What can one say about what’s going on in Gaza but that it’s all just horrific, and there is little hope of anything but continued horror and death there in the near future.
A U.S. aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, is on its way to Israel with some cruisers and destroyers. This is supposed to be a kind of show of force to Iran to not try anything, plus it can offer surveillance and other support to Israel.
Turkey’s President Erdogan is telling people the carrier will be the base of U.S. attacks on Gaza. I trust this isn’t true, but whatever happens many will believe it. This is not helping.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib for some time has had a Palestinian flag outside her office, and she’s refusing to take it down, and of course Republicans are going nuts over this. It needs to be remembered that “Palestinians” are not “Hamas.” Hamas is a militant group of Palestinians, but not all Palestinians support them. There’s a proposal to not allow any foreign flags in Congress. And let me say further that the mental habit of sorting humanity into “good guys” and “bad guys” is the source of all human atrocity.
A pro-Palestinian rally in New York on Sunday apparently went over the line into anti-semitism, and now the Democratic Socialists of America — which promoted the rally but did not organize it — is taking heat for it. This has always been my beef with big lefty protests; there are always a few who do something stupid and outrageous that get all the attention.
In other news: If you need a break from news about war, you may enjoy reading After years of exaggerating his business assets, Trump confronts them in court. No paywall.
Thomas Friedman penned quite an opinion piece in the NYT today, with the title message being Israel's need to be smart at this moment. Friedman gives background and a possible trigger to Hamas's horrid actions. He messages both BiBi and Joe in quite a directive way. The following quote should communicate the tone:
What are the chances of avoiding a spiral into even greater horror?
"Netanyahu has never wanted the world to believe that there are “good Palestinians”"
Exactly which is why he chooses to deal with Hamas over the "more moderate Palestinian Authority". He doesn't want a deal at all he wants to keep expanding settlements until there is nothing left for the Palestinians. The only way he stays in power is to adapt the policies of the most extreme religious fanatics in Israel (and there are a bunch of them). He knows damn well hamas won't compromise and he knows the eventual "terror" will enable his cruelty and solidify support amongst Israelis. People don’t like rocket fire! Bibi is not a good faith actor, I would argue he as bad if not worse than Putin. I was disappointed in Biden's seemingly unconditional support today. What Hamas did was barbaric and deserves a strong response but leveling the Gaza killing tens of thousands of civilians aint the answer. Hopefully Biden will come to his senses soon. I believe I heard a faint reference in his speech that all out carnage against Palestinians will not be tolerated but it certainly was not the overwhelming theme of in the speech. Biden would do well to remember how in 2015 Bibi trashed President Obama in a speech to a "joint session" of congress. Fuck that piece of shit I wouldn't trust him anymore than I would trust Stump.
https://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/democrats-react-benjamin-netanyahu-speech-115705
We shouldn't judge all Palestinians by Hamas.
Just like we shouldn't judge all Republicans/conservatives by tRUMP's MAGAt's and/or the KKK, the Proud Boys, etc…
Imo: The violent ferocity involved in Hamas' attacks, and the horrors inflicted on the hostages in its aftermath, can only be caused by religion, and religious hatred.
Tragically, Jews have been the subject of the most religious hatred over the last two milleniums – and then some.
The only way I see to rid ourselves of religious hatred, is to rid ourselves of religion.
But that's for a different conversation in the future.
Also too, imo: Egypt needs to open its border with Gaza to allow innocent Palestinians to exit Gaza before Israel seeks its revenge on Hamas members in Gaza. The border is only a couple of miles long, which should make screening easier, but will also be time consuming.
Also three, imo: Israel should hold off its revenge on Hamas in Gaza until Egypt has had some time to at least let the women and children who want to leave, exit Gaza.
"Imo: The violent ferocity involved in Hamas' attacks, and the horrors inflicted on the hostages in its aftermath, can only be caused by religion, and religious hatred."
True, though 50 years of cruel occupation and hopelessness is at least a close second. Nothing can condone what hamas did but they did not come out of nowhere, oppresion always breeds extremism.
Egypt needs to open its border with Gaza to allow innocent Palestinians to exit Gaza before Israel seeks its revenge on Hamas members in Gaza.
/ <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-dropped-bombs-near-a-gaza-border-crossing-packed-with-civilians-whod-followed-officials-pleas-to-flee-reports/ar-AA1i15wa"> Israel dropped bombs near a Gaza border crossing packed with civilians who'd followed officials' pleas to flee</a>
Juan Cole, someone I haven’t read in a long time, captures the depth of it pretty well in Tribalism versus International Law in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. He’s the guy I usually turn to when trying to understand that region.
Good read thanks, Juan knows!
By my calculations, Bibi generally extracts ten to twenty dead Palestinians for every dead Israeli. The slaughter is just starting, I'm afraid. The dead in Israel number between 700 to 1000 depending on who is keeping score. So Bibi won't slow down before he's killed 7000 to 20,000 "terrorists." Some of them infants.
No one in the US State Dept. or Pentagon has the bad taste to suggest the US can save a lot of money in munitions by offering to set up gas chambers for Bibi. The Nazis proved how cost-effective that kind of ethnic cleansing is. The US can cap the slaughter in the name of moderation at 20,000.
If ANY ethnic group should understand how evil the slaughter of the innocents is, it's the Jewish people. My suggestion is vulgar to be sure. But it pales in comparison to the reality that Bibi is in the process of inflicting. No food, water, fuel, or electricity in what Bibi is promising will be an extended conflict.
It's time to call the "war" out for the genocide Bibi wants to get away with.
My fear is given the significant intelligence failure this was, and occurring on his watch, "Bibi" is going to overcompensate on vengeance and wreak genocidal level of violence on innocents in Gaza, in order to paper over his responsibility for the failure. Israelis and the US at some point need to have some hard questions for him.
The only thing I’ve ever admired about republican politicians is their willingness to do whatever it takes to win. This is also why I hate almost every one of them. Of course they are mostly on the wrong side of every issue but they maintain 50% plus support in this country. At least enough support to keep them viable. Why, because they know how to fight. It’s like back in 8th grade when some assholes (usually the really mean, ugly, dumb, future republican ones) where mixed up in every fight and for the most part won. The only people who stood a chance were those willing to fight back and bring some friends. Willing to maybe get their ass kicked but someone would land a punch, willing to at least fight back. The Democratic Party is not willing to fight. We have been for the last 35 years (since Dukakis) locked in a doily war of politeness. We don’t bring the heat. Even when we have power we still get rolled. We answer aggression with dissertation, we counter hate with blueprints. Obviously the democrats are on the right side, ideas should defeat hate, education should tame aggression. But guess what that doesn’t always happen and one more round of the GQP in power could be our last. Just look at the situation in Israel (Bibi is Stump). The Democratic Party can’t maintain it’s allegiance to truth while looking past the corrosive lies from the right. Enough is enough. It is time for the Doily war to end. We have no friends in the republican party, at least none we can count on in a fight. It’s time to get together and land some punches. It’s time to piss off the corporate media, give them what the republicans gave them 40 years ago, the middle finger. First step: Since nobody pays any attention to Chuck Schumer maybe tomorrow while this war is hot Chuck (who is Jewish and supports Israel) could stand with Biden, hold a prime time press conference, express support for Israel, then demand that our military promotions go through. Explain that our Navy is in theatre to support Israel but the GOP won’t allow it’s top brass to progress through command positions. Explain that if this war widens into a regional conflict that the rest of our military command is incomplete. Then the next day hold a presser with Zelensky (who is Jewish) and explain how Ukraine's fight against Putin is linked to Israel's struggle (Russia supports Iran, Iran supports hamas) if your against Ukraine your with Putin, Iran and Hamas. Fight back. Get off your asses. If tuberfuck et-al won’t budge then change the senate rule push through the promotions and then blame every Ukrainian, Israeli, Palestinian death from this day forward on him and McConnell. You can be right without being a wimp, stop fucking around.
When left with nothing left to lose, these things happen …
There was a minister named Dietrich Bonhoeffer (the guy who got executed for standing up to Nazis and their Wehrmacht) who hoped that his religious brethren could just stick to the Bible. He’s probably got an Islamic counterpart (or had, considering the way most things go on that side of that fence).
He came up with good reasons for sociological dysfunction calling it “stupidity”, but AFAIK, no good ways to counter it. In short, he implied that the more socio-economically dependent on your in-group you are while also being less of an independent-minded self-reliant thinker, the more you’re gonna be susceptible. To doing really bad shit while thinking it 'righteous'.