Andy

This article is by Yarden Michaelis and Nir Hassan. I hope folks are watching it for them, because I fear they’re going to be arrested for publishing this. It’s flatly illegal in Israel to publish stories that are “demoralizing to the war effort” regardless of veracity.

And then there’s also right wing harassment and violence. I really applied these journalists for their courage and hope they stay safe.

This is a weird take, because everyone within Israel – both critics and supporters – more or less acknowledges that this is a vindictive ethnic cleansing campaign.

Most Israeli Jews support it because they would like Gaza’s people and infrastructure to be erased. Some oppose it, often because they recognize that the damage to Israel’s standing is a catastrophe. But this claim that it’s a legitimate war with legitimate aims is not something anyone in Israeli society says except to international audiences.

Oof. That’s bleak. Thanks for sharing, though.

It’s particularly crazing that this article asserts a massive rise in antisemitism by citing the Anti-Defamation League.

Recently, the Anti-Defamation League reported that antisemitic incidents in the U.S. were at record highs. …

In Los Angeles County, data from 2022 showed that anti-Jewish hate crimes rose more than 90%, the largest number of such crimes ever recorded in the region.

It then links to an article NBC published about the release of a report by the Anti-Defamation League. It’s kind of crazy, because the ADL has been going through an increasingly public conflict between members of the staff, donors, and former staff over the way that current President of the ADL has been nakedly cooking their numbers to justify crackdowns on Pro-Palestinian activism. Even a lot of mainstream liberal zionists in groups like J Street have been openly complaining that Jonathan Greenblatt is destroying the credibility of the ADL and the usefulness of their published research.

I guess NBC hasn’t been paying attention.

Beverly Hills is full of rich, aggrieved, out-of-touch radical centrists who don’t like the political progressivism of Los Angeles. I think some of the residents are constantly looking for ways to visibly perform their opposition to the politics and culture of the rest of the city.

What’s the opposition look like in Argentina?

In the US, our president is putting to the test how corrupt you can be when you don’t face a credible opposition. As awful as corruption is, getting caught stealing from your citizens doesn’t threaten one’s power unless there’s an appealing political alternative.

Researchers following the adoption of AI predict around 92 million jobs are projected to disappear by 2030, even as roughly 170 million new roles are expected to emerge, McKinsey & Company has found.

What in the fuck does this mean?

This is such good news. Now the challenge is to keep both sides from reigniting.

I don’t really know what Hamas and Haniyeh and Sinwar want, so it’s hard to speculate what they’ll do, but I know that Netanyahu is trying to reignite the war as hard as he can, and will be desperate to see the ceasefire ended prematurely under circumstances he can blame on Hamas.

For those who haven’t followed his career (and his actions in the least week in particular) this seems abundantly clear. The absolute worst thing that could happen to him would be a deescalation that leads to an political negotiations. I really hope the US antiwar movement is prepared to increase their pressure, because I believe it’s made the difference in getting us this far. As furious as I’ve been at Biden’s response, I have read multiple reports that the US was far more involved in hostage negotiations than Israel, so I will give Biden this sliver of credit if people actually come home. But he really needs to stop propping up Bibi if he wants to land this plane for real.

You pick up the phone and negotiate a hostage exchange.

You say, meet us at this spot tomorrow with 10 of the oldest and youngest hostages you’ve got and we’ll do the same. If it goes well, we’ll talk about doing another exchange the next day.

That’s what Hamas wants. That’s what they’ve usually taken and returned hostages for. Hamas released two hostages so far in the weeks this has been going on. How come someone negotiated for 2 and then stopped there?

I don’t understand what you’re asking. Can you rephrase it?

The whole argument about whether they are or aren’t in any given spot is moot. Israel isn’t differentiating between Hamas and civilians, and none of this is an actual defensive operation.

If Netanyahu wanted to actually protect Israelis, the obvious ways to do so are to:

1. Staff the Gaza boarder crossings. They were largely unmanned, as they troops were relocated to assist in illegally annexing the West Bank.
2. Replace Hamas. Netanyahu repeatedly supported Hamas because he said that their rule in Gaza prevented the PLO from negotiating for peace.
3. Stop trying to ignite terrorism in the West Bank. The whole point of all of this is to TRY to create violence that justifies land theft. He’s literally not trying to keep Israeli’s safe.
4. Just negotiate peace. He’s been in charge for nearly a generation, and his primary legacy has been eroding civil rights for both Israelis AND Palestinians.

It’s just maddening how we get focused on the trees instead of the forest: Netanyahu has been an authoritarian war criminal for decades, and under his control this situation will never lead to peace or security, because that’s never been the goal.