100 Most Recent Comments

How disappointing, Amigo. For a couple of posts, you seemed to have shown at least a tentative interest in civilized discourse, but I see you have reverted to type (“What does all that nonsense have to do..” “Utter and pure rubbish”) and even forsworn all sense of irony in defending British colonial authorities, not to mention your ad hominem attacks which are of a piece with others (“Wacko Jacko,” “Tipsi LIvni”). With enemies like you, Israel doesn’t need friends.

Dr Naledi Pandora is the real deal. She recognizes what Palestinians are going through from the prism of her living in apartheid South Africa. She is a humanitarian.

Heartfelt condolences to you and your family.

The concept of being “chosen” is an undeniable element of the Jewish faith and can be interpreted in various ways. On Oct.7 it meant chosen to be murdered, raped, mutilated, kidnapped. (and I’m not ignoring the non-Jewish victims of that day)
And yes, some Palestinians -such as Hamas and PIJ- might kill us, given the opportunity.

I was talking about on TV News outlets. I watch almost all of these outlets four days a week. Nothing…..Not ever show on maps what has happened to the West Bank etc based on ever expanding illegal settlements.

Please provide a link to even one example of one of the outlets I have mentioned that have aired maps that really show what has taken place with Israel’s persistent land theft.

Glad you found one example of BBC putting up fact based maps.

If Abbas follows through on putting the one state on the agenda, that would be a game changer. Proposing equality with Israeli Jews would address the question of motive and counter the “anniliation of all Jews” narrative rampant in the US Congress. And which complicates political support for Palestinian self-determination.

Some background : I taught high school History and Civics for about 35 years. I was also employed by the Min. of Education as a teacher’s instructor. Part of the time I was also a member of the committee in the Ministry which sets the curriculum and was also involved in the process of approving textbooks.
I would say that, in general , the curriculum presents the Zionist narrative, but the Palestinian “voice” is also heard. For example , the chapter that deals with the Balfour Declaration includes an explanation as to why the Arabs opposed it. In one of the textbooks that  I kept after retiring (I returned most of them to the school library) I see that there’s a chapter entitled “The Palestinian Arab Movement and it’s attitude towards Zionism”, which presents the Arab perspective. When teaching the War of Independence/ Nakba we deal with the forces on both sides, the phases of the war , the objectives, and the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem.
The textbooks are strictly reviewed to make sure that no manifestations of racism , bigotry, improper language or such appear in the text and illustrations.
I’ve never heard or read about anyone teaching that “Palestinians are less than human “, as commenter Anthony 57 asserts.  Of course, a lot depends on every individual teacher. Could there be racist teachers? I assume so. In Israel and elsewhere.

With gratitude to Mondoweiss for facilitating the day after. World attention is an asset to be capitalized on. Self-determination for Palestinians is an imperative.

Yes, courage is lacking in the halls of power in so many nations. In particular, American weakness has never been so apparent than now, when viewed over the past century.

“South Africa FM: “We will not rest until Palestine’s freedom is realized.” “

Regarding Palestine’s freedom, yesterday Le Monde ( sort of the French equivalent of the New York Times ) ran an editorial for recognizing a Palestinian state:

Seventy-six years after the creation of the State of Israel, in the midst of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, recognizing a Palestinian state could help put an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people – and protect Israel from itself.…Israel’s military failure is coupled with a political impasse, for which Netanyahu bears the crushing responsibility. By maintaining Gaza in a state devoid of the slightest semblance of civil organization, he has been creating the conditions under which the very militia he has said he wants to annihilate can return. By opposing the slightest prospect that takes into account the Palestinians’ legitimate rights, he has also been playing into the hands of Hamas’s hardline approach…Today’s appalling death toll and the cost to those still living are the result of the Israeli strategy which has turned Gaza into a gigantic open-air prison and the scene of recurring devastating wars. It has been facilitated by international passivity, whether in the shape of the tolerance of the blockade imposed on Gaza, weakness with regard to the misdeeds of the Palestinians’ official representatives, or spinelessness when faced with the disease that is Israel’s colonization of the West Bank..A paradigm shift to put an end to the suffering of the Palestinians and to protect Israel from itself is urgently needed. Our article on the history of Le Monde‘s coverage of this conflict since 1945 demonstrates how the Palestinian question has consistently impacted the image of the State of Israel. The recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel – something the US has refused to do, but which Israeli figures are urging and which certain European countries are about to do – could only contribute to this.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/05/15/the-need-for-a-paradigm-shift-on-the-israel-palestine-question_6671584_23.html

the just cause of the Palestinian people to achieve their legitimate demand for a viable independent state alongside the state of Israel.

Excellent thought. I hope that she will influence South Africa to be at the forefront of rebuilding Gaza into a legitimate Palestinian state instead of a launchpad for attacking Israel.

Thank you CT for this thoughtful reply. Many valid points which deserve addressing.

Consider that every day we hear media and senators say its all about the anniliation of Jews. This misleading narrative is politically a disaster as it reinforces the greater Israel self defense narrative and that Palestinians bring tragedies upon themselves.

Critical piece of the puzzle is that Hamas was midwifed for a reason. Security was a deception to warriors for greater Israel. (Netanyahu facilitated the arms Hamas is using today.) They need Jewish insecurity to persuade Israelis and Americans that they are being victimized and are entitled to the right of self-defense which they then use to deny self-determination. Peace to them is an existential threat. They need Israelis to be fearful, afraid, and feel under attack. Need for Palestinians not to have a one gun policy. For American politicians to not be safe politically in supporting Palestinians. For Palestinians to be seen as monsters. All weapons against Palestinian self-determination, liberation.

The Palestinian cause has been traumatized so many don’t recognize the double game, haven’t considered the best defense is a good offense….politically. Have seen necessary positions as “normalization and even as betrayal. I’ve referenced the leading figure who said to me, “Rocks and rockets are stupid. But I can not say that in public.” Necessities are considered “normalization”. In 1988 men were taken into soccer fields and knifed on that account.

IMO, it will not be long before an American leader declares the need for normalization, for a long term agreement. I pray there will be understanding this cannot happen without a buy-in, a readiness. We know this will be seen as an existential threat to warriors for greater Israel and Israeli secularists will be needed allies. Palestinian intellectuals will have to take responsibility for their extremists, for acting against the common good. It’s time for intellectuals to anticipate and prepare with an endgame discussion. A debate around two states or one toward developing a consensus. Perhaps the need for a constitution with a Bill of Rights guaranteeing civil, cultural and religious rights. It will be healthy for Israelis and Americans to overhear.

Mondoweiss is positioned to be a facilitator.

Dear dear Tareq
My heart bleeds for you. As a mother I can tell you , you were the best son your mother could ever have wished for. I am so relieved that you and your wife and son are safe in Egypt. May Allah comfort and sustain you.

Evil man loses. That is good news.
This election will show that AIPAC is a paper tiger. Any organization that defends genocide unconditionally has lost its way.

The University Network For Human Rights** just published a 100 page document titled “Genocide in Gaza: Analysis of International Law and its Application to Israel’s Military Actions Since Oct 7, 2023”. Below is the executive summary:

“After reviewing the facts established by independent human rights monitors, journalists, and United Nations agencies, we conclude that Israel’s actions in and regarding Gaza since October 7, 2023, violate the Genocide Convention. Specifically, Israel has committed genocidal acts of killing, causing serious harm to, and inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, a protected group that forms a substantial part of the Palestinian people….Israel’s genocidal acts in Gaza have been motivated by the requisite genocidal intent, as evidenced in this report by the statements of Israeli leaders, the character of the State and its military forces’ conduct against and relating to Palestinians in Gaza, and the direct nexus between them. As this report details, officials at all levels of Israeli government, up to and including the Prime Minister, have made remarks that not only express blatant and unequivocal dehumanization and cruelty against Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere, but also explicitly reflect intentions to destroy and exterminate Palestinians as such.”

https://www.humanrightsnetwork.org/genocide-in-gaza

The whole report is on the right is on the right side of the page.

**
“The University Network for Human Rights grew out of an informal collaboration between undergraduate students at Stanford University and its Law School’s Human Rights Clinic”

“Foreign Minister Dr. Naledi Pandor on the indivisible bond of solidarity between South Africa and the Palestinian people, “forged by the crucible of the two nations’ respective liberation struggles.”

Make that three Nations.

Ireland shares a similar history of struggle against a cruel occupier over several Centuries.

We support fully the rights of the People of Palestine and abhor the actions of the criminal apartheid state of Israel.

Ireland is set to recognise a Palestinian State on may 21st.Ireland is to be joined by Spain , Slovenia,and Malta.Perhaps this will give some of the other EU nations some courage and follow suit.

Another name for this is fascism.

Where do you live in Boston?

Devastating.

Never, ever on any maps put up by MSNBC, ABC, CBS, CSpan, BBC…

It took about 2 seconds to discover yet another falsehood from Kathleen.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52756427

destroying their educational institutions, their libraries and their hospitals, for no apparent reason other than their being neighbours?

This war is raging for no apparent reason so it must be infected minds?
No reason at all, it is a complete mystery.

Heart felt condolences. Sorry to hear about the loss of your beloved mother. Surely she is in a better place … a safer place and where there are no bombs … and no 2,000 pound bombs.

Your beloved mother has joined the thousands upon thousands of Palestinian mothers and grandmothers who have died and have been killed in the last 7 plus months.

They have died/killed at the bloody hands of a merciless apartheid Israel and its IDF killers.

they have already learned to be good soldiers

They are not even good soldiers. Last Monday, a convoy of about 50 Palestinian-owned trucks was assembled in the West Bank to take much needed supplies to Gaza. Everything had been cleared with the Israeli authorities and the IDF provided escort vehicles at the head and tail of the column. They were attacked by up to 400 armed “settlers”, throwing rocks, setting fire to at least one truck and threatening the drivers with guns. The soldiers stood by and did nothing, presumably disobeying orders to protect the convoy.

Hear hear, amigo.

Never, ever on any maps put up by MSNBC, ABC, CBS, CSpan, BBC, PBS, DW etc etc do they ever show how the West Bank etc have been carved up by illegal settlements, theft etc……swiss cheese maps. Never ever show maps showing the West Bank etc the way it is

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54116567

Not much being written anymore about Israel’s latest effort to steal more land

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/3/19/how-israeli-settlers-are-expanding-illegal-outposts-amid-gaza-war

Some 10 years ago I spent the last few days of my Mothers life by her bedside.My siblings live in other countries so I was alone there.I was away from home when my Father passed away and only arrived in time for the burial services.

I consider it a blessing to have been there and to be holding her hand when she passed.She was there when I took my first breath and I was there when she took her last.

I very much understand the Author,s feelings and especially the horrible conditions he had to endure
this most saddest of losses.

I wish him peace and better days to come and an end to this most cruel treatment by Israel and it,s vile leaders.

Pro Palestine/Pro Israel/Pro Peace!

Nurit Peled-Elhanan: Education Or Mind Infection?
(Dr. Nurit Peled-Elhanan is a Lecturer in Language Education at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.)

“but also Israeli soldiers who actually perform massacres of ‘Arabs’ – Palestinian or Lebanese – may never see an Arab human face until they are drafted to the army, but they learn, for 12 long years, that these people are primitive, bear children in order to send them to the streets and throw stones at our peace-keeping soldiers, uneducated because they don’t receive our education, conniving and dirty because they have different notions about politeness, they dress differently and cover their heads with different pieces of cloth.”

“All of Our children are mind-infected from an early age. So that by the time they are old enough to become real soldiers, they have already learned to be good soldiers, which means their minds are totally infected and they are incapable of questioning the ‘truth’ that has been inculcated to them. This is part of the explanation one can give to the terrible deeds that are committed today by good Israeli boys, who are characterized once and again as “people of values”.’

“How else can one explain young people who were educated to love their neighbour as they love themselves killing their neighbours, destroying their educational institutions, their libraries and their hospitals, for no apparent reason other than their being neighbours? The only explanation is that their minds are infected by parents, teachers and leaders, who convince them that the others are not as human as we are, and therefore killing them is not real killing; it has other legitimating names such as “cleansing” “purifying”, “punishment”, “operation”, “mission”, “campaign” and “war”.’

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00129/nurit-peled-elhanan-education-or-mind-infection.htm

Tell us what the Israeli educational curriculum actually does tell students about the Palestinian people. Give some examples.

Not much moves me to tears, but this did.

Exactly. The cognitive dissonance a bias on display daily in the mainstream media is truly astounding.

To hear Ivy League educated law school graduates, post-grads, professors, and practicing attorneys, and lawmakers parrot the willfully ignorant propaganda from Israel’s “Ministry of Truth” verbatim on national and cable networks and across print media is insane.

On the criticism of “From the River to the Sea…”, I’ve heard at least three such individuals rhetorically ask and opine, “What other genuinely innocuous, literal, or innocent meaning could those exact words possibly mean, other than wishing destruction of every Jew in Israel?”

There are literally 9 million Palestinians living under military occupation and two entirely and universally recognized Palestinian swathes of territory (universally and historically referred to as Palestine) between the literal Jordan River and the literal Mediterranean Sea. Every one of them begging for freedom from occupation, oppression, and unimaginable state-sponsored inhumanity and inequality.

Yet for these useful stooges on TV, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!”, can’t possibly be that literal, it’s clearly just a bunch of genocidal antisemites calling for the the utter destruction of Israel and every Jew in Israel.

It’s industrial grade gaslighting of the highest order.

The Nation has an excellent story about the crackdown in LA, which may well have relevance for other places as well, including San Diego. It begins:

It was time to fight back on America’s college campuses. And the little known Israeli-American Council (IAC), an organization with close ties to Israeli intelligence, and made up mostly of Israeli expats, decided that it would lead the nationwide charge.

https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/israeli-american-council/

What does all that nonsense have to do with my posts laying out the decades of zionist / Jewish Terrorism. ????

“Although the Mandate of Palestine explicitly stated that ONLY THE JEWS had the right to sovereignty in Mandatory Palestine,’ JRG

Utter and pure rubbish but no surprise coming from someone who uses AYN RAND as a source . Pray tell does the AYN RAND have their own version of the mandate for Palestine.

.

Yes, hate cultivated on the Israeli side …..big time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3q7JqvE418e

Have friends who have witnessed Israeli’s spitting on Palestinian children walking to school numerous times.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/03/04/israel-west-bank-settlers-attacks-palestinians#:~:text=By%20September%2C%202023%2C%20the%20United,West%20Bank%20had%20been%20displaced.

jon s,
I sorry, but this “Genocidal” story did not begin on 7th October 2023. It did not begin in June 1967. It began during the Nakba of 1948.
You have written that killing roughly 1,150 Israeli Jews is genocide, but Israel’s killing of more than 35,000 Palestinians (mostly women and children) is not genocide. You can’t have it both ways.

Utter, utter nonsense and you know it. Your propaganda no longer works. It may help you sleep at night to rationalize the unspeakable horrors that your precious Israeli Apartheid state and its European and North American colonizers have imposed on a defenceless refugee population. The Palestinians ceded 78 percent of their historic land for a tiny, demilitarized state in order to achieve a semblance of justice. Netanyahu incited the lunatics against Rabin and stated clearly and repeatedly that he would not allow a Palestinian state to emerge.

Israel’s demise (i.e. dismantling of Apartheid) will likely come not from anything that Palestinians or their allies do, but from its own internal extremism. We’re seeing the seeds of this emerging now.

Rubbish.
That is fiction about Arafat. PA was never offered a fair deal because America was always the “dishonest broker.” As others have written, the US Government has been more interested in acting as Israel’s lawyer than finding an equitable solution. People like US “negotiator” Dennis Ross have always been zionist partisans, who always gave Israel every advantage in those peace talks.
It should be noted that the clueless President Biden continues to listen to Dennis Ross and Elliott Abrams (convicted in the Iran-Contra scandal) when it comes Middle East peace.

If not one state, then get your thugs out of the West Bank and Jerusalem and honour the Oslo agreement. Thugs and terrorists who are beating up grandmothers and children.

The Palestinians have tried every non-violent strategy. You are correct in saying the solution will be solved politically. Under Oslo, the Palestinians compromised just short of total capitulation. They ceded 78 percent of their historic homeland in return for a tiny, demilitarized state on the WB, East Jerusalem and Gaza. All Israel had to do was to meet their end of the bargain and withdraw from these territories. Netanyahu and his extremists allies at the time declared that they would never allow a Palestinian state would emerge. Rabin, a brutal but true Israeli patriot, was assassinated for having the foresight to sign a peace deal. Those same extremists (terrorists) that killed Rabin are in Israel’s cabinet today.

The Palestinians played by the rules. Went to the UN and sought justice through international law. All, to no avail. In 2019, the so called Great March of desperate Gazans non-violently protested at Israel’s southern border. They wanted the lifting of Israel’s barbaric 15 year siege. The Israeli response? More barbarism. Thousands dead and injured. Even Hamas, an organization that Israel helped midwife and support, offered a 50 year truce which Israel rejected. You just have to believe what Israeli leaders have said in the past and are saying today.

What options does that leave Palestinians? Even Abbas is considered too much for Israel. A man who is fully compliant to Israeli diktats in policing his own people. He’s considered a traitor by most Palestinians.

I abhor and oppose violence and war. I believe in the maxim that war is always a losing strategy for all involved. But this isn’t war. This is genocide. A genocide imposed by a powerful, nuclear armed state against a traumatized, refugee population that has been brutalized for decades.

What’s needed is a patriotic US president who prioritizes US interest, and courageous western leaders (non-existent at present), to say enough to Israel. Withdraw to the ‘67 borders so a tiny Palestinian state can emerge that will provide safety for Palestinians, or dismantle Apartheid to create one democratic state. I’m not holding my breath because our leadership in the west is pathetic and cowardly. If there was ever a need for “humanitarian intervention”, this is it!

Just a simple thank you. Until and unless Palestine is restored, the world will not have justice or peace. I hope as I know you do, we live to see Palestine from the River to the Sea. Thank you.

Anthony, how did you reach that assertion?
I’m somewhat familiar with the Israeli school system, having grown up here, gone to school here, and many years as a teacher (History and Civics).
Yes , there are racists in Israel , even in the school system , but your sweeping generalization is not true. (Do you live in a society which has eradicated racism?)
In the classrooms that I attended as a student , and taught in as a teacher, that was certainly not the message. That goes for the colleagues I worked with, too.

He pretty much did ask Jews to commit suicide or be displaced to some European country that they have no connection to. But in reality, his speech amounts to nothing. Promoting a one state solution is a complete waste of time. It’s not a serious proposal. I think there is a better chance that the United States will provide English people right of return to Boston .

True. And taught they were special, chosen. That Palestinians might kill them

OK, enough is enough:

The Jews spent 100 years building the modern state of Israel , beginning in the mid 1800s. https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f6a8.svg. The Jews built the modern state of Israel from NOTHING, using Jewish capital and Jewish ingenuity. https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f6a8.svg.

The Jews paid top dollar for the land they developed, including land sold to them by the leading so called Arab nationalists. https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f6a8.svg

No western power assisted the Jews. In fact, Great Britain reneged on the Balfour Declaration almost immediately after GB was awarded the Mandate of Palestine. https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f6a8.svg.

Every single country in the Levant was created under the same mandate system . https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f6a8.svg.

The Jews built all the infrastructure , civic organizations etc. and had established a state in every sense of the word but international recognition by 1939.

In fact, the Jews had acquired more than 25% of the land they ultimately owned in 1948 by 1925. https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f6a8.svg.

As reflected in the anti Zionist Peel commission report, the Jews rid the area of malaria, made the desert bloom and turned a forgotten backwater of the Ottoman Empire into a thriving , productive country that benefited both Jews and Arabs https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f6a8.svg.

Although the Mandate of Palestine explicitly stated that ONLY THE JEWS had the right to sovereignty in Mandatory Palestine, the Jews were willing to compromise and bent over backwards to reach a peaceful resolution with the Arabs. The Arabs rejected two offers of statehood –in 1937 (Peel commission offer) and 1947 ( UNGA resolution 181) https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f6a8.svg.

Instead of compromising, the Arabs first waged a civil war against the Jews, bringing in THOUSANDS of Arabs , armed by the British, from surrounding Arab states to attack the Jews https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f6a8.svg.

When the Arabs’ civil war failed, the surrounding Arab states waged a war of annihilation against the Jews. Despite being armed, trained and funded by the British, Americans and others, these Arab armies lost their war and the state of Israel emerged! The pathetic cries of victimhood by the 8th generation descendants of Arabs who waged these wars, fled prior to the wars, or were forced to flee as a direct result of these wars their ancestors started is beyond tiresome and pathetic. Get over it!!

Neither side appears angling toward peace

Things change. In the beginning of the 20th century Argentina was a rich and powerfull country, 30 years later it was third world. If Israel comes to be seen by the world as the equivalent of South Africa under apartheid, if the Palestinian population of Israel grows, if the Haredim continue to gain power, Israel will decline into the moral and economic equivalent of Zambia. All this talk of what Israel will and will not accept is just plain silly.

“… by 1908 had placed the country as the seventh wealthiest[65] developed nation[66] in the world…. the start of the steady economic and social decline that pushed the country back into underdevelopment.[81]…”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina#History

Not true in the past. Israel offered Palestinians almost everything they wanted (except the rest of Israel) and Arafat turned it down. So Israel would have agreed to a 2ss. And Arafat’s refusal is viewed by many as a historical failure. But you are right, at this moment there is unfortunately no chance that Israel would agree to a Palestinian state and that has to change. To be clear, i think a 2 state solution is an urgent need. And I don’t buy the “don’t reward Hamas” argument. A peace agreement is desirable no matter when or how it happens. But a 1 state solution? No way. No amount of pressure, speechmaking, or UN voting, will change that. Palestinians advocating for a 1 state solution are committing themselves and subsequent generations to a lifetime of disappointment in hopes of a solution that doesn’t exist.

Yes, when it comes to a one state solution, please shut up.

The “genocidal assault ” was perpetrated by Hamas on Oct.7, an event the writer somehow doesn’t mention.

150 European settlers” – that’s how the writer describes the kidnapped hostages held in Gaza, starved and abused.
Let’s see:
Shlomo Mansour, 85(!) , born in Iraq
Youssef Alziadna, 53, a Bedouin from Rahat
Natthapong Pinta, 35, Thai national
Kfir Bibas, 1 year old; Ariel Bibas , 4 years old . For sure: European settlers!
and so on…
Let’s be clear : Salman Abu Sitta’s agenda is racist and genocidal. He might as well write: “Jews, please commit suicide”.

Meanwhile in Israel children are taught from childhood that Palestinians are less than human.

Every Israeli leaders brags about that there will never be a Palestinian state and yet somehow it’s all the Palestinians fault.

Are there polls or other evidence showing this? I am not arguing that it is or isn’t happening— just wondering what evidence there is and on what scale. I saw a few posts on Twitter to this effect from some Never Trump neocon types like Jonah Goldberg after Biden paused on the delivery of bombs, which I think was for show rather than serious pressure.

Re the whole issue of return, Amnesty International came out with this today:

The current forced displacement of almost 2 million Palestinians and mass destruction of civilian property and infrastructure in the occupied Gaza Strip puts a spotlight on Israel’s appalling record of displacing Palestinians and its ongoing refusal to respect their right to return for the last 76 years, said Amnesty International marking Nakba Day. The day commemorates the displacement of more than 800,000 Palestinians following the creation of the state of Israel in 1948….“Generations of Palestinians across the occupied territories are deeply scarred by the trauma of being uprooted and dispossessed multiple times and with no prospect of return to their homes. It is utterly harrowing to see the chilling scenes of 1948 Nakba (catastrophe), as it is known to Palestinians, repeat themselves as droves of Palestinians in Gaza are forced to flee their homes on foot in search of safety over and over, and Israeli army and state backed settlers expel Palestinians in the West Bank from their homes,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International….As a result of the 1947-1949 conflict, Palestinians were forced out of their homes and dispossessed of their land; they have been displaced and deported with no prospect in sight of return for them or their descendants. The same fate befell the over 350,000 Palestinians who fled due to the June 1967 war and Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Amnesty International’s 2022 report found that the discriminatory dispossession of Palestinians’ land and property denies them access to their rights including the right of return, and is a key component of Israel’s system of apartheid.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/05/mass-forced-displacement-in-gaza-highlights-urgent-need-for-israel-to-uphold-palestinians-right-to-return/

“For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong” (HL Mencken). Just accept the injustice of it all and shut up.

The Palestinian leaders who could find a way of solving this are not asleep; they are rotting in Israeli jails. Meanwhile, Netanyahu and his gang strut like cockerels on a dungheap. What would you have Israeli politicians do?

Gaza will likely not be rebuilt so long as Hamas rules Gaza. Or that Palestinians will achieve liberation under Hamas. There is a way forward that has essentially been unreported. The military wing of Hamas to disarm…. as they proposed

https://apnews.com/article/hamas-khalil-alhayya-qatar-ceasefire-1967-borders-4912532b11a9cec29464eab234045438

Eloquent words, moving words. How sad that they describe an ongoing tragedy. A tragedy in which we are complicit.

If it were up to Israel alone there would be no Palestinian state whatsoever – the only possibility for a Palestinian state lies in the rest of the world pressuring Israel and making it offers it can’t refuse. And if we ever reach that point, many possibilities open up.

Thanks for the link. Good to know that he has a new outlet at “Zeteo.” Fewer viewers, no doubt, but hopefully more in the future.

How can there be beauty in the words that describe such horrible death and destruction for the Palestinians?

Mohammed El-Kurd does so, because he mixes the heinous death and destruction being inflicted upon Palestinians by Israel with the whiff of hope.

Here in the UK, we experienced the same dilemma in the 2005 general election, two years after the debacle of the Iraq invasion. Tony Blair’s name was mud and Labour voters like me were urged to hold our noses and keep the faith, knowing the alternative would be worse. Labour had a large enough majority to hold on to power despite losing many seats and voters, but it was the beginning of the end.

The situations are not quite the same, not least because of the sheer awfulness of Donald Trump, whose derangement and/or likely conviction could yet throw the whole election into chaos. My hunch is that Biden won’t lose enough votes to cost him the election, but the Dems will need a really good candidate, preferably from the younger generation of politicians, to avoid defeat in 2028.

The 1 state solution is a non starter. Palestine will be free when Palestinians accept that they can have a country but it won’t include Israel. Were Palestinians made promises prior to 1948 that were not kept? Yes. Were Palestinians displaced during the fouding of Israel? Yes. Is there injustice? Yes. Are they getting their homes back? No. Even Arab countries in the region are realistic about it. In fact, Saudi Arabia told Palestinians that if they keep dithering, they will have to accept Abu Dis as their capital.

It is literally improbable Palestine will be free From the River to the Sea. If Palestine’s politics awakens, Palestinians could be …. and humanity would have a sigh of relief.

Listen up…. You can bet rap loving Ari Melber will not be having this rapper on “The Beat”

.
Rap song about Palestinians being killed by Israel.. The apartheid state of Israel
https://twitter.com/macklemore/status/1788814336611467523?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1788814336611467523%7Ctwgr%5Eb6fcc4336f1a599877b5c913a69365a876c3a60d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.juancole.com%2F2024%2F05%2Fpalestine-history-macklemore.html

Juan Cole’s take on HRC’s arrogant and destructive comments about protesting students.
.https://www.juancole.com/2024/05/palestine-history-macklemore.html

I made comments about HRC and Joe Scarborough dismissive and insulting comments about protesting students at Morning Joe’s fb page as soon as they made those very stupid comments.

Israel’s Willing Executioners
May 14, 2024

Hundreds of thousands of people are being forced to flee, once again, after more than half of Gaza’s population took sanctuary in the border town of Rafah. This is part of Israel’s sadistic playbook.

By Chris Hedges

“Run, the Israelis demand, run for your lives. Run from Rafah the way you ran from Gaza City, the way you ran from Jabalia, the way you ran from Deir al-Balah, the way you ran from Beit Hanoun, the way you ran from Bani Suheila, the way you ran from Khan Yunis. Run or we will kill you. We will drop 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs on your tent encampments. We will spray you with bullets from our machine-gun-equipped drones. We will pound you with artillery and tank shells. We will shoot you down with snipers.

We will decimate your tents, your refugee camps, your cities and towns, your homes, your schools, your hospitals and your water purification plants. We will rain death from the sky.

Run for your lives. Again and again and again. Pack up the pathetic few belongings you have left. Blankets. A couple of pots. Some clothes. We don’t care how exhausted you are, how hungry you are, how terrified you are, how sick you are, how old, or how young you are. Run. Run. Run.

And when you run in terror to one part of Gaza we will make you turn around and run to another. Trapped in a labyrinth of death. Back and forth. Up and down. Side to side. Six. Seven. Eight times. We toy with you like mice in a trap. Then we deport you so you can never return. Or we kill you.

Let the world denounce our genocide. What do we care? The billions in military aid flows unchecked from our American ally. The fighter jets. The artillery shells. The tanks. The bombs. An endless supply. We kill children by the thousands.” 

https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/14/chris-hedges-israels-willing-executioners/

“Freedom fighters understand that their opponent is Goliath, that the odds are stacked against them, that they do not have an option but to pick up the stone.”
_________________________________________________________

This logic, taught since childhood, has distanced liberation and will fail to capitalize on the political support now existing in the world.

This political problem will be solved politically, not by rocks or by rifles. IMO, to co-exist will take a political strategy developed by secularists from both sides. Sadly, this seems a dream.

Ayn Rand is also known for saying that Native Americans were savages and had no rights to their land. She had the same attitude regarding Palestinians.

Here is a YouTube link where she makes both points. The part about white people having the right to steal Native American land starts at 17:45 and the part about the Palestinians begins a few minutes later.

She is correct that the two cases are similar, but being a fanatically racist individual she draws the wrong conclusion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAka-tA5Ojw

Biden’s ever shifting “red line” when it comes to how many innocent Palestinians Israel has and will continue to massacre, is non existent. The blood,the bodies, the lives of slaughtered, mangled innocent Palestinian children, women, men keep being wrapped in white shrouds and piled up without names, without importance on Biden’s ever changing “red line.”

So outrageous, criminal, shameful, painful to witness the U.S. being part of this genocide. Even though our U.S. history is filled with committing genocide against others. Endless wrongs do not make this genocide right. Still so many of us wonder if anything we have done to try to stop Israel’s massacre of innocent Palestinians has done anything substantive to manifest a complete ceasefire?

I am hearing more and more older human rights and social justice activist say they are committed to being “non-committed” voters/non voters. They will not be voting for Biden. Willing to possibly watch the whole place burn down under Trump. I am conflicted, not sure what I am going to do. Although know or sure I will not be putting any time in for the Biden campaign, the way I did last time around. Four years ago I purposely put my fears about his historical war hawk stances unbridled support for Israel over the decades, Iraq ) to the side and pounded the pavement, knocked on doors, made phone calls,convinced others in Ohio and Colorado to do so as well. Will not be doing this time around. Not sure about being “non-committed.” Not that it matters in Ohio. Trump owns the majority of voters.

I am convinced Biden is burying the possibility that he will be re-elected in November. Fulfilling one of BB’s and his radical, right wing henchmen’s collective commitment to Amalek and taking down Biden along with the massacred, innocent Palestinians.

.https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/5/14/not-even-the-us-government-knows-the-us-government-line-on-rafah

This seems like an appropriate time to express my gratitude to Phil and to all the others who write for this site. They have done–and continue to do–much to enlighten and advance public understanding of the reality and morality involved. They have pursued a difficult task with courage and energy.

I grew up after the War in middle-class, middle-America, living in several states. I moved to the NYC area as an adult, and looked to the NYT for information and guidance on Palestine/Israel. Tom Friedman effectively defined the limits of what was considered acceptable and respectable in that context. I think I was typical of Americans of my age and background in that regard. Thanks to a move to DC, I was eventually exposed to other perspectives and facts. My understanding and judgment began to grow in response, years before I saw Mondoweiss.

Even so, discovering this site was a revelation. Or rather, a series of revelations. A healthy shock. Unfortunately, the “Old Guard,” the established “Empire,” is deeply entrenched here and in Palestine; thus, the Catastrophe continues. But still, “the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”

“Two can play at this game:”

Surely a cerebral fellow such as yourself can do better than the AYN RAND INSTITUTE.

Here is a quote from their beliefs.

Question: What does Ayn Rand mean when she describes selfishness as a virtue? Answer: Ayn Rand rejects altruism, the view that self-sacrifice is the moral ideal. She argues that the ultimate moral value, for each human individual, is his or her own well-being.

“

Sadly, the scales have just tipped back:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/14/biden-israel-weapons-package-rafah

The US state department has moved a $1bn package of weapons aid for Israel into the congressional review process, two US officials said on Tuesday.

The latest weapons package includes tank rounds, mortars and armoured tactical vehicles, one of the officials told Reuters.

Just reading the title is enough. No academic with any self-respect would put their name to such nastiness.

Here’s a more measured article from Juan Cole:

The UN World Health Organization said Monday that 25,000 of the Palestinians in Gaza had been positively identified by the Gaza Health Ministry — which is run by professionals, not by the Hamas politburo. Another 10,000 of the corpses awaited such definite identification, coming to 35,000 total. The identification of 25,000 is an advance, since previously names had not been put to so many of the dead.

https://www.juancole.com/2024/05/israels-atrocity-numbers.html

Another fine report from Tareq. The video, if you care to watch it, shows well something I have often argued here – that the IDF is ill-disciplined and incompetent: not even posting sentries to guard its parked armoured vehicles.

At the rank and file level the union’s attitudes are different. I went to a UAW rally today during a grad student strike. The rally featured a student from the pro-Palestine encampment on campus.

“…the army surrounds shelters, cuts off communications with the outside world, and then goes in and commits massacres and carries out field executions….”

Aryeh Neier, co-founder of human rights watch, writes in the New York Review of Books: “Is Israel Committing Genocide?” Full access only to subscribers but here’s the summary:

Like most of my colleagues in the international human rights movement, I use the term “genocide” sparingly…In late December, when South Africa brought to the ICJ its accusation that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, I did not join some of my colleagues in the international human rights movement in their support of the charge. … I was not convinced that this constituted genocide…I thought then, and continue to believe, that Israel had a right to retaliate against Hamas for the murderous rampage it carried out on October 7...I am now persuaded that Israel is engaged in genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. What has changed my mind is its sustained policy of obstructing the movement of humanitarian assistance into the territory….As early as October 9 top Israeli officials declared that they intended to block the delivery of food, water, and electricity, which is essential for purifying water and cooking….Since then Israel has restricted the number of vehicles allowed to enter Gaza, reduced the number of entry points, and conducted time-consuming and onerous inspections; destroyed farms and greenhouses; limited the delivery of fuel needed for the transport of food and water within the enclave; killed more than two hundred Palestinian aid workers, many of them employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the principal aid provider in the blockaded territory before October 7;…The cumulative effect of these measures is that many Palestinians—especially young children—are starving….As of this writing, 34,904 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 14,685 children and 9,670 women, and another 78,514 have been injured. Though some Israelis dispute these figures, they are in truth probably an undercount because they do not include those buried under the rubble….Whatever else emerges from this war, and whatever judgment comes from the ICJ, it is evident that Israel has done itself as well as its Palestinian victims long-term harm.

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/06/06/is-israel-committing-genocide-aryeh-neier/

2002, Hamas sat beside Abbas for the Arab League’s vote for recognizing Israel and proposing the “Arab Peace Plan”. Which Israel ignored.

A couple years later, Sheik Yassin, co-founder of Hamas proposed a 40-50 year Hudna, stand down, giving him a week to live.

IMO, Israel has yet to want an agreement…. has broken every ceasefire from 48 til 10-7.

Critical viewing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDK8GHV0lWI (see all but especially 3:16 to 4:06)

Two can play at this game:

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

Could be .
Here is his argument:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/how-gaza-health-ministry-fakes-casualty-numbers

CT, It’s not a matter of “choosing” not to defend the border. That’s conspiracy-theory territory, which I don’t buy. On Oct.7 there was arrogance, complacency, negligence. There was also the concept that the leaders of Hamas are normal, rational, people, who make decisions based on rational political and economic interests.
I’m not excusing our horrible government. I participate regularly in anti-government protests.
Are you denying that Hamas terrorists raped and mutilated (aside from murdering and kidnapping)  ?   The NYT report hasn’t been debunked and there are tons of evidence of rape and sexual abuse on Oct7 and ongoing , to this very moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAr9oGSXgak&t=2341s&ab_channel=ScreamsBeforeSilence

Blinken says no problem, or at least not enough to worry about:

https://theintercept.com/2024/05/10/israel-human-rights-gaza-report/

It’s not just shifting red lines. Here is the intro to a longer story in the UK publication, The Independent

President Joe Biden and his administration have been accused of being complicit in enabling a famine in Gaza by failing to sufficiently act on repeated warnings from their own experts and aid agencies.

Interviews with current and former US Agency for International Development (USAID) and State Department officials, aid agencies working in Gaza and internal USAID documents reveal that the administration rejected or ignored pleas to use its leverage to persuade its ally Israel — the recipient of billions of dollars of US military support — to allow sufficient humanitarian aid into Gaza to stop the famine taking hold.

The former officials say the US also provided diplomatic cover for Israel to create the conditions for famine by blocking international efforts to bring about a ceasefire or alleviate the crisis, making the delivery of aid almost impossible. 

“This is not just turning a blind eye to the man-made starvation of an entire population, it is direct complicity,” former State Department official Josh Paul, who resigned over US support for the war, told The Independent.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/gaza-famine-biden-israel-hamas-b2542961.html

Let us not get too technical…MURDER IS MURDER…call it what you want. And MURDER is what the IDF/israel is executing.

By granting its 2024 World Press Freedom Prize to Palestinian journalists covering the Israeli war on Gaza, UNESCO has acknowledged a historic truth.

Even if the decision to name Gaza’s journalists as laureates of its prestigious award was partly motivated by the courage of these journalists, the truth is that no one in the world deserved such recognition as those covering the genocidal war in Gaza.

Ramzy Baroud

https://www.juancole.com/2024/05/makes-palestinian-journalists.html

Was he trying to outdo Kissinger?

Piers Morgan doing some actual journalism and pressing the Israeli official on Palestinian civilian casualty numbers. Watch Piers starts at 0:45 of video
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Israeli Spokesperson HUMILIATED: Literally Left Speechless

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpE9EoZF-q4&list=WL&index=9&t=377s

Elliott Abrams is a convicted war criminal

Elliott Abrams is NOT a convicted war criminal.

I forgot another source. There are a few decent Israeli soldiers who have acted as whistleblowers.

Your fake statistics from Hamas schtick is just atrocity denial.

Back in October the well- known racist President Biden sneered at the casualty numbers the way you do and the Gazan health ministry put out a list of over 6000 dead complete with ID numbers and ages, saying there were hundreds more they hadn’t identified yet.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/despite-bidens-doubts-humanitarian-agencies-consider-gaza-toll-reliable-2023-10-27/

It is now May and most of the Palestinian health care system has been destroyed. I doubt the death toll is 35,000– it is almost certainly much higher. I am not sure we will ever know the toll beyond a rough estimate. It is in the tens of thousands. It is actually very difficult to calculate the true death toll of a war because often the deaths caused by indirect effects— the crumbling of health care and sanitation— outnumber the violent deaths.

If Israel were truly fighting this war as humanely as possible, they would welcome foreign reporters to come in and view the war from both sides. They have conducted a few very carefully managed visits. But we have to rely almost entirely on extremely brave local Palestinian reporters who keep getting killed in amazing numbers by Israel and what they report is a constant stream of Israeli barbarism. Of course Israel then claims they are Hamas.

And we know Israel deliberately fired on reporters in Lebanon.

There Is another source— Israeli soldiers put up their own videos. They seem quite proud of themselves, but they come across as a bunch of racist, sexist, looters, vandals, and thugs. I would say “ undisciplined rabble”, except that it seems this behavior is acceptable.

The way Israel keeps out foreign reporters and kills Palestinian reporters suggests to any sane person that they are trying to hide their war crimes as much as possible. This is what anyone would say about any other country which acted this way.

The history shows a long list of missed opportunities for peace, and contrary to talking points commonly used by Israel and the U.S., not all the blame belongs to the weaker side. Most readers of this site are familiar with at least some of the story, though of course they will see it from different perspectives.

One failure that seems particularly salient for me came in the years after 2006. My attention had been focused on the region and its history after 9/11; thus I was aware of work being done at RAND on a possible framework for peace.

https://www.rand.org/palestine.html

From what I read and heard, it seemed that there was a sincere willingness from Hamas to work with, and even to subordinate itself to the PLO, in the context of a meaningful settlement. And from what I’ve read and heard, it seemed that Israel when out of its way to sabotage that possibility, with the full support and connivance of the U.S. Not for the first time, nor the last.

A partial and brief summary of the history relating to Hamas is here.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/1/22/how-israel-has-repeatedly-rejected-hamas-truce-offers

UAW leadership appears to be beholden to Money and Power.

PS: I should have noted that El-Ad’s op-ed in Haaretz concludes,

Come on. Maybe we would do better to open our eyes and adopt a different attitude toward the Palestinians: to see them as equal human beings. That certainly [would be] a far better lesson for the Holocaust. Arendt would probably agree.

Reminds me of the days when Rumsfeld airily dismissed estimates of excess deaths in Iraq done using standard public health statistical methods with a casual “we don’t do body counts.”

Elliott Abrams also enabled a massacre of over 200,000 indigenous people in the Mayan Triangle of Guatemala (1983-1984).

Elliott Abrams is a convicted war criminal who has held many US Government foreign service jobs in several Administrations since he was part of the Iran-Contra corruption in the 1980s.
He is a member of the Neocon/zionist axis imbedded in the US Government since the Reagan Administration.

Not hearing anything about Israel throwing Al Jazeera out. Nothing at all. Very little on MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, Cspan, about how many journalist have been killed by Israel. Never ever hear a Palestinian on Morning Joe, never their perspective, experiences…nothing. You do hear a bit about the Palestinian experience etc on PBS, BBC,

Leslie Stahl on 60 minutes this past Sunday pushing Israel’s perspective. Not new for Leslie. Leslie who essentially alerted Aipac officials that they were being investigated. Leslie an Israeli firster without a doubt. She tries to hide it, however, her extreme bias and efforts to protect Israel no matter how many UN resolutions, international agreements etc they are in violation of…. is always exposed. She has been complicit in protecting Israel from any kind of accountability literally for decades

https://www.camera.org/article/new-questions-raised-on-cbs-spy-report/

David Satterfield was recently on BBC or PBS pushing the faulty US State Dept report that Israel is no in violation of international laws.

Cannot find the clip. The host did push back against Satterfields gaslighting for Israel. Looking for clip. This is not the interview I am referencing. Going to listen to this one. Looks like Satterfield continues to make the rounds for Israel

https://www.pbs.org/video/david-satterfield-show-1-of-2-vjkw7i/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-state-department-set-to-confirm-israel-not-breaking-international-law-in-gaza/

Also do not hear anyone covering in detail that the majority of Israeli Jews support the destruction and massacre going on in Gaza.

Would that be the same Abraham Wyner who is a well-known climate change denier?

Then why did you quote a source so tainted?

Perhaps you should direct your anger and outrage at the Israeli government which refused the ceasefire that Hamas accepted last week. Or at Israel for CHOOSING to not defend its southern border on the 7th of October, even though they were aware of the plans one year in advance, were warned their own citizens and their brutal ally, Egyptian intelligence? This, all a matter of public record.

Where’s your condemnation for 70 years of barbarism by your precious Israel toward the indigenous people of Palestine? Where’s your condemnation for successive Israeli government refusal to abide by Oslo, which would have avoided all this bloodshed?

Rape? The NYT hit piece has been fully discredited. Hostages? What about the thousands held by Israel with no charge, many minors sexually abused and tortured—as corroborated by Israel’s own human rights organization, B’tselem, and the UN. But I guess all human rights organizations are antisemitic, including Jewish ones?

Over 15,000 dead children, thousands more orphaned and hundreds of thousands injured, displaced and psychologically traumatized.

The “only democracy in the Middle East” and the “most moral army in the wold”, indeed, as it sprays flesh-burning white phosphorus on a defenceless refugee population.

part 2

“–From June 4 to 6, 1947, twenty letter bombs were sent from Italy to British politicians in London.
–On July 29, 1947, members of that same gang kidnapped and killed some British soldiers in the Netanya region.
–But the most important operation carried out by Lehi was the assassination of Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte (1895-1948) who had been Vice-President of the Swedish Red Cross before being appointed by UN Secretary General, the Norwegian Trygve Halvdan Lie, as “mediator” in Palestine in May 1948. On September 17, 1948. Bernadotte actively sought to amend the map that partitioned Palestine in an attempt to reach a compromise between Arabs and Jews. This led the Lehi leadership to decide to assassinate him and four of its members, wearing Israeli army uniforms, blocked his car on September 17, 1948, in the Jerusalem sector controlled by Israel, and shot him along with French Colonel Andre Serot, head of the UN Observers in the city, who accompanied Bernadotte. Both men were killed instantly. To obscure the identity of the assassins, a movement called the “Patriotic Front” announced its responsibility but this did not succeed as a cover-up for the true assassins. Bernadotte’s assassination was widely condemned, and a minute of silence was observed in his memory at the UN General Assembly then in session.
–On April 9, 1948, units from the Irgun and Lehi committed a massacre in the village of Dayr Yasin, with a population of some 700. More than a hundred of them were murdered in cold blood.
At a meeting of Haganah leaders in Tel Aviv in March, 1948, and with Ben-Gurion present, it was decided to draw up a comprehensive plan for ethnic cleansing, known as “Plan Dalet”, according to which numerous massacres were carried out to terrorize the Palestinian civilian population and to drive them out of their homeland. Some massacres were carried out before the creation of the Israeli army, as in the Tantura massacre, a village south of Haifa, on 22 and 23 May, 1948, which resulted in the killing of more than 200 Palestinian men and women. Others were committed after that army was formed, as in the village of al-Dawaymah in the al-Khalil (Hebron) district, on October 29, 1948, where hundreds of Palestinian men and women were killed.”

That was just the start of Jewish terrorists crimes.The list since then is far greater.Just look at the map of what is left.

CONTEXT,my boy, CONTEXT.