Israel, Palestine & the Levant rolling events: Oct 23 on

yeah I was just about to post that I don't know anything about this guy or Zehut

Tom Friedman as voice of reason? (Gift link) https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/18/opinion/netanyahu-gaza-congress.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0k0.Nm7B.u4H9kaDFZc--&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

From the Haaretz email yesterday --

In the coming weeks, the IDF is expected to present its achievements since the beginning of the war in Gaza in an attempt to convince the public that it has succeeded in defeating Hamas' military wing. The IDF said that two of the four battalions of the Rafah Brigade have been defeated, and that the other two are nearing defeat in the coming weeks.

x-post - Friedman's thoughts on rebuilding Gaza after a ceasefire make one go hmmmm

And to Israelis who would ask, “Friedman, are you crazy, you would let Sinwar run Gaza again?” my answer would again be — yes, for now. The alternatives — Israel running Gaza or Gaza becoming another Somalia — are far worse. Netanyahu’s idea that some perfect Palestinians — who are neither members of Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority — will run the place for Israel is a fantasy.

The only people who can defeat Hamas are the Palestinians of Gaza. They, too, need better leadership, and if they find it, we should help them rebuild. But until then, Israel would be crazy to want to stay in Gaza and be responsible for its reconstruction. That honor should go to Sinwar.

Eminently fair to call Israel a rogue state at this point:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/20/idf-transfers-powers-in-occupied-west-bank-to-pro-settler-civil-servants

The Israeli military has quietly handed over significant legal powers in the occupied West Bank to pro-settler civil servants working for the far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich.

An order posted by the Israel Defense Forces on its website on 29 May transfers responsibility for dozens of bylaws at the Civil Administration – the Israeli body governing in the West Bank – from the military to officials led by Smotrich at the defence ministry.

Smotrich and his allies have long seen control of the Civil Administration, or significant parts of it, as a means of extending Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank. Their ultimate goal is direct control by central government and its ministries. The transfer reduces the likelihood of legal checks on settlement expansion and development.

​Israeli politicians have long sought to​ find ways to permanently seize, or annex, the occupied West Bank​, which it captured in 1967 and where millions of Palestinians live.

and then there's this: https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/20/politics/us-concerns-israel-iron-dome-hezbollah

Translation: “we need air support please k thx bye”

Very normal, not racist country pic.twitter.com/WmVpJaWUZn

— ADAM (@AdameMedia) June 29, 2024

I know the date is 20 years ago but still..

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on reports of detention camps where soldiers have tortured, raped Palestinians:
“Everything published about the abominable conditions was true…I have already proposed a much simpler solution, of enacting the death penalty…” https://t.co/3HbCNUkgzz pic.twitter.com/y1iznxGJp3

— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) July 2, 2024

what a scumbag

Well, that is a final solution.

Hmm

Hezbollah has unleashed a barrage of more than a hundred rockets/drones into northern Israel and the occupied Golan this morning, with sirens going off non-stop for almost two hours.

The attacks are in retaliation for the assassination of commadner Muhammad Nimah Nasser. pic.twitter.com/6ZWgbPXEv2

— Séamus Malekafzali (@Seamus_Malek) July 4, 2024

IDF ordered Hannibal directive on October 7, according to Haaretz' review of new documents.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-07-07/ty-article-magazine/.premium/idf-ordered-hannibal-directive-on-october-7-to-prevent-hamas-taking-soldiers-captive/00000190-89a2-d776-a3b1-fdbe45520000

BREAKING: The Lancet has just published this article "conservatively" estimating that the death toll in the Gaza genocide could be 186,000 people or more. That's 8% of the population, obliterated. These are apocalyptic figures.https://t.co/HaRTAvTvVI

— Jason Hickel (@jasonhickel) July 7, 2024

For someone who has been documenting every day, I absolutely can confirm the deaths are way higher than being reported . Whole cities have been wiped out, most buildings and houses were bombed, most with residents inside. Every day when I walk into the schools for the displaced,… pic.twitter.com/NYHKlHpiHh

— حسام شبات (@HossamShabat) July 8, 2024

incredibly grim:

https://www.972mag.com/israeli-soldiers-gaza-firing-regulations/

But these executions, which did not appear to have any security rationale, are consistent with the testimonies of six Israeli soldiers who spoke to +972 Magazine and Local Call following their release from active duty in Gaza in recent months. Corroborating the testimonies of Palestinian eyewitnesses and doctors throughout the war, the soldiers described being authorized to open fire on Palestinians virtually at will, including civilians.

The six sources — all except one of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity — recounted how Israeli soldiers routinely executed Palestinian civilians simply because they entered an area that the military defined as a “no-go zone.” The testimonies paint a picture of a landscape littered with civilian corpses, which are left to rot or be eaten by stray animals; the army only hides them from view ahead of the arrival of international aid convoys, so that “images of people in advanced stages of decay don’t come out.” Two of the soldiers also testified to a systematic policy of setting Palestinian homes on fire after occupying them.

reading that alongside Israel ordering all 250,000 residents of Gaza City to evacuate again:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy08nl4plvzo

and this: https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/10/politics/biden-administration-allows-bomb-shipment-israel/index.html

US govt lackeys splitting hairs over the weight of bombs and citing Rafah as if it hasn't been completely destroyed already. I might be mildly less enraged if the Biden admin policy had some kind of discernible point to it

awful pictures, total scorched earth policy it seems

https://www.reuters.com/pictures/pictures-ruins-gaza-2024-07-10/

don't know if it's already been shared here somewhere, but this article about a village in Israel built for Jews and Arabs to co-exist was really interesting:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/06/17/wahat-al-salam-neve-shalom-israel-gaza-october-7th

This excerpt is very much not reflective of the full article, but it is truly cursed:

Amid the fear and the despair of the last few months, a handful of Israelis have stepped forward to articulate a message of hope for the land. “Hope becomes a topic of interest in dark times,” Oded Adomi Leshem, a political psychologist at Hebrew University, told me. On October 13th, Oxford University Press published his book, titled “Hope Amidst Conflict,” in which Leshem proposes a “bi-dimensional” model of hope, where one dimension is “wish” (how much someone wants peace) and the other dimension is “expectation” (how likely someone thinks peace is). Leshem sees an opportunity in the current moment to “focus on the wish dimension” and offer Israelis a vision of peace that is “concrete, simple.” He plans to assemble a sort of focus group of a thousand people, and then use artificial intelligence to synthesize ideas of what peace in Israel/Palestine could feel, sound, and smell like.

That's pure centre left pol.

Anyway, just another atrocity today with another stupid excuse as 'justification'.

Its a lie, but even so...

46,000+ Israeli businesses have closed since 7 October. Karma is a bitch

https://thecradle.co/articles-id/25882

BREAKING:

Israel is bombing Syria’s Damascus in the middle of the night.

Not content with committing massacres in Gaza, and dropping white phosphorus bombs on villages in South Lebanon, murderous Israel is now targeting residential areas in Syria too. pic.twitter.com/8ojEmP8Xxl

— sarah (@sahouraxo) July 13, 2024

Anyway, just another atrocity today with another stupid excuse as 'justification'.

Its a lie, but even so...

― xyzzzz__, Saturday, July 13, 2024 8:22 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

another round 24 hours later. unclear if they're even bothering to claim it was to get Deif (perhaps he can teleport?) or if 17 dead, 50 wounded is below their threshold for an official explanation, but the Guardian is going to re-up their Deif resume anyway: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/14/palestinians-killed-latest-attack-on-gaza-city-say-officials

well since the first attack the world has come to a consensus that political violence is never acceptable

true I did just read this in the nyt:

Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, who earlier this year called for citizens to use physical force against peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters, condemned political violence in an appearance on CBS, saying that Americans should settle “differences through political debates and through elections. We don’t settle them through violence.”

Not too hard to suss out , honestly. Violence is when capital and its lackeys are targeted. When capitalism enacts its inherent violence on normal people, then it is perfectly acceptable

on that note: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-07-14/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-loyalists-link-trump-assassination-attempt-with-incitement-against-pm/00000190-b174-d96f-a1f6-ff7ce91c0000

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/15/israel-strikes-five-schools-in-week-of

“Israeli forces have attacked five separate schools in Gaza in just eight days, killing dozens of people sheltering in them, according to Palestinian officials, medics and rescuers.”

the bbc headline doesn’t make it clear but their reporting does: a disabled man was mauled for several minutes at least by an idf attack dog, forcibly separated from his family by soldiers, and left by those soldiers to die of his wounds. not a lonely death, but murder https://t.co/ZS4XvEPvEv

— michael wave (@SzMarsupial) July 16, 2024

"Israel has reduced by 94 percent the amount of water available in Gaza." https://t.co/SHjQYyldfv

— Eman Abdelhadi (@emanabdelhadi) July 18, 2024

im only reacting to headlines but this looks like a fairly comprehensive ruling by ICJ (with Sebutinde dissent)

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-07-19/ty-article-live/icj-to-rule-on-legality-of-israels-occupation-of-west-bank-east-jerusalem/00000190-cade-dfb6-afbe-effe53000000#627098860

Haaretz 2 minutes ago
Netanyahu lashes out at ICJ 'lies,' says the Jewish people 'do not occupy their own land'

checkmate

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1814311210936156332.html

An airstrike targeted the port of Al Hudaydah, Yemen, causing a massive fire. pic.twitter.com/5RmAXmKBMb

— War Watch (@WarWatchs) July 20, 2024

m(asha) gessen’s final essay for the new yorker has not exactly received a warm welcome on twitter

why is it their final essay?

essay seemed pretty fair-minded to me, maybe I'm missing something. I didn't read about the Hebrew U prof getting thrown in jail, horrifying shit

xpost The opinion colums are going to the New York Times, I believe? https://www.nytco.com/press/masha-gessen-joins-the-times-as-an-opinion-columnist/

afaic going to the Times has ruined any credibility that Gessen once had, but since I don’t have twitter, what is the issue?

To utilise the very real, well-documented, forensically proven systematically planned and executed genocidal rape of Bosniak women during the Bosnian Genocide in an attempt to equalise it with the October 7th attack is remarkably disgusting. 50,000 Bosnian women were raped. https://t.co/1siqc7ToHU

— Arnesa Buljušmić-Kustura (@Rrrrnessa) July 21, 2024

Haven't read it but that seems to be it

That tweet is an excruciatingly dumb take on that article.

Yeah, it didn’t seem like that was what Gessen was doing at all.

agreed. I frankly just do not know enough about the bosnian genocide to have an opinion about some of the substantive criticisms in that thread. but this tweet in particular is emblematic of much of the blowback I’ve seen, and one of the reasons I feel so much despair when looking for intelligent discussion about thorny topics apart from like, literary journals months after the fact. just an baldly dishonest conclusion to draw

Masha Gessen is simply utilising the very real pain of Bosniaks and the very real suffering that Bosniak women occured throughout the genocide in order to justify the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. You will NOT use our pain, our suffering, our genocide to justify another.

— Arnesa Buljušmić-Kustura (@Rrrrnessa) July 21, 2024

the intentional misgendering in that thread is also a very nice touch