just have to shut down, the horror is overwhelming.
And almost as overwhelming is the massive indifference.
At this point the IDF is its own rogue terrorist state, and no one cares in the official West.
I'm Canadian, and as we are so very good at the tut tut but don't really take action as a country on any valid level. Even our state sanctioned media, the CBC, bends over backwards to justify the horror of what's going on. Every single Palestinian hospital levelled by the IDF is 'Run by the Hamas hHealth Authority.' Orwellian to an extreme from a supposedly liberal media outlet.
And yes, Joe, he tried with domestic policies, bit the simplest of solutions, stopping the flow of arms to Israel, was too much for him.
May they all rot in hell.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 1:58 AM on December 30, 2024 [11 favorites]
At least there are people with a fucking spine:
posted by kmt at 5:07 AM on December 30, 2024 [14 favorites]
His next subject suggests that he won’t be. After the documentary’s premiere, Spiegelman told the sold-out audience in a Q&A session that his next comic will be about Gaza, in collaboration with Joe Sacco. He was wary of providing any details on a project that he thinks will struggle to find a publisher in the United States.Art Spiegelman Won’t Shrink Back From Controversy
“I’ll finish this thing or die trying. I’ve never had a bigger wrestling match inside my head,” he said. “My superego says, ‘You must do this if you’re going to live with yourself’,” and my id says, ‘Who wants the grief [of] being canceled by everyone on the planet?’”
posted by kmt at 5:07 AM on December 30, 2024 [14 favorites]
Sometimes with these posts I feel like I should also append a Palestine/Israel 101, so that we are not wading into the same arguments over and over again about Israel's right to exist, whether it's a democracy, whether it has a right to defend itself (short answers: states don't have rights to existence, people do, it's not, and no, not under current international law, and it's not doing that by any measure anyway). Anyway, if you need further history/education, I recommend historian Zachary Foster's Palestine Nexus, which will give you an overview of Israeli/Palestinian history with primary sources, maps, etc. If you want to learn more about how Israeli propaganda works on its citizens and on Jewish people abroad, watch Israelism. Simone Zimmerman, is founder of IfNotNow.
I came across the Sameer Project, which is a mutual aid project led by Palestinians.
From Al-Jazeera's liveblog today, Israeli forces kill 27 across the Gaza strip, and wound 149. We are also up to a fifth baby dying of hypothermia.
CNN confirming Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya appears to be held at the notorious Sde Teiman detention center. According to Quds Network, he was beaten until his eyes bled. If you missed it before, it is a torture camp. For which some Israelis protested on the side of the torturers.
In liberal, progressive San Francisco, Dr. Rupa Marya has been placed on paid leave for bringing up concerns about admitting students who may have served in the IDF to UCSF. For that she has been accused of anti-Semitism.
posted by toastyk at 6:53 AM on December 30, 2024 [16 favorites]
I came across the Sameer Project, which is a mutual aid project led by Palestinians.
From Al-Jazeera's liveblog today, Israeli forces kill 27 across the Gaza strip, and wound 149. We are also up to a fifth baby dying of hypothermia.
CNN confirming Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya appears to be held at the notorious Sde Teiman detention center. According to Quds Network, he was beaten until his eyes bled. If you missed it before, it is a torture camp. For which some Israelis protested on the side of the torturers.
In liberal, progressive San Francisco, Dr. Rupa Marya has been placed on paid leave for bringing up concerns about admitting students who may have served in the IDF to UCSF. For that she has been accused of anti-Semitism.
posted by toastyk at 6:53 AM on December 30, 2024 [16 favorites]
Democrats and Republicans split on Israel’s responsibility for war’s escalation, AP-NORC poll finds (1,072 adults, Oct. 11-14, 2024)
But there’s a big partisan split on whether the Israeli government bears “a lot” of responsibility for the war’s escalation. About 6 in 10 Democrats say they do — similar to the share of Democrats who say Hamas bears “a lot” of responsibility — while only about one-quarter of Republicans say the Israeli government bears “a lot” of responsibility.
posted by Brian B. at 8:42 AM on December 30, 2024 [2 favorites]
But there’s a big partisan split on whether the Israeli government bears “a lot” of responsibility for the war’s escalation. About 6 in 10 Democrats say they do — similar to the share of Democrats who say Hamas bears “a lot” of responsibility — while only about one-quarter of Republicans say the Israeli government bears “a lot” of responsibility.
posted by Brian B. at 8:42 AM on December 30, 2024 [2 favorites]
Nothing of substance to add at the moment but wanted to say thanks to cendawanita and toastyk for all the work they have put into posting on this topic. Like Phlegmco(tm) I often feel overwhelmed by the horror, but the great people I have met over the past year in person and online who are working to bring this nightmare to an end and realize equal rights for all in Palestine help me to keep going.
posted by mydonkeybenjamin at 8:52 PM on December 30, 2024 [8 favorites]
posted by mydonkeybenjamin at 8:52 PM on December 30, 2024 [8 favorites]
Avi Steinberg: Israeli Citizenship Has Always Been a Tool of Genocide — So I’m Renouncing Mine (TRUTHOUT):
To those who will breathlessly invoke the talking point that Jews “have a right to self-determination,” I will only say that if such a right does exist, it cannot possibly involve the invasion, occupation and ethnic cleansing of another people. Nobody has that right. Moreover, one can think of a few European countries that owe land and reparations to their persecuted Jews. The Palestinian people, however, never owed Jews anything for the crimes committed by European antisemitism, nor do they today.posted by kmt at 11:00 PM on December 30, 2024 [14 favorites]
As a traditional Jew, I believe the Torah is radical in its contention that Jewish people, or any people, have no right at all to any land, but rather are bound by rigorous ethical responsibilities. Indeed, if the Torah has one single message, it’s that if you oppress the widow and the orphan, if you deal corruptly in government-sanctioned greed and violence, and if you acquire land and wealth at the expense of regular people, you will be cast out by the God of righteousness. The Torah is routinely waved around by land-worshipping nationalists as though it were a deed of ownership, but, if actually read, it is a record of prophetic rebuke against the abuse of state power.
A Deadly Apathy; David Shulman in The New York Review.
A blank indifference to cruelty and atrocity as a normative mode of waging war has infected Israel’s collective conscience.
posted by adamvasco at 8:05 AM on January 1 [4 favorites]
A blank indifference to cruelty and atrocity as a normative mode of waging war has infected Israel’s collective conscience.
posted by adamvasco at 8:05 AM on January 1 [4 favorites]
It's the first day of the new year and according to Al-Jazeera liveblog today, Israel has bombed another "safe" zone and a seventh baby has died of hypothermia. Additionally, the Palestinian Authority has temporarily taken Al-Jazeera off the air across the Palestinian territories after their coverage of clashes between the PA and resistance fighters in the West Bank.
Israel's former defence chief Yoav Gallant resigns from parliament over imminent bill to exempt Haredim from IDF service. Apparently the bill that was going to incorporate volunteer service in the Israel Prison Service has been removed from the agenda; it was criticized by the UN Special Rapporteur.
Also, in the US, an attack on New Orleans that left 15 people dead had nothing to do with Gaza or the Middle East, but that did not stop the New York Times from connecting the two.
Dropsite News has first-hand accounts of current winter conditions in Gaza.
CENTCOM forces strike multiple Houthi targets in Yemen.
I haven't watched this yet, but Zeteo hosted a roundtable with Congresswoman Cori Bush, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman, and Marc Lamont Hill on black and Palestinian liberation.
posted by toastyk at 9:59 PM on January 1 [10 favorites]
Israel's former defence chief Yoav Gallant resigns from parliament over imminent bill to exempt Haredim from IDF service. Apparently the bill that was going to incorporate volunteer service in the Israel Prison Service has been removed from the agenda; it was criticized by the UN Special Rapporteur.
Also, in the US, an attack on New Orleans that left 15 people dead had nothing to do with Gaza or the Middle East, but that did not stop the New York Times from connecting the two.
Dropsite News has first-hand accounts of current winter conditions in Gaza.
CENTCOM forces strike multiple Houthi targets in Yemen.
I haven't watched this yet, but Zeteo hosted a roundtable with Congresswoman Cori Bush, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman, and Marc Lamont Hill on black and Palestinian liberation.
posted by toastyk at 9:59 PM on January 1 [10 favorites]
but that did not stop the New York Times from connecting the two.
Maybe American ingenuity will show the Germans how it's done (last month's Christmas market attack had about 24 hours of this but Elon forgot to scrub the guy's right-wing Islamophobic Twitter account until screenshots were well and truly taken).
posted by cendawanita at 3:13 AM on January 2 [3 favorites]
Maybe American ingenuity will show the Germans how it's done (last month's Christmas market attack had about 24 hours of this but Elon forgot to scrub the guy's right-wing Islamophobic Twitter account until screenshots were well and truly taken).
posted by cendawanita at 3:13 AM on January 2 [3 favorites]
Itay Epshtain:
Eight members of the Israeli Parliament Foreign and Defense Committee - from coalition parties Likud, Religious Zionism and Jewish Power - write Defense Minister Katz, demanding he issues order to #Israeli forces in #Gaza to:Isi Breen:
1. Destroy all energy sources including fuel, solar systems, generators and power lines.
2. Destroy all food sources including warehouses, water and water pumps.
3. Lay siege and remotely kill everyone not flying a white flag of surrender.
These are the *exact same things* Democrats, all the way up through Blinken and President Biden, have been citing as reasons Putin is a genocidal war criminal.posted by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 3:18 AM on January 3 [5 favorites]
Explicitly.
Blinken talks about Putin intentionally targeting power plans and food stores *constantly.*
Ancient 2009 photo but..
Israeli soldiers wore T-shirts with a pregnant woman in cross-hairs and the slogan "1 Shot 2 Kills"
posted by jeffburdges at 11:11 AM on January 3 [2 favorites]
Israeli soldiers wore T-shirts with a pregnant woman in cross-hairs and the slogan "1 Shot 2 Kills"
posted by jeffburdges at 11:11 AM on January 3 [2 favorites]
Brian B.: the word for these actions is not "war" (unless you suffix it with "crimes"). It's "genocide".
posted by adrienneleigh at 11:15 AM on January 3 [3 favorites]
posted by adrienneleigh at 11:15 AM on January 3 [3 favorites]
Brian B.: the word for these actions is not "war" (unless you suffix it with "crimes"). It's "genocide".
Total war overlaps where genocide has war as political cover. Whether one likes the word or not it has a history of academic study.
posted by Brian B. at 1:48 PM on January 3
Total war overlaps where genocide has war as political cover. Whether one likes the word or not it has a history of academic study.
posted by Brian B. at 1:48 PM on January 3
I've been struggling with what to post lately. I'm still not sure how the "official" count of the dead is still under 50k when today AlJazeera's liveblog indicates that Israeli bombing kills 140 even as there are talks (again!) of a ceasefire.
According to Times of Israel, the IDF is denying Palestinian media reports that they struck and ordered the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital in north Gaza.
Israel, after originally denying it, is confirming that it is holding Gaza hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and investigating him for "terrorist activities" - i.e., he's Hamas.
I don't want to be doing these posts again next year. I feel an obligation now, but I really wish it wasn't necessary.
posted by toastyk at 5:08 PM on January 3 [8 favorites]
According to Times of Israel, the IDF is denying Palestinian media reports that they struck and ordered the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital in north Gaza.
Israel, after originally denying it, is confirming that it is holding Gaza hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and investigating him for "terrorist activities" - i.e., he's Hamas.
I don't want to be doing these posts again next year. I feel an obligation now, but I really wish it wasn't necessary.
posted by toastyk at 5:08 PM on January 3 [8 favorites]
Just a quick note, Haaretz has plugged up the archive services.
posted by cendawanita at 10:47 PM on January 3 [1 favorite]
posted by cendawanita at 10:47 PM on January 3 [1 favorite]
Thanks for that update.
The State Department notified Congress of another $8 billion arms sale to Israel.
Hamas released a video of one of the hostages, Liri Albag. Negotiations are continuing for a ceasefire. Supposedly some progress made.
And surprise, Israel plans to stay in south Lebanon. Who could have seen that coming.
Israel also bombed Damascus outskirts, and seized control of Syrian water sources.
You'll recall that Palestinians technically can't even collect rainwater legally.
posted by toastyk at 7:37 AM on January 4 [10 favorites]
The State Department notified Congress of another $8 billion arms sale to Israel.
Hamas released a video of one of the hostages, Liri Albag. Negotiations are continuing for a ceasefire. Supposedly some progress made.
And surprise, Israel plans to stay in south Lebanon. Who could have seen that coming.
Israel also bombed Damascus outskirts, and seized control of Syrian water sources.
You'll recall that Palestinians technically can't even collect rainwater legally.
posted by toastyk at 7:37 AM on January 4 [10 favorites]
A year ago someone on social media mentioned an idea of using a playing card deck (52 cards) to jot a few notes per week as a sort of ultra-light journal. I keep a digital journal these days which I've maintained for longer than the post-Oct 7 period (started consistently keeping it after, no joke, brain surgery). Anyway I decided to do the week on a card thing as well. This introduction may seem irrelevant except I fell off doing it at the end of May 2024. So over a couple hours the last few days I've filled out the rest of the weeks by reviewing my daily journal entries for each week. It's astonishing how often I was writing, even briefly, notes about what I'm doing or learning about the situation. I wasn't uninformed before Oct. 7 (I read Jimmy Carter's book not long after it came out which was my big "veil of lies is lifted" moment) but I had honestly put it (the issue of Israel's apartheid regime) to the side as a thing I couldn't do anything about. We all have to pick where we spend our time. But re-reading 7 months of journal entries drives home just how much this has affected me. I've done other things than read or comment on mefi (obviously -- and more in the last year than ever before), but on and off reading these threads (echoing thanks to cendawanita and toastyk as well) as helped me be reminded that people do care even if each of us can't do all that much.
I don't have much to add substantively other than to remind folks that we collectively create the future. The future is not written and we can always do something. Even if it is never enough it is good to do it.
posted by R343L at 7:57 PM on January 4 [5 favorites]
I don't have much to add substantively other than to remind folks that we collectively create the future. The future is not written and we can always do something. Even if it is never enough it is good to do it.
posted by R343L at 7:57 PM on January 4 [5 favorites]
Thanks for that reminder, R343L.
One of the biggest lessons from this genocide is how much media narratives are shaped to define certain parameters. In Israeli media, one can never be “just” a Palestinian. They are all “terrorists”, regardless of whether such a category applies or not. Palestinian children are not children. IDF are “survivors” and definitely not war criminals. Anyway, I was just thinking about this when Googling the headlines for the Israeli soldier who was issued an arrest warrant in Brazil for alleged war crimes.
The Times of Israel: IDF soldier who survived Nova massacre escapes war crimes investigation in Brazil.
Middle East Eye: Israel solder flees Brazil amid investigation into Gaza war crimes.
WaPo: Israeli former soldier leaves Brazil over investigation into alleged war crimes in Gaza. (Ungated.)
At the American Historical Association’s annual meeting, apparently there will be a vote today on a resolution to oppose scholasticide in Gaza. Apparently the incoming president is opposing this resolution.
Checking the AlJazeera liveblog - 8th baby dying of hypothermia as Israel kills 88 in a day.
posted by toastyk at 8:51 AM on January 5 [6 favorites]
One of the biggest lessons from this genocide is how much media narratives are shaped to define certain parameters. In Israeli media, one can never be “just” a Palestinian. They are all “terrorists”, regardless of whether such a category applies or not. Palestinian children are not children. IDF are “survivors” and definitely not war criminals. Anyway, I was just thinking about this when Googling the headlines for the Israeli soldier who was issued an arrest warrant in Brazil for alleged war crimes.
The Times of Israel: IDF soldier who survived Nova massacre escapes war crimes investigation in Brazil.
Middle East Eye: Israel solder flees Brazil amid investigation into Gaza war crimes.
WaPo: Israeli former soldier leaves Brazil over investigation into alleged war crimes in Gaza. (Ungated.)
At the American Historical Association’s annual meeting, apparently there will be a vote today on a resolution to oppose scholasticide in Gaza. Apparently the incoming president is opposing this resolution.
Checking the AlJazeera liveblog - 8th baby dying of hypothermia as Israel kills 88 in a day.
posted by toastyk at 8:51 AM on January 5 [6 favorites]
At Ynet, a guide for IDF on how to act if arrested abroad.
Thread recap of the AHA meeting on the resolution to oppose scholasticide in Gaza - which passed overwhelmingly 428-88 and 4 abstentions. Next step - goes to council, where it can be accepted or vetoed with an explanation.
posted by toastyk at 4:56 PM on January 5 [6 favorites]
Thread recap of the AHA meeting on the resolution to oppose scholasticide in Gaza - which passed overwhelmingly 428-88 and 4 abstentions. Next step - goes to council, where it can be accepted or vetoed with an explanation.
posted by toastyk at 4:56 PM on January 5 [6 favorites]
1/7 AlJazeera liveblog - Israel continues to kill Palestinians.
After President Biden awarded Jose Andres the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a UN World Food Programme convoy was attacked by the IDF, which Cindy McCain, who is the WFP Chief, has condemned. (Haven't seen anything from Meghan McCain.)
Ummm just came across this, apparently Operation Olive Branch has been reporting their volunteers to the FBI? I haven't researched this yet, but for now, I will not be linking to them anymore.
Testimonies of the Kamal Adwan Hospital attack - harrowing testimonies of field executions, sexual harassment by the Israeli army in northern Gaza.
Court rejects Title VI lawsuit over alleged anti-Semitism at Haverford College - From the ruling - Some of the instances alleged are concerning, and if pled properly, could perhaps support a cognizable legal claim under Title VI. Yet, the Complaint is diluted by instances that no reasonable person could construe as intentional discrimination. For example, Plaintiffs contend that Haverford did not announce the month of May as "American Jewish History Month," and instead only celebrated "Asian American/Pacific Islander Month." Or, Plaintiffs complain that some graduating students at the Spring 2024 commencement donned attire that signified their support for Palestinians—a classic example of protected First Amendment expression. Elsewhere, Plaintiffs include comments made by a professor who does not even attend Haverford. As a result of Plaintiffs' scattered pleading, any serious allegations of actionable discrimination are buried as needles within a haystack of distraction.
posted by toastyk at 7:21 AM on January 7 [7 favorites]
After President Biden awarded Jose Andres the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a UN World Food Programme convoy was attacked by the IDF, which Cindy McCain, who is the WFP Chief, has condemned. (Haven't seen anything from Meghan McCain.)
Ummm just came across this, apparently Operation Olive Branch has been reporting their volunteers to the FBI? I haven't researched this yet, but for now, I will not be linking to them anymore.
Testimonies of the Kamal Adwan Hospital attack - harrowing testimonies of field executions, sexual harassment by the Israeli army in northern Gaza.
Court rejects Title VI lawsuit over alleged anti-Semitism at Haverford College - From the ruling - Some of the instances alleged are concerning, and if pled properly, could perhaps support a cognizable legal claim under Title VI. Yet, the Complaint is diluted by instances that no reasonable person could construe as intentional discrimination. For example, Plaintiffs contend that Haverford did not announce the month of May as "American Jewish History Month," and instead only celebrated "Asian American/Pacific Islander Month." Or, Plaintiffs complain that some graduating students at the Spring 2024 commencement donned attire that signified their support for Palestinians—a classic example of protected First Amendment expression. Elsewhere, Plaintiffs include comments made by a professor who does not even attend Haverford. As a result of Plaintiffs' scattered pleading, any serious allegations of actionable discrimination are buried as needles within a haystack of distraction.
posted by toastyk at 7:21 AM on January 7 [7 favorites]
I haven't finished reading this, but this should probably be its own post: Doctors Without Politics - The American health care workers know their audience. They announce that their testimony will focus on women and children. To a bomb, a body is a body; sex and age make little difference against the weight of a collapsing home. To the West, the Arab man and male teenager are killable; the doctors’ reticence to mention them reflects an accommodation of this narrowing of the human. The right to life of Palestinian women and children is less contestable in words—though it is denied every day by deeds. In Gaza, more than one year into what the American health care workers call madness, it’s hard to ignore the human toll. Acknowledgment alone doesn’t interrogate whether Israel’s genocide still constitutes self-defense: a reflexive, albeit disproportionate, “retaliatory attack” from a frantic, cornered ethnostate driven into fight or flight.
posted by toastyk at 8:17 AM on January 8 [6 favorites]
posted by toastyk at 8:17 AM on January 8 [6 favorites]
“[Netanyahu] is a deep dark son of a bitch” Trump posts on Truth Social, reported in both Israel Hayom and Haaretz (paywalled).
posted by rubatan at 6:44 AM on January 9 [4 favorites]
posted by rubatan at 6:44 AM on January 9 [4 favorites]
Quakers cancel planned advertising with NYT after the paper refused to allow an ad that referred to Israel's genocide in Gaza.
BDS continues to work as Indonesia continues to boycott Unilever in favor of local brands.
Israel to conceal soldiers' identities after Brazilian probe into war crime allegations. (Not sure how well that's going to go when the soldiers openly brag about their war crimes on their own social media.) You can donate to and volunteer with the Hind Rajab Foundation, which is going after these alleged war criminals.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, US-backed army chief elected Lebanon’s president, ending years-long stalemate.
AIPAC spent a record amount on the US elections.
Aljazeera liveblog - Israeli attacks kill 70 Palestinians and injured 104 others as ceasefire talks continue.
posted by toastyk at 7:12 AM on January 9 [6 favorites]
BDS continues to work as Indonesia continues to boycott Unilever in favor of local brands.
Israel to conceal soldiers' identities after Brazilian probe into war crime allegations. (Not sure how well that's going to go when the soldiers openly brag about their war crimes on their own social media.) You can donate to and volunteer with the Hind Rajab Foundation, which is going after these alleged war criminals.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, US-backed army chief elected Lebanon’s president, ending years-long stalemate.
AIPAC spent a record amount on the US elections.
Aljazeera liveblog - Israeli attacks kill 70 Palestinians and injured 104 others as ceasefire talks continue.
posted by toastyk at 7:12 AM on January 9 [6 favorites]
In the US, the House just passed an ICC sanctions bill in response to Netanyahu warrant. 45 Dems joined Republicans in this vote, 3 more than last time.
posted by toastyk at 12:34 PM on January 9 [5 favorites]
posted by toastyk at 12:34 PM on January 9 [5 favorites]
It's Bisan From Gaza, and the Rubble is Still Home - "All efforts to rebuild with machines must be coordinated with the Israeli military. What would happen if you didn't coordinate? It would be exposed to great danger. It could get targeted and bombed. Drones can target crews."
In one of those all things where everything is connected, the wildfires in LA have drawn attention to the Resnick family, who own the Wonderful company, and how they now own a lot of California's water supply. What does this have to do with Gaza/Palestine/Israel? Apparently they donate $500,000 to $200,000 to the Israeli military every year, with most of it funneled through an outfit called the American Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces.
AlJazeera liveblog - Israel bombs ports, power stations in Yemen.
posted by toastyk at 9:23 AM on January 10 [5 favorites]
In one of those all things where everything is connected, the wildfires in LA have drawn attention to the Resnick family, who own the Wonderful company, and how they now own a lot of California's water supply. What does this have to do with Gaza/Palestine/Israel? Apparently they donate $500,000 to $200,000 to the Israeli military every year, with most of it funneled through an outfit called the American Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces.
AlJazeera liveblog - Israel bombs ports, power stations in Yemen.
posted by toastyk at 9:23 AM on January 10 [5 favorites]
Traumatic injury mortality in the Gaza Strip from Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024: a capture–recapture analysis, The Lancet:
posted by jedicus at 11:07 AM on January 10 [8 favorites]
We estimated 64 260 deaths (95% CI 55 298–78 525) due to traumatic injury during the study period, suggesting the Palestinian MoH under-reported mortality by 41%. The annualised crude death rate was 39·3 per 1000 people (95% CI 35·7–49·4), representing a rate ratio of 14·0 (95% CI 12·8–17·6) compared with all-cause mortality in 2022, even when ignoring non-injury excess mortality. Women, children (aged <18 years), and older people (aged ≥65 years) accounted for 16 699 (59·1%) of the 28 257 deaths for which age and sex data were available.The current total number of deaths due to violence, starvation, and disease is likely well over 200,000, approximately 10% of Gaza's entire population.
posted by jedicus at 11:07 AM on January 10 [8 favorites]
It’s astonishing how openly prejudiced Israeli media is against any sort of pro-Palestinian speech, like I just googled “Columbia professor” and the first 3 links are Israeli media with headlines like “anti-Israel professor fired”. Meanwhile, here is professor Katherine Franke in her own words:
Upon reflection, it became clear to me that Columbia had become such a hostile environment, that I could no longer serve as an active member of the faculty. Over the last year I have had several people posing as students come to my office to seek my advice about student protests while they were secretly videotaping me and then edited versions of those recordings were published on right-wing social media sites.
After President Shafik defamed me in Congress, I received several death threats at my home. I regularly receive emails that express the hope that I am raped, murdered and otherwise assaulted on account of my support of Palestinian rights. I have had law school colleagues follow me from the subway to my office in the law school, yelling at me in front of students that I am a Hamas-supporter and accusing me of supporting violence against Israeli women and children.
And, ahem, on that issue of violence against Israeli women and children - apparently Israel is blocking the UN probe into Hamas sexual crimes from Oct 7 to avoid inquiry into Israeli abuse of Palestinians (ungated - archive.is seems to be working for Haaretz again) - this position being advocated by Israeli women’s rights groups - However, Patten's office warned that Israel's resistance to UN investigations into alleged crimes attributed to it could backfire, according to representatives of the Israel's Women's Network, who met with Patten's team in New York last month.
They further said they were told that Israel's approach could result in its inclusion on the UN's blacklist of entities responsible for sexual violence in conflicts, while Hamas could remain off the list. Another source familiar with the matter confirmed these details.
posted by toastyk at 7:54 AM on January 11 [9 favorites]
Upon reflection, it became clear to me that Columbia had become such a hostile environment, that I could no longer serve as an active member of the faculty. Over the last year I have had several people posing as students come to my office to seek my advice about student protests while they were secretly videotaping me and then edited versions of those recordings were published on right-wing social media sites.
After President Shafik defamed me in Congress, I received several death threats at my home. I regularly receive emails that express the hope that I am raped, murdered and otherwise assaulted on account of my support of Palestinian rights. I have had law school colleagues follow me from the subway to my office in the law school, yelling at me in front of students that I am a Hamas-supporter and accusing me of supporting violence against Israeli women and children.
And, ahem, on that issue of violence against Israeli women and children - apparently Israel is blocking the UN probe into Hamas sexual crimes from Oct 7 to avoid inquiry into Israeli abuse of Palestinians (ungated - archive.is seems to be working for Haaretz again) - this position being advocated by Israeli women’s rights groups - However, Patten's office warned that Israel's resistance to UN investigations into alleged crimes attributed to it could backfire, according to representatives of the Israel's Women's Network, who met with Patten's team in New York last month.
They further said they were told that Israel's approach could result in its inclusion on the UN's blacklist of entities responsible for sexual violence in conflicts, while Hamas could remain off the list. Another source familiar with the matter confirmed these details.
posted by toastyk at 7:54 AM on January 11 [9 favorites]
I don't know what it says that 60 Minutes finally saw fit to cover Gaza and US State department dissent, and US govt censorship.
MLA vs. BDS 4: Updated letter from former presidents of the MLA to the MLA Executive Director and Executive Council on blocking the debate. MLA convention attendees protested with a walkout.
2 young children were getting ready for school. An IDF drone killed them. And then the army proceeded to ransack their home. Ungated.
So much for a ceasefire in Lebanon - IDF says it struck Hezbollah sites after truce mechanism was notified but failed to address threats.
Israel caught "off-guard" by Hamas flexibility in hostage deal reports.
Things I haven't watched yet:
Do boycotts against Israel work? Fatima Bhutto & Omar Barghouti | Reframe
Piers Morgan, CNN and the fight for Palestinian dignity | Mohammed el-Kurd | The Big Picture
posted by toastyk at 10:16 PM on January 12 [6 favorites]
MLA vs. BDS 4: Updated letter from former presidents of the MLA to the MLA Executive Director and Executive Council on blocking the debate. MLA convention attendees protested with a walkout.
2 young children were getting ready for school. An IDF drone killed them. And then the army proceeded to ransack their home. Ungated.
So much for a ceasefire in Lebanon - IDF says it struck Hezbollah sites after truce mechanism was notified but failed to address threats.
Israel caught "off-guard" by Hamas flexibility in hostage deal reports.
Things I haven't watched yet:
Do boycotts against Israel work? Fatima Bhutto & Omar Barghouti | Reframe
Piers Morgan, CNN and the fight for Palestinian dignity | Mohammed el-Kurd | The Big Picture
posted by toastyk at 10:16 PM on January 12 [6 favorites]
Revealing, a Times of Israel interview with US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew:
Public opinion in America “is still largely pro-Israel,” he noted. But “what I’ve told people here that they have to worry about when this war is over is that the generational memory doesn’t go back to the founding of the state or the Six Day War, or the Yom Kippur War, or to the intifada even. It starts with this war, and you can’t ignore the impact of this war on future policymakers — not the people making the decisions today, but the people who are 25, 35, 45 today and who will be the leaders for the next 30 years, 40 years.”
Warming to that theme, Lew pointed out that “Joe Biden is the last president of his generation, whose memories and knowledge and passion to support Israel go back to the founding story.”
Israel isn’t showing enough humanity in its narrative– is that what you’re saying?
There’s a lack of empathy in the narrative that makes it harder for Israel to explain why it has to attack a school because it’s not a school, because it’s a fort. Why they have to use targeted munitions to reach a location that they’re quite confident has terrorists, and [where] collateral damage is limited. And how, as in all wars, all collateral damage is a tragedy. There’s ways of telling.
I think this war has been seen through a different lens around the world than it’s been seen in Israel. Watching the news in Israel, you don’t see what’s happening in Gaza. Once in a rare while. You see an awful lot of focus on the hostages, which is totally legitimate and understandable and appropriate. A lot of focus on casualties in the IDF. Again, totally appropriate. But not the other side of the equation.
You go to the international space, it’s reversed. All you see is the civilian impact in Gaza. You don’t see reminders that it started on October 7 with a brutal attack that is still ongoing because hostages are being kept, in abysmal conditions.
So there’s two different realities out there, where I think both the world and Israel would be better off if they saw the whole picture. In America, we’ve continued to tell our public the whole story. It has been less of a radical shift than it has been in the rest of the world. In the rest of the world, it’s as if October the seventh hadn’t happened.
People tend to focus the day something happens. The media that is presenting a pro-Hamas perspective is out instantaneously telling a story. It tells a story that is, over time, shown not to be completely accurate. “Thirty-five children were killed.” Well, it wasn’t 35 children. It was many fewer. The children who were killed turned out to have been the children of Hamas fighters. Not in every case, but we try to keep that information flowing, but the press moves on, the world moves on. And in policy circles, you can keep people focused saying it’s bad, but it wasn’t quite what it sounded like. In the world’s eye, the first story out there is the one that creates an impression.
posted by toastyk at 10:15 AM on January 13 [8 favorites]
Public opinion in America “is still largely pro-Israel,” he noted. But “what I’ve told people here that they have to worry about when this war is over is that the generational memory doesn’t go back to the founding of the state or the Six Day War, or the Yom Kippur War, or to the intifada even. It starts with this war, and you can’t ignore the impact of this war on future policymakers — not the people making the decisions today, but the people who are 25, 35, 45 today and who will be the leaders for the next 30 years, 40 years.”
Warming to that theme, Lew pointed out that “Joe Biden is the last president of his generation, whose memories and knowledge and passion to support Israel go back to the founding story.”
Israel isn’t showing enough humanity in its narrative– is that what you’re saying?
There’s a lack of empathy in the narrative that makes it harder for Israel to explain why it has to attack a school because it’s not a school, because it’s a fort. Why they have to use targeted munitions to reach a location that they’re quite confident has terrorists, and [where] collateral damage is limited. And how, as in all wars, all collateral damage is a tragedy. There’s ways of telling.
I think this war has been seen through a different lens around the world than it’s been seen in Israel. Watching the news in Israel, you don’t see what’s happening in Gaza. Once in a rare while. You see an awful lot of focus on the hostages, which is totally legitimate and understandable and appropriate. A lot of focus on casualties in the IDF. Again, totally appropriate. But not the other side of the equation.
You go to the international space, it’s reversed. All you see is the civilian impact in Gaza. You don’t see reminders that it started on October 7 with a brutal attack that is still ongoing because hostages are being kept, in abysmal conditions.
So there’s two different realities out there, where I think both the world and Israel would be better off if they saw the whole picture. In America, we’ve continued to tell our public the whole story. It has been less of a radical shift than it has been in the rest of the world. In the rest of the world, it’s as if October the seventh hadn’t happened.
People tend to focus the day something happens. The media that is presenting a pro-Hamas perspective is out instantaneously telling a story. It tells a story that is, over time, shown not to be completely accurate. “Thirty-five children were killed.” Well, it wasn’t 35 children. It was many fewer. The children who were killed turned out to have been the children of Hamas fighters. Not in every case, but we try to keep that information flowing, but the press moves on, the world moves on. And in policy circles, you can keep people focused saying it’s bad, but it wasn’t quite what it sounded like. In the world’s eye, the first story out there is the one that creates an impression.
posted by toastyk at 10:15 AM on January 13 [8 favorites]
WaPo: Israel moves to make heavy bombs, but U.S. reliance hard to shake, experts say
"Israel said last week it would move to produce heavy bombs and raw materials for defense domestically, after learning “a central lesson from the war” in Gaza."
Why bother with this when the incoming Republican control of government will, if anything, only increase the flow of American weapons to the Israeli military? Presumably because the Israeli government is thinking ahead to the next pendulum swing, at least 2 years from now. Which means the Israeli government anticipates continuing (or resuming) dropping heavy bombs for 2+ years.
posted by jedicus at 11:58 AM on January 13 [2 favorites]
"Israel said last week it would move to produce heavy bombs and raw materials for defense domestically, after learning “a central lesson from the war” in Gaza."
Why bother with this when the incoming Republican control of government will, if anything, only increase the flow of American weapons to the Israeli military? Presumably because the Israeli government is thinking ahead to the next pendulum swing, at least 2 years from now. Which means the Israeli government anticipates continuing (or resuming) dropping heavy bombs for 2+ years.
posted by jedicus at 11:58 AM on January 13 [2 favorites]
Why bother with this when the incoming Republican control of government will, if anything, only increase the flow of American weapons to the Israeli military?
About that....
Sure makes the last year of being nagged and lectured (eg here) about how Trump would be worse only for the party to lose the US elections anyway worth it:
Analysis | Trump's Mideast Envoy Forced Netanyahu to Accept a Gaza Plan He Repeatedly Rejected -
Israeli sources say that the involvement of the incoming U.S. administration, led by Trump's aggressive Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, revived hostage talks with Hamas. While Netanyahu's propaganda machine claims that Trump has left him no choice, what happens inside his coalition will determine whether the prime minister approves the deal
Sure adds more background to the complaining I was seeing from Bibi's proxies and articles about how Trump wouldn't do much for Israel after all.
Ungated: Witkoff's blunt reaction took them by surprise. He explained to them in salty English that Shabbat was of no interest to him. His message was loud and clear. Thus in an unusual departure from official practice, the prime minister showed up at his office for an official meeting with Witkoff, who then returned to Qatar to seal the deal.
A week before Trump's inauguration, Jerusalem already sees a change in the rules of the game that has broken the deadlock in the hostage negotiations. Unusually, the outgoing Biden administration has let Witkoff lead the process, on the grounds that any obligations the United States undertakes will be incumbent on Trump, not on Biden.
What's the current mod policy and mefi-at-large vibes over explicit cursing of a Democratic president?
In fact, Witkoff has forced Israel to accept a plan that Netanyahu had repeatedly rejected over the past half year. Hamas has not budged from its position that the hostages' freedom must be conditioned on the release of Palestinian prisoners (the easy part) and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza (the hard one). Netanyahu rejected this condition and thus was born the partial deal proposed by Egypt.
Oh so like, it is as easy as a phone call?
posted by cendawanita at 9:16 PM on January 13 [9 favorites]
About that....
Sure makes the last year of being nagged and lectured (eg here) about how Trump would be worse only for the party to lose the US elections anyway worth it:
Analysis | Trump's Mideast Envoy Forced Netanyahu to Accept a Gaza Plan He Repeatedly Rejected -
Israeli sources say that the involvement of the incoming U.S. administration, led by Trump's aggressive Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, revived hostage talks with Hamas. While Netanyahu's propaganda machine claims that Trump has left him no choice, what happens inside his coalition will determine whether the prime minister approves the deal
Sure adds more background to the complaining I was seeing from Bibi's proxies and articles about how Trump wouldn't do much for Israel after all.
Ungated: Witkoff's blunt reaction took them by surprise. He explained to them in salty English that Shabbat was of no interest to him. His message was loud and clear. Thus in an unusual departure from official practice, the prime minister showed up at his office for an official meeting with Witkoff, who then returned to Qatar to seal the deal.
A week before Trump's inauguration, Jerusalem already sees a change in the rules of the game that has broken the deadlock in the hostage negotiations. Unusually, the outgoing Biden administration has let Witkoff lead the process, on the grounds that any obligations the United States undertakes will be incumbent on Trump, not on Biden.
What's the current mod policy and mefi-at-large vibes over explicit cursing of a Democratic president?
In fact, Witkoff has forced Israel to accept a plan that Netanyahu had repeatedly rejected over the past half year. Hamas has not budged from its position that the hostages' freedom must be conditioned on the release of Palestinian prisoners (the easy part) and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza (the hard one). Netanyahu rejected this condition and thus was born the partial deal proposed by Egypt.
Oh so like, it is as easy as a phone call?
posted by cendawanita at 9:16 PM on January 13 [9 favorites]
Btw when I said unhappy proxies I was a smidge underselling it:
⚡️ 🛑 Journalist Ariel Segal, close to Netanyahu: "We are the first to pay the price for Trump's election. We are being raped to accept the deal. I don't think this is what we planned and waited for. We expected that we would take control of northern #Gaza and prevent humanitarian aid."
Or you can have Noga Tarnopolsky's reporting, which doesn't include the rape colloquialism and it's got a clip from the tv panel: 💥Stunned like the true believer he is, Netanyahu proxy @ErelSegal laments: "We're the 1st to pay a price for Trump's election. [The deal] is being forced upon us… We thought we'd take control of northern Gaza, that they'd let us impede humanitarian aid"
This take checks out:
Israel has capitulated on several factors, allowing for a deal to be reached:
* Isreal has agreed to withdraw FULLY from Gaza leaving no troops or security zone. That includes a full withdrawal from the Philadelphi corridor.
* It has agreed to allow Hamas to rule Gaza. That is not in the agreement, but there is also no mechanism to remove Hamas.
* Israel has agreed not to exile released prisoners but rather let them into Gaza again.
* Israel has waived its demand for a list of live hostages.
* It has agreed to allow residents to return to northern Gaza with only symbolic security measures.
* Israel agreed to accept dead bodies in the first stage.
All of these were red lines for Israel at one point. It is remarkable that all of them are being waived. The victory for Hamas is remarkable.
The reason this happened is clear. Despite incredible victories on the battlefield, Israel has not offered a political program to replace Hamas or moved to remove them from Gaza as a governing force. It has failed to translate IDF gains into political ones. That has, in essence, nullified all of its military achievements.
Earlier (like yesterday, heh): Israel 'caught off guard' by Hamas flexibility in hostage deal talks - report ("flexibility" = agreeing (again) to the terms that were set out in May 2024)
ICYMI stuff (well, for me anyway):-
On the occasion of TikTok being banned in the US: TikTok tells US Supreme Court ‘sell-or-ban’ law stems from company’s refusal to censor
Some casual map redraws: OIC condemns Israel’s map claiming rights over Arab territories
Accusation, projection, confession, etc: Israel to use withheld Palestinian tax income to pay Israeli electric company -
Since Israel's ongoing offensive in Gaza, Smotrich has withheld sums earmarked for administration expenses in Gaza.
Those frozen funds are held in Norway and, he said at Sunday's cabinet meeting, would instead be used to pay the debt owed to the IEC of 1.9 billion shekels.
"The procedure was implemented after several anti-Israeli actions and included Norway's unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state," Smotrich told cabinet ministers.
War Crimes – Hind Rajab Foundation Sends 1,000 Israeli Soldiers’ Names to ICC
Oh okay: Poland confirms it will not arrest Netanyahu on ICC warrant if he attends Auschwitz anniversary
Oh okay #2: Germany defunds 2 Israeli human rights groups -
The German government has quietly cut funding for Zochrot and New Profile, following an earlier defunding of Palestinian NGOs. Some observers fear the move will shrink space for those critical of the Israeli government.
Kurve Wustrow has partners in several countries, including Sudan and Myanmar. But, Preuss said, this was the first time ever the German government had defunded any of their ongoing projects.
Preuss, who for days agonized over the decision of whether to speak up publicly, and his Israeli partners had to second-guess what exactly they were even attempting to defend themselves against.
The German authorities never gave the organization an official explanation as to why they had suddenly decided to rescind the funding for projects they had approved or renewed just the year before.
DW's investigative unit has reviewed emails and classified documents, and spoken with dozens of sources from the development sector in Germany, Israel and the occupied West Bank. The findings indicate that the defunding of Zochrot and New Profile are part of a larger pattern of cutting federal funds for human rights organizations that have been critical of the Israeli government's policies and the ongoing war in Gaza.
Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, Germany has also stopped funding at least six Palestinian organizations. The sources DW spoke with all agreed that the move was political, an attempt to silence critical voices amid shrinking space for civil society in Israel. They also claimed Germany's decision was taken under Israeli pressure.
Oh okay #3: The IDF Killed an American Peace Activist. Her Husband Is Still Looking for Answers. -
101 days after Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi’s death in the West Bank, her family finally met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. But it was just another official “saying things that I’ve already heard before,” said Eygi’s husband.
posted by cendawanita at 12:37 AM on January 14 [8 favorites]
⚡️ 🛑 Journalist Ariel Segal, close to Netanyahu: "We are the first to pay the price for Trump's election. We are being raped to accept the deal. I don't think this is what we planned and waited for. We expected that we would take control of northern #Gaza and prevent humanitarian aid."
Or you can have Noga Tarnopolsky's reporting, which doesn't include the rape colloquialism and it's got a clip from the tv panel: 💥Stunned like the true believer he is, Netanyahu proxy @ErelSegal laments: "We're the 1st to pay a price for Trump's election. [The deal] is being forced upon us… We thought we'd take control of northern Gaza, that they'd let us impede humanitarian aid"
This take checks out:
Israel has capitulated on several factors, allowing for a deal to be reached:
* Isreal has agreed to withdraw FULLY from Gaza leaving no troops or security zone. That includes a full withdrawal from the Philadelphi corridor.
* It has agreed to allow Hamas to rule Gaza. That is not in the agreement, but there is also no mechanism to remove Hamas.
* Israel has agreed not to exile released prisoners but rather let them into Gaza again.
* Israel has waived its demand for a list of live hostages.
* It has agreed to allow residents to return to northern Gaza with only symbolic security measures.
* Israel agreed to accept dead bodies in the first stage.
All of these were red lines for Israel at one point. It is remarkable that all of them are being waived. The victory for Hamas is remarkable.
The reason this happened is clear. Despite incredible victories on the battlefield, Israel has not offered a political program to replace Hamas or moved to remove them from Gaza as a governing force. It has failed to translate IDF gains into political ones. That has, in essence, nullified all of its military achievements.
Earlier (like yesterday, heh): Israel 'caught off guard' by Hamas flexibility in hostage deal talks - report ("flexibility" = agreeing (again) to the terms that were set out in May 2024)
ICYMI stuff (well, for me anyway):-
On the occasion of TikTok being banned in the US: TikTok tells US Supreme Court ‘sell-or-ban’ law stems from company’s refusal to censor
Some casual map redraws: OIC condemns Israel’s map claiming rights over Arab territories
Accusation, projection, confession, etc: Israel to use withheld Palestinian tax income to pay Israeli electric company -
Since Israel's ongoing offensive in Gaza, Smotrich has withheld sums earmarked for administration expenses in Gaza.
Those frozen funds are held in Norway and, he said at Sunday's cabinet meeting, would instead be used to pay the debt owed to the IEC of 1.9 billion shekels.
"The procedure was implemented after several anti-Israeli actions and included Norway's unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state," Smotrich told cabinet ministers.
War Crimes – Hind Rajab Foundation Sends 1,000 Israeli Soldiers’ Names to ICC
Oh okay: Poland confirms it will not arrest Netanyahu on ICC warrant if he attends Auschwitz anniversary
Oh okay #2: Germany defunds 2 Israeli human rights groups -
The German government has quietly cut funding for Zochrot and New Profile, following an earlier defunding of Palestinian NGOs. Some observers fear the move will shrink space for those critical of the Israeli government.
Kurve Wustrow has partners in several countries, including Sudan and Myanmar. But, Preuss said, this was the first time ever the German government had defunded any of their ongoing projects.
Preuss, who for days agonized over the decision of whether to speak up publicly, and his Israeli partners had to second-guess what exactly they were even attempting to defend themselves against.
The German authorities never gave the organization an official explanation as to why they had suddenly decided to rescind the funding for projects they had approved or renewed just the year before.
DW's investigative unit has reviewed emails and classified documents, and spoken with dozens of sources from the development sector in Germany, Israel and the occupied West Bank. The findings indicate that the defunding of Zochrot and New Profile are part of a larger pattern of cutting federal funds for human rights organizations that have been critical of the Israeli government's policies and the ongoing war in Gaza.
Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, Germany has also stopped funding at least six Palestinian organizations. The sources DW spoke with all agreed that the move was political, an attempt to silence critical voices amid shrinking space for civil society in Israel. They also claimed Germany's decision was taken under Israeli pressure.
Oh okay #3: The IDF Killed an American Peace Activist. Her Husband Is Still Looking for Answers. -
101 days after Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi’s death in the West Bank, her family finally met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. But it was just another official “saying things that I’ve already heard before,” said Eygi’s husband.
posted by cendawanita at 12:37 AM on January 14 [8 favorites]
Oh so like, it is as easy as a phone call?At first I couldn't believe my eyes. Immediately after, boiling rage. Haven't yet calmed down, and you know what: I don't want to be calmed down. In 2024 July: ‘More than 186,000 dead’ in Gaza: How credible are the estimates published on The Lancet?. The occupiers didn't stop for a moment, I've seen estimates now at 300k - or more than 10 % of Gaza's population - and it is the orange shitgibbon and his coterie who first does something, something at all? What the fuck "liberal" america?
But, I won't risk a ban due by saying what I really think about the spineless, duplicitous, cowardly filth who muddied the waters, gaslighted everyone about the lesser evil. If a senile, corrupt, venal, little clown manages to pressure Netanyahu before is even inaugurated than the senile, corrupt, racist shithead then .. I don't know what to say.
They won't hear it, they won't come here again. By God, I hope they get their taste of their own lesser evil. How can any of them look in the mirror? HOW?!
posted by kmt at 4:42 AM on January 14 [6 favorites]
I'm still reeling from the reporting that Biden just handed off negotiations to Trump's team and assuming he would get blame for whatever happens, instead of considering that Trump will get CREDIT for ENDING the war.
Add to that the sting of shipping off $8 billion worth of arms to Israel as one of his last acts as president; meanwhile American citizens who have lost everything in the fires in LA are going to rewarded with a one-time payment of $770 - a pitiful amount that wouldn't even cover a week's rent in CA. And US legislators are arguing about placing conditions on wildfire aid to CA. Someone tell me what our US citizenship privilege and advantages are, when we can't get aid without strings in a natural disaster, when a foreign army kills or hurts us, we can't get justice or even the appearance of an investigation?
Also, congrats to those IDF, after nearly a year and a half of atrocities, finally finding their consciences and refusing to fight.
posted by toastyk at 7:07 AM on January 14 [9 favorites]
Add to that the sting of shipping off $8 billion worth of arms to Israel as one of his last acts as president; meanwhile American citizens who have lost everything in the fires in LA are going to rewarded with a one-time payment of $770 - a pitiful amount that wouldn't even cover a week's rent in CA. And US legislators are arguing about placing conditions on wildfire aid to CA. Someone tell me what our US citizenship privilege and advantages are, when we can't get aid without strings in a natural disaster, when a foreign army kills or hurts us, we can't get justice or even the appearance of an investigation?
Also, congrats to those IDF, after nearly a year and a half of atrocities, finally finding their consciences and refusing to fight.
posted by toastyk at 7:07 AM on January 14 [9 favorites]
Oh so like, it is as easy as a phone call?
Yes, one phone call over a year ago, or several, and the fix is in, verbalizing a deal to resist Biden until Trump is reelected.
posted by Brian B. at 7:29 AM on January 14
Yes, one phone call over a year ago, or several, and the fix is in, verbalizing a deal to resist Biden until Trump is reelected.
posted by Brian B. at 7:29 AM on January 14
So Biden is a moron.
posted by cendawanita at 7:46 AM on January 14 [5 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 7:46 AM on January 14 [5 favorites]
(mind you I suppose it's a "win" to not even have pushback on the phonecall business because not seven months ago, the talking point/preferred argument is that it's not as easy as that, hence my reference. Not the fix talking point, which was floating around but barely anyone serious resorted to it. It's kinda like how no one fights anymore on the fact that IDF bombs and shells hospitals, or commit rape, or kill civilians even on Oct 7 itself, or too stupid to keep its ground troops alive. No never mind the last, that's just my editorializing.)
posted by cendawanita at 7:49 AM on January 14 [3 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 7:49 AM on January 14 [3 favorites]
Next thing I'll be told is that Israelis are skilled crisis actors and were never sincere at all along.
posted by cendawanita at 7:50 AM on January 14 [3 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 7:50 AM on January 14 [3 favorites]
which was floating around but barely anyone serious resorted to it.
Now they know, unless they take themselves too seriously.
posted by Brian B. at 8:35 AM on January 14
Now they know, unless they take themselves too seriously.
posted by Brian B. at 8:35 AM on January 14
To tie a bow with the strands of the earlier shared Jack Lew interview, specifically:
...Israeli assertions that the US imposed what amounted to an arms embargo on Israel when, he said, “nothing was stopped” bar a single shipment of 2,000-pound bombs.
...The word embargo is a pretty tough word. I did a lot of sanctions work in my career at the Treasury Department and State Department. Embargo is a word with a very specific meaning.
We never had an arms embargo, not in May, not since. Never.
And the reference above that Biden's people aren't working with Witkoff, new stuff from the WH stenographer: Scoop: Blinken to present post-war plan for Gaza on Tuesday
State of play: Blinken has presented his plan for Gaza's security, administration and reconstruction after a ceasefire agreement is in place to several U.S. allies.
"We are ready to hand that over to the Trump administration so it can work on it and run with it when the opportunity is there," he said at a press conference in Paris last week.
Behind the scenes: Blinken's plan has become a highly contentious issue inside the State Department and a source of fierce internal fighting.
Some State Department officials were concerned the plan would serve Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's interests and marginalize the Palestinian Authority and President Mahmoud Abbas.
Is Bibi really that canny or Biden really that stupid? Sure, hand it over to the next guy, the great threat to democracy, so that he gets credit.
Sidenote: as shared in the Sudan thread, without waiting for the conclusion of investigations from the UAE, the US managed to conclude that there is evidence of genocide from the RSF. So truly, and deeply, I mean the following: Biden is a moron. But perhaps the bigger fools are those who believe him and not your lying eyes.
Very believable behaviour of someone making a deal with Trump to make Biden look bad:
Latest update I got from Doha: Netanyahu is still stalling & buying time, potentially until the end of this week (the night before Trump's inauguration)
There's more optimism than ever before that a ceasefire/swap deal is imminent, but Netanyahu may make more last minute demands to undermine the talks
This is only a concern if one hasn't been paying attention. The question is less that he's waiting out Biden, he's waiting out everyone. I can hold two thoughts in my head: the Trump administration may well be a disaster to America's body politic especially; and Biden has the foreign policy instincts of someone with mad cow disease.
posted by cendawanita at 8:37 AM on January 14 [10 favorites]
...Israeli assertions that the US imposed what amounted to an arms embargo on Israel when, he said, “nothing was stopped” bar a single shipment of 2,000-pound bombs.
...The word embargo is a pretty tough word. I did a lot of sanctions work in my career at the Treasury Department and State Department. Embargo is a word with a very specific meaning.
We never had an arms embargo, not in May, not since. Never.
And the reference above that Biden's people aren't working with Witkoff, new stuff from the WH stenographer: Scoop: Blinken to present post-war plan for Gaza on Tuesday
State of play: Blinken has presented his plan for Gaza's security, administration and reconstruction after a ceasefire agreement is in place to several U.S. allies.
"We are ready to hand that over to the Trump administration so it can work on it and run with it when the opportunity is there," he said at a press conference in Paris last week.
Behind the scenes: Blinken's plan has become a highly contentious issue inside the State Department and a source of fierce internal fighting.
Some State Department officials were concerned the plan would serve Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's interests and marginalize the Palestinian Authority and President Mahmoud Abbas.
Is Bibi really that canny or Biden really that stupid? Sure, hand it over to the next guy, the great threat to democracy, so that he gets credit.
Sidenote: as shared in the Sudan thread, without waiting for the conclusion of investigations from the UAE, the US managed to conclude that there is evidence of genocide from the RSF. So truly, and deeply, I mean the following: Biden is a moron. But perhaps the bigger fools are those who believe him and not your lying eyes.
Very believable behaviour of someone making a deal with Trump to make Biden look bad:
Latest update I got from Doha: Netanyahu is still stalling & buying time, potentially until the end of this week (the night before Trump's inauguration)
There's more optimism than ever before that a ceasefire/swap deal is imminent, but Netanyahu may make more last minute demands to undermine the talks
This is only a concern if one hasn't been paying attention. The question is less that he's waiting out Biden, he's waiting out everyone. I can hold two thoughts in my head: the Trump administration may well be a disaster to America's body politic especially; and Biden has the foreign policy instincts of someone with mad cow disease.
posted by cendawanita at 8:37 AM on January 14 [10 favorites]
Biden is going around bragging about his foreign policy accomplishments, so he doesn't appear to think he's being played.
Meanwhile from the AlJazeera live-blog - at least 38 killed in Gaza since dawn, including 2 children.
posted by toastyk at 8:46 AM on January 14 [5 favorites]
Meanwhile from the AlJazeera live-blog - at least 38 killed in Gaza since dawn, including 2 children.
posted by toastyk at 8:46 AM on January 14 [5 favorites]
Found another piece to tie that bow, from Muhammad Shehada's roundup of Hebrew press:
Israeli media is crystal clear: all it took to a get a ceasefire deal done was pressure from Trump on Netanyahu, who folded immediately
Biden refused to do that for 15 months. As a Saudi diplomat told me, Biden considered any pressure on Israel as "tainting his legacy"! (he links to 1, 2, 3)
- additionally, earlier, for CIP, he wrote: The Biden Administration’s False History of Ceasefire Negotiations
All those self-motivated actions and choices made on their own volition. I will not be dragged into antisemitic fantasies of Jewish control of the WH just to explain why Biden is a fervent supporter of policies enabling genocide. They're all adults. If they're fools then I won't also be dragged along into becoming such with them either.
posted by cendawanita at 8:49 AM on January 14 [10 favorites]
Israeli media is crystal clear: all it took to a get a ceasefire deal done was pressure from Trump on Netanyahu, who folded immediately
Biden refused to do that for 15 months. As a Saudi diplomat told me, Biden considered any pressure on Israel as "tainting his legacy"! (he links to 1, 2, 3)
- additionally, earlier, for CIP, he wrote: The Biden Administration’s False History of Ceasefire Negotiations
All those self-motivated actions and choices made on their own volition. I will not be dragged into antisemitic fantasies of Jewish control of the WH just to explain why Biden is a fervent supporter of policies enabling genocide. They're all adults. If they're fools then I won't also be dragged along into becoming such with them either.
posted by cendawanita at 8:49 AM on January 14 [10 favorites]
CBS 60 Minutes coming out with something damning in the last week using May 2024 footage, Chris Hayes on MSNBC talking about Biden disgraceful legacy, now NYT posting about the death undercounting 5 hours ago.... Now, what is it that others and myself have been noting that there'd be at least some critical journalism on the matter when it's a Republican like Trump? I suppose to the low info voter it will (hopefully) play as Trump is worse.
And of the NYT story, other than the topline paras having the editorial glaze of making sure that the it's the "Hamas" health ministry, the rest of the piece is played straight, and the end of the piece didn't even have the compulsory official statement from the belligerent occupation forces:
While Gaza had a strong death registration process before the war, it now has only limited function after the destruction of much of the health system. Deaths are uncounted when whole families are killed simultaneously, leaving no one to report, or when an unknown number of people die in the collapse of a large building; Gazans are increasingly buried near their homes without passing through a morgue, Dr. Checchi said.
The authors of the study acknowledged that some of those assumed dead may in fact be missing, most likely taken as prisoners in Israel.
posted by cendawanita at 5:31 PM on January 14 [5 favorites]
And of the NYT story, other than the topline paras having the editorial glaze of making sure that the it's the "Hamas" health ministry, the rest of the piece is played straight, and the end of the piece didn't even have the compulsory official statement from the belligerent occupation forces:
While Gaza had a strong death registration process before the war, it now has only limited function after the destruction of much of the health system. Deaths are uncounted when whole families are killed simultaneously, leaving no one to report, or when an unknown number of people die in the collapse of a large building; Gazans are increasingly buried near their homes without passing through a morgue, Dr. Checchi said.
The authors of the study acknowledged that some of those assumed dead may in fact be missing, most likely taken as prisoners in Israel.
posted by cendawanita at 5:31 PM on January 14 [5 favorites]
I might make this one a single link FPP tomorrow, but just dropping it here - Surviving War and HIV - Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza. Well worth your time.
Everything feels like such a farce. So many deaths, so much suffering, and for what?
posted by toastyk at 9:28 PM on January 14 [6 favorites]
Everything feels like such a farce. So many deaths, so much suffering, and for what?
posted by toastyk at 9:28 PM on January 14 [6 favorites]
If only people can't read Israeli news then maybe the way the Biden administration people can keep saying that the ball is in Hamas's court when it comes to the ceasefire terms. Anyway, adding to the "omg Hamas is being flexible" and "omg Trump is so mean":
Ben Gvir says he repeatedly foiled hostage deals, urges Smotrich to help him stop this one -
Far-right Otzma Yehudit leader says over the past year ‘we managed to prevent this deal from going ahead, time after time’
UK, land of contrasts:
-
UK charity regulator says 'not lawful' for charities to raise funds for Israeli soldiers -
Charity Commission issues warning against Chabad Lubavitch after it fundraised for soldiers
- New review of F-35 exports reveals no red lines for UK government in context of atrocities in Gaza
...The Government’s justification for this decision is that it would be damaging to international peace and security if the UK were to suspend its export of F-35 components into the global spares pool. The Government say that these ‘exceptional circumstances’ are a ‘good reason’ not to follow its own licensing criteria for exporting weapons – and international legal obligations.
...The Government says that the interests of international peace and security is a “matter of such gravity that it would have overridden any [...] further evidence of serious breaches of IHL”. This clearly is an extreme position. In its Reply, Al-Haq puts it to the Government that they are effectively saying that there is no world in which the supply of F-35 components would be suspended.
If only they have the same principled commitment as Germany (and if anyone would like another refresher on how the Israeli government has been a bad faith negotiation partner): Bild published pro-Netanyahu disinformation. Where is the outcry?
The role of Germany’s largest newspaper in the ‘Bibileaks’ scandal highlights the need for a broader reckoning on Israel-Palestine in German media
The report, which effectively absolved the Israeli government of any responsibility for the breakdown of the talks, aligned with Netanyahu’s interests not only with its content but also its timing. It came in the wake of massive protests across Israel demanding a ceasefire, after news that Hamas had killed six Israeli hostages in Gaza as Israel’s military advanced nearby. In a cabinet meeting two days after the Bild report was published, Netanyahu referenced it to portray those demonstrating as unwitting pawns of the supposed Hamas strategy.
It wasn’t long before the story began to unravel. Israeli military sources told the news site Ynet that the army had indeed found such a document in Gaza — several months earlier, nowhere near Sinwar’s personal computer (it was apparently authored by a mid-ranking Hamas official), and with no indication that it was adopted as policy.
Most damningly, the specific sentence quoted by Bild that lies at the heart of the story — alleging that Hamas was deliberately prolonging negotiations since it wasn’t interested in reaching a deal — doesn’t appear at all in the original document. Indeed, since the very start of the war, Hamas has repeatedly signaled its willingness to release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and an end to Israel’s onslaught on the Strip — a fact that Bild has worked hard to obscure.
(...) Notably, while the revelations about the “Bibileaks” scandal sparked a major political crisis in Israel, the reaction in Germany has been muted — despite the key role played by Bild. Only after international reporting on the arrests of Netanyahu confidants did major German newspapers begin to cover the story.
To this day, Bild faces little scrutiny in Germany over the “Bibileaks” affair.
Speaking of Bibileaks: Arab officials: Trump envoy* swayed Netanyahu more in one meeting than Biden did all year -
‘Tense’ Jerusalem sit-down led to breakthrough in talks, with Israel and Hamas agreeing in principle to hostage deal two days later; sides now finalizing implementation details
(*I lost the clip but Witkoff was very complimentary of the Qataris and Egyptians in an interview)
Biden's people doing their best to stain their good works in literally everything else that's not Palestine or trans people: Earlier Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that Israel had accepted the deal to free the remaining 98 hostages, while Hamas had yet to do the same.
(...) The official rejected repeated assertions from the US that Hamas has been the only obstacle to a ceasefire, arguing that Israel has also thwarted talks over the past several months. The Arab official said Netanyahu walked away from the phased proposal he authorized in May, trying to instead prioritize the first phase of that offer so that Israel could resume fighting in Gaza immediately afterward.
Now both parties have agreed to once again get behind the phased framework and are doing so simultaneously — arguably for the first time, the Arab official said.
(...) A third Arab official from one of the mediating countries argued that concerns of domestic political pushback in the middle of an election season kept Biden from putting more public pressure on Israel.
He pointed to a meeting Blinken held with Netanyahu in August after which the secretary announced that the Israeli premier had accepted a US bridging proposal for a hostage deal. Netanyahu also announced that he had accepted the US bridging proposal. The Arab official, along with a member of Israel’s negotiation team, told The Times of Israel that this was emphatically not what had unfolded in the meeting and that Blinken’s comments had thrown a major wrench in that round of talks, which ultimately fell apart.
Speaking of the man: (Drop Site News)
In his final week as U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken delivered rare and pointed criticism of Israeli policies towards Palestinians:
▪️ Blinken stated: “Israel must acknowledge that Palestinians will never accept ‘being a non-people without national rights.’”
▪️ He warned, “Israelis must abandon the myth that they can carry out de facto annexation without cost and consequence to Israel’s democracy, to its standing, to its security.”
▪️ Blinken advocated for establishing “time-bound” conditions for Palestinian statehood, suggesting this framework could enable international support for Gaza’s post-conflict reconstruction, including security forces and financial aid.
▪️ He also criticized Israel for withholding Palestinian tax revenues, the “unprecedented growth in illegal outposts” in the occupied West Bank, and a surge in settler violence.
Listen in full
----
Anyway genociding waits for no man, now you gotta do Back to Office Reports etc - Itay Epshtain:
BREAKING: The #Israeli Armed Force Journal ('Campagins') January 25' edition reveals details of tactics used in #Gaza, including "rethinking urban spaces [that are, prima facie, civilian objects] and remodeling them [...] as death traps for the enemy." The author, a Company Commanding Officer, describes the detonation of staircases in high-rise civilian buildings as a cost-effective technique to render them useless. He goes on to describe the extensive use of boobytraps by Israeli forces and blind firing into civilian structures ahead of ground assaults.
The use of booby traps that are in any way attached to or associated with objects entitled to protection under international humanitarian law or with objects that are likely to attract civilians, is prohibited. Nevertheless, several authors of the journal claim that Israel abides by the law of armed conflict, disregarded by armed groups in Gaza. That statement is as disingenuous as it is contradictory to what is willingly described in the same journal.
Blind firing high-caliber weapons into civilian structures - described by the author as advantageous given the light construction methods of Gaza's homes - violates rules of distinction between civilians and combatants, between civilian objects and military objectives, and the principle of precaution in attack (including target verification and advance warning). The official journal of the Israeli armed forces gives an account of the widespread practice of indiscriminate, and thus unlawful, Israeli attacks and suggests these methods as appropriate.
----
posted by cendawanita at 2:35 AM on January 15 [7 favorites]
Ben Gvir says he repeatedly foiled hostage deals, urges Smotrich to help him stop this one -
Far-right Otzma Yehudit leader says over the past year ‘we managed to prevent this deal from going ahead, time after time’
UK, land of contrasts:
-
UK charity regulator says 'not lawful' for charities to raise funds for Israeli soldiers -
Charity Commission issues warning against Chabad Lubavitch after it fundraised for soldiers
- New review of F-35 exports reveals no red lines for UK government in context of atrocities in Gaza
...The Government’s justification for this decision is that it would be damaging to international peace and security if the UK were to suspend its export of F-35 components into the global spares pool. The Government say that these ‘exceptional circumstances’ are a ‘good reason’ not to follow its own licensing criteria for exporting weapons – and international legal obligations.
...The Government says that the interests of international peace and security is a “matter of such gravity that it would have overridden any [...] further evidence of serious breaches of IHL”. This clearly is an extreme position. In its Reply, Al-Haq puts it to the Government that they are effectively saying that there is no world in which the supply of F-35 components would be suspended.
If only they have the same principled commitment as Germany (and if anyone would like another refresher on how the Israeli government has been a bad faith negotiation partner): Bild published pro-Netanyahu disinformation. Where is the outcry?
The role of Germany’s largest newspaper in the ‘Bibileaks’ scandal highlights the need for a broader reckoning on Israel-Palestine in German media
The report, which effectively absolved the Israeli government of any responsibility for the breakdown of the talks, aligned with Netanyahu’s interests not only with its content but also its timing. It came in the wake of massive protests across Israel demanding a ceasefire, after news that Hamas had killed six Israeli hostages in Gaza as Israel’s military advanced nearby. In a cabinet meeting two days after the Bild report was published, Netanyahu referenced it to portray those demonstrating as unwitting pawns of the supposed Hamas strategy.
It wasn’t long before the story began to unravel. Israeli military sources told the news site Ynet that the army had indeed found such a document in Gaza — several months earlier, nowhere near Sinwar’s personal computer (it was apparently authored by a mid-ranking Hamas official), and with no indication that it was adopted as policy.
Most damningly, the specific sentence quoted by Bild that lies at the heart of the story — alleging that Hamas was deliberately prolonging negotiations since it wasn’t interested in reaching a deal — doesn’t appear at all in the original document. Indeed, since the very start of the war, Hamas has repeatedly signaled its willingness to release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and an end to Israel’s onslaught on the Strip — a fact that Bild has worked hard to obscure.
(...) Notably, while the revelations about the “Bibileaks” scandal sparked a major political crisis in Israel, the reaction in Germany has been muted — despite the key role played by Bild. Only after international reporting on the arrests of Netanyahu confidants did major German newspapers begin to cover the story.
To this day, Bild faces little scrutiny in Germany over the “Bibileaks” affair.
Speaking of Bibileaks: Arab officials: Trump envoy* swayed Netanyahu more in one meeting than Biden did all year -
‘Tense’ Jerusalem sit-down led to breakthrough in talks, with Israel and Hamas agreeing in principle to hostage deal two days later; sides now finalizing implementation details
(*I lost the clip but Witkoff was very complimentary of the Qataris and Egyptians in an interview)
Biden's people doing their best to stain their good works in literally everything else that's not Palestine or trans people: Earlier Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that Israel had accepted the deal to free the remaining 98 hostages, while Hamas had yet to do the same.
(...) The official rejected repeated assertions from the US that Hamas has been the only obstacle to a ceasefire, arguing that Israel has also thwarted talks over the past several months. The Arab official said Netanyahu walked away from the phased proposal he authorized in May, trying to instead prioritize the first phase of that offer so that Israel could resume fighting in Gaza immediately afterward.
Now both parties have agreed to once again get behind the phased framework and are doing so simultaneously — arguably for the first time, the Arab official said.
(...) A third Arab official from one of the mediating countries argued that concerns of domestic political pushback in the middle of an election season kept Biden from putting more public pressure on Israel.
He pointed to a meeting Blinken held with Netanyahu in August after which the secretary announced that the Israeli premier had accepted a US bridging proposal for a hostage deal. Netanyahu also announced that he had accepted the US bridging proposal. The Arab official, along with a member of Israel’s negotiation team, told The Times of Israel that this was emphatically not what had unfolded in the meeting and that Blinken’s comments had thrown a major wrench in that round of talks, which ultimately fell apart.
Speaking of the man: (Drop Site News)
In his final week as U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken delivered rare and pointed criticism of Israeli policies towards Palestinians:
▪️ Blinken stated: “Israel must acknowledge that Palestinians will never accept ‘being a non-people without national rights.’”
▪️ He warned, “Israelis must abandon the myth that they can carry out de facto annexation without cost and consequence to Israel’s democracy, to its standing, to its security.”
▪️ Blinken advocated for establishing “time-bound” conditions for Palestinian statehood, suggesting this framework could enable international support for Gaza’s post-conflict reconstruction, including security forces and financial aid.
▪️ He also criticized Israel for withholding Palestinian tax revenues, the “unprecedented growth in illegal outposts” in the occupied West Bank, and a surge in settler violence.
Listen in full
----
Anyway genociding waits for no man, now you gotta do Back to Office Reports etc - Itay Epshtain:
BREAKING: The #Israeli Armed Force Journal ('Campagins') January 25' edition reveals details of tactics used in #Gaza, including "rethinking urban spaces [that are, prima facie, civilian objects] and remodeling them [...] as death traps for the enemy." The author, a Company Commanding Officer, describes the detonation of staircases in high-rise civilian buildings as a cost-effective technique to render them useless. He goes on to describe the extensive use of boobytraps by Israeli forces and blind firing into civilian structures ahead of ground assaults.
The use of booby traps that are in any way attached to or associated with objects entitled to protection under international humanitarian law or with objects that are likely to attract civilians, is prohibited. Nevertheless, several authors of the journal claim that Israel abides by the law of armed conflict, disregarded by armed groups in Gaza. That statement is as disingenuous as it is contradictory to what is willingly described in the same journal.
Blind firing high-caliber weapons into civilian structures - described by the author as advantageous given the light construction methods of Gaza's homes - violates rules of distinction between civilians and combatants, between civilian objects and military objectives, and the principle of precaution in attack (including target verification and advance warning). The official journal of the Israeli armed forces gives an account of the widespread practice of indiscriminate, and thus unlawful, Israeli attacks and suggests these methods as appropriate.
----
posted by cendawanita at 2:35 AM on January 15 [7 favorites]
Hebrew press updates, via Noga Tarnopolsky:
💥#Breaking: Netanyahu promises to keep Smotrich include:
•Explicit commitment to resume war after Phase I, "until Hamas defeat."
•Changed combat conditions including heavier weapons, limiting humanitarian aid; annexing territory, encouraging immigration
And in her QT: 💥Netanyahu's deal with Smotrich means abandoning 65 hostages in Gaza. Haaretz's Zvi Barel confirms the government has no intention of transitioning to Phase II
posted by cendawanita at 5:00 AM on January 15 [3 favorites]
💥#Breaking: Netanyahu promises to keep Smotrich include:
•Explicit commitment to resume war after Phase I, "until Hamas defeat."
•Changed combat conditions including heavier weapons, limiting humanitarian aid; annexing territory, encouraging immigration
And in her QT: 💥Netanyahu's deal with Smotrich means abandoning 65 hostages in Gaza. Haaretz's Zvi Barel confirms the government has no intention of transitioning to Phase II
posted by cendawanita at 5:00 AM on January 15 [3 favorites]
We're gonna need a bigger post (and I'm tapping out): ceasefire to be announced in an hour (30 mins?) by the Qatari PM.
posted by cendawanita at 8:04 AM on January 15 [3 favorites]
posted by cendawanita at 8:04 AM on January 15 [3 favorites]
‘We have a deal,’ Trump says.
Qatar PM met Hamas, Israeli delegations:
Qatar PM met Hamas, Israeli delegations:
Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has met with negotiators from Hamas and Israel in an effort to secure a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, sources have told Al Jazeera Arabic.posted by kmt at 9:23 AM on January 15 [4 favorites]
The sources said that, under the proposed deal, Qatar and Egypt will be supervising the return of the displaced from the southern Gaza Strip to the north. The Israeli army would withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza in stages.
Hamas also requested that the Israeli army withdraw during the first stage of the agreement to an area within 700 metres (2,297 feet) from the Gaza border, the sources said.
I can't find anything to disagree with here:
Gregg Carlstrom: Donald Trump will take credit for pushing the deal over the finish line after months of failure by Biden. Meanwhile Republicans, who cannot criticize Trump, will pretend that Trump had nothing to do with the deal
(QTing Tom Cotton blaming "lame duck" Biden for "cramming down" the deal. So sad when paid-for advocates aren't sharing the same set of talking points)
posted by cendawanita at 9:45 AM on January 15 [2 favorites]
Gregg Carlstrom: Donald Trump will take credit for pushing the deal over the finish line after months of failure by Biden. Meanwhile Republicans, who cannot criticize Trump, will pretend that Trump had nothing to do with the deal
(QTing Tom Cotton blaming "lame duck" Biden for "cramming down" the deal. So sad when paid-for advocates aren't sharing the same set of talking points)
posted by cendawanita at 9:45 AM on January 15 [2 favorites]
From Tarnopolsky, Biden announcing - #Breaking: President Biden announces that American hostages will be released in Phase I. And declares that Phase II includes “a permanent end to the war.” AND “all remaining Israeli troops will leave Gaza.” #Boom
(Side-note - DropSite News reports that Kamala Harris paid the price for not breaking with Biden on Gaza.)
posted by toastyk at 11:40 AM on January 15 [3 favorites]
(Side-note - DropSite News reports that Kamala Harris paid the price for not breaking with Biden on Gaza.)
posted by toastyk at 11:40 AM on January 15 [3 favorites]
« Older it's a gas | Rupert Goold's "Macbeth" Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
Bottom line: The world was a worse place for Joe Biden being in it.
posted by Lemkin at 6:53 AM on December 29, 2024 [16 favorites]