Friday, June 21, 2024

The disgusting Matt Gaetz

Paul Rudnick.



Back to the disgusting Matt Gaetz. Nicholas Liu (SALON) reports:


A woman interviewed by congressional investigators said that she received money from Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., in exchange for sex, sources familiar with the testimony told ABC News. Gaetz, an ally of former President Donald Trump, also allegedly paid others to attend parties where people engaged in sex and drugs, the outlet reported.

Witnesses who spoke with House Ethics Committee staff had previously spoken with federal investigators as part of the Department of Justice's own probe into Gaetz and his erstwhile friend, Joel Greenberg, who was convicted in 2022 of sex trafficking a minor.

According to the sources who spoke with ABC News, the witnesses were shown evidence of Venmo payments that they allegedly received from Gaetz and were asked whether those were for sex.

Investigators from the committee received the Venmo records after subpoenaing the company, the sources said. They also interviewed around a half-dozen women who claimed they were paid to attend those parties by Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector. In 2022, Greenberg pled guilty to underage sex trafficking, wire fraud, stalking, identity theft, producing a fake ID card, and conspiring to defraud the US government. A judge sentenced him to 11 years in federal prison.



Why is he still in Congress?  Drugs and prostitution?  Under age copulation?  Why is he still in Congress?

He needs to be thrown out and, please note, faux Christians Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert have failed to mount their high horse on this issue.  Yet, they pretend to be Christians.

If Congress can't police their own, they're not fir to serve in the legislature.


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Thursday, June 20, 20224.  Jonathan S. Tobin competes with Ben Stiller in the battle of the nitwits, Green Peace supports a cease-fire, and much more.


Not sure what to say but I guess: Hats off Jonathan S. Tobin.

We were all fooled.  Everyone but him.  As the neocon 'reveals' in his just published JEWISH NEWS SYNDICATE piece, there's no starvation in Gaza.  No.  We all got it wrong.  The UN, aid agencies, medical workers, journalists, news consumers, we all got it wrong.

Suicide non-eaters!  Slapping my forehead as I realize, they were suicide non-eaters -- those children who are dead now.  They killed themselves.  Jonathan's figured it all out!

What do we do with this nonsense?  

Is he an idiot?  

Yes.

Is he lying?

Yes.  

How does anyone arrive at that point where they are so willing to lie?  I don't get it.  

If I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong.  I don't paint myself into a corner.  But where do you go if you're Toobin now?  When you're denying the starvation going on in Gaza?  When you're ignoring the deaths of children in Gaza from starvation?  

How do you think you come back from that?

And I also don't get how you think you look like an American?

That's not say that Americans don't lie, we lie all the time.

That is to say that Tobin's not lying for his country.  Wouldn't make the lie more acceptable if he was but he's lying for another country.

I wonder about people like that.  You know when Bully Boy Bush was pushing the Iraq War, where would someone like Toobin be?  What do you think he would have been focusing on?

Oh, wait, we don't have to wonder.  

Isn't that cute, how he always has the government of Israel's back.

So is Tobin an American as he likes to bill himself or is he someone with dual citizenship who's actually an Israeli-American?

He may be worse than the right-wing Cuban exiles in Florida.  

If you've missed him so far, you've been so lucky.  Since October alone, he's called for street action and push back against any efforts at peace and he's 'explained' that sympathies and support for the Palestinian people (not, Hamas, the Palestinian people) is just someone who hates Jewish people (here for his column that someone's reposted in full on LINKED-IN -- byline is at the end of the column).











Today, The Idiot Tobin pushes past everyone else on the face of the planet to advance from village idiot to global idiot.  Wear the crown well, Jonathan, wear the crown well.

Maybe loan it to Ben Stiller?

The acting career ended long ago and he's seen about as current today as Burt Reynolds was in the 90s but all that time freed from an actual acting career (yes, he produces a show on APPLE+ -- no, that's nothing to brag about) led him to write a piece for TIME.  He's upset, people, Ben's upset.

What a time we are all living through. Like so many people, I have been watching the awful events happening in the Middle East over the last year and trying to determine how to react. I have been seeing the brazen antisemitic incidents in my own city and feeling a mix of anger, fear, and astonishment that we are at this place in our country. Saying nothing at this point feels like I am betraying my own conscience. But what do you say? How does one express the complicated and very real feelings in this scary world of social media, where it seems any sentiment opens you to online vitriol from one side or another? The issues we are dealing with are so nuanced and complicated that short statements cannot in any way express fully what I want to say from my heart. As a public advocate for refugees, I’ve been struggling to reconcile my silence with that work. Please bear with me as I explain. And to be clear, what I say here is my personal view, not that of any organization–it’s just how I feel.

Is Ben in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town?


Yesterday it rained in TennesseeI heard it also rained in TallahasseeBut not a drop fell on little old me'Cause I was in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shooShoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town


Wow, Ben, the Iraq War, didn't register on you, did it.  No, not one drop fell on little old you but now you're concerned about an event.

And you don't realize how you are the problem.

You blather on about Israel over and over and whine like you've always whined throughout your adult life -- your inability to find a backbone goes along way towards explaining why audiences turned on you -- and then you write this:


I also see a troubling conflation in criticism of the actions of the Israeli government with denunciations of all Israelis and Jewish people. And as a result, we are seeing an undeniable rise in global antisemitism. I am seeing it myself, on the streets of the city I grew up in. It isn’t right and must be denounced.

Antisemitism must be condemned whenever it happens and wherever it exists. As should Islamophobia and bigotry of all kinds. There is a frightening amnesia for history in the air. We must remind ourselves that we can only manifest a more hopeful, just, and peaceful future by learning from the past.



You're the one conflating the two: The Israeli people and the Israeli government.

That's you and one single sentence in your excessive essay doesn't change that reality.

You're a piece of garbage sexist and we all know it in the industry and we've always known it. People who harm women are people who are deluded and your delusions are on full display.

A frightening amnesia?  You mean the one that denies decades of oppression of the Palestinian people by the government of Israel?  

He writes that he has to stand against terrorism?

Okay, Ben, do so.  Call out the War Crimes being carried out by the Israeli government.

Oh, that's right, you won't do that.  

And the world sees that.  And so don't pretend you are not responsible for any public mental merger of the state of Israel with the people of Israel.  

You are 100% responsible and it's all there you awful column -- a 1143 word column that only uses the term Palestinians twice.  

Yeah, let's pretend like you really give a damn about the Paletinian people.

And before we close on your stupidity and lies, stop lying about your father: "My dad served in the U.S. Army at the end of World War II."  That sentence is dishonest and you damn well know it.  Your father is not someone who fought in WWII.  Gary Susman (VANITY FAIR):


Stiller enlisted in the Army during World War II but wasn’t sent overseas until after the fighting was over; as he recalled, he spent most of his stint in Italy playing football. Through the G.I. Bill, he enrolled at Syracuse University, where he was one of the school’s first-ever drama majors. After graduation, he returned to New York City and spent years in bit parts on Broadway and TV.



The humanitarian situation in southern Gaza is “quickly deteriorating” as people have been crammed in a “highly congested area along the beach in the burning summer heat”, the UN said.

Active conflict and lawlessness in the area have made it “near impossible” for the World Food Programme and its partners to meet the surging demand, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said in its latest situation report issued on Wednesday.

There is also a critical lack of milk and formula for babies and nutritional supplements for children and pregnant and breastfeeding women, Ocha said.

“Many households report having only one meal every day, with some having one meal every two or three days, relying mostly on bread, food sharing with other families and rationing stocks,” it said.

WFP deputy executive director Carl Skau spent two days in Gaza this month. “The situation in southern Gaza is quickly deteriorating," he said.

"A million people have been pushed out of Rafah and are trapped in a highly congested area along the beach in the burning summer heat. We drove through rivers of sewage.”

More than one million people have been forced out of the southern city of Rafah since Israel began a ground operation there on May 7, the UN said.






Israel's chief army spokesman has appeared to question the stated goal of destroying the Hamas militant group in Gaza in an apparent rare public rift between the country's political and military leadership.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the face of the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) daily war briefings and military videos, made the comments during an interview on Israeli TV on Wednesday. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted Israel will pursue the fight to "destroy Hamas", the group running the besieged Gaza Strip, until its military and governing capabilities in the Palestinian territory are eliminated.

But with the war now in its ninth month, frustration has been mounting with no clear end or postwar plan in sight.

"This business of destroying Hamas, making Hamas disappear — it's simply throwing sand in the eyes of the public," Mr Hagari told Israel's Channel 13 TV.



Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said Netanyahu’s office was “fuming” at Hagari’s remarks.

“This just gives you an idea of what Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies are in this war, and the army on the ground saying it is actually not realistic,” she added.

Netanyahu’s office responded by saying that the security cabinet, chaired by the prime minister, “has defined the destruction of Hamas’ military and governing capabilities as one of the goals of the war. The Israeli military, of course, is committed to this.”



War Criminal Netanyahu is supposed to address the US Congress next month.  Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) reports:


U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said late Tuesday that Democratic and Republican leaders should withdraw their invitation for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak at a joint meeting of Congress next month after he released a video attacking the Biden administration for "withholding" weapons from Israel's military.

"This man should not be addressing Congress. He is a war criminal," Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media. "And he certainly has no regard for U.S. law, which is explicitly designed to prevent U.S. weapons from facilitating human rights abuses."

"His invitation should be revoked," she added. "It should've never been sent in the first place."

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) formally invited Netanyahu to address a joint meeting last month, roughly two weeks after the Biden administration all but acknowledged what leading human rights organizations had been saying for months: that Israeli forces have used American weaponry to commit war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

The invitation also came roughly two months after Schumer criticized Netanyahu in a speech on the Senate floor, accusing the prime minister of being "too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza" and calling for new leadership in Israel.



Gaza remains under assault. Day 258 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE NATIONAL notes, "The death toll in Gaza has increased to 37,431, the enclave's Health Ministry said on Thursday.  It added that 85,653 had been injured since the war began on October 7.  More than 35 were killed and 130 injured in the last 24 hours, the ministry said."    Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

  



April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 

As for the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."


Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) reports on a new development in calls for a ceasefire:

As part of its quest for "a green and peaceful future," Greenpeace International on Tuesday urged the Israeli government and Hamas to "unequivocally agree to support and abide by" a recent United Nations Security Council resolution and declare "an immediate and permanent cease-fire" in the Gaza Strip.

"We call for the bullets and bombs to be silenced so that the growing voices for peace can be heard," the environmental advocacy group said in a statement that acknowledges "the horrific events" of October 7—in which Hamas-led militants killed more than 1,100 people in Israel and took around 240 hostages—and the over 37,000 Palestinians who Israeli forces have slaughtered since.

In addition to the rising death toll and at least 85,523 Palestinians injured by the war, "the majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes," Greenpeace highlighted. "Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble, famine and disease are rife, nowhere and no one is safe. Sanity and humanity must be restored in the face of this unfolding genocide."

"Beyond the urgent need to end the civilian suffering and ecological devastation, all parties must resume peaceful negotiations."

The organization pointed to South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice as well as a U.N. commission's report from last week that concludes the Israeli government and Palestinian militants have committed war crimes.

"We call on Hamas to immediately release all hostages," Greenpeace said. "We call for the Israeli government to immediately end the blockades on the supply of food, water, medicine, and fuel to the people of Gaza and release all illegally detained civilians."

"Violence is never the answer, it only brings more violence," the group emphasized. "Beyond the urgent need to end the civilian suffering and ecological devastation, all parties must resume peaceful negotiations towards a lasting peace built on safety, justice, and equal rights for all. International law must be upheld."

The United States and European countries that are arming Israel have faced international pressure to use their leverage to halt crimes by its forces. Greenpeace called for "a global embargo on all arms sales and transfers that could be used to further increase the toll of war crimes to be answered by both sides once this war and conflict ends."

"Greenpeace recognizes the deep historic roots that need to be discussed and negotiated if a permanent peace is to be established," the group said. "Greenpeace calls for an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine. Greenpeace supports the UNSC resolution ambition that 'Israel and Palestine live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders, consistent with international law and relevant U.N. resolutions."

The Greenpeace statement was released the same day that the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) published a preliminary assessment of the "environmental impact of the conflict in Gaza," which features three main sections. The first part addresses the state of the environment and natural resources in the Hamas-governed enclave before October 7.

The second section discusses topics including water, wastewater treatment, and sewage systems; solid waste collection and treatment; destruction of infrastructure and related debris; energy, fuel, and associated infrastructure; marine and coastal environments; terrestrial ecosystems, soil, and cultivated lands; and air pollution.

The third section focuses on chemicals and waste associated with armed conflicts as well as construction, destruction, and flooding of tunnels in Gaza—which, as the report notes, "is a small, densely populated coastal area, the environment of which has been affected by repeated escalations of the decadeslong conflict, unplanned urbanization, and population growth."

"We urgently need a cease-fire to save lives and restore the environment."

Inger Andersen, UNEP's executive director, said in a statement that "not only are the people of Gaza dealing with untold suffering from the ongoing war, the significant and growing environmental damage in Gaza risks locking its people into a painful, long recovery."



The following cites updated:



Posted by at

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Lindsey Graham, just a fool in love

Paul Rudnick.





Miss Lindsey Graham, America's first gay senator.  Oh, I know, he's not 'out,' but like they used to say on WILL & GRACE, he's so gay, when he speaks, a purse falls out of his mouth.  Miss Lindsey's at that age where it looks like he'll never get married.  So he fixates on married men that he knows he stands no chance with.  Hence, his passionate crush on Donald Trump.  Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling (THE NEW REPUBLIC) reports:


Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was sharply criticized on social media Tuesday after he twisted reality on Fox News. 

“The next time you hear the word felon in this election, I think the felon in this election is Joe Biden,” the devoted Donald Trump ally told Fox News’ Jesse Watters.

“What he’s doing to the country is criminal. His border policies are allowing people to be raped and murdered on the street.”

The felon in this election is Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, who was found guilty by a Manhattan jury last month on all counts in his historic hush money trial. He was convicted of falsifying business records to cover up an alleged sex scandal to protect his 2016 presidential bid.




Poor Lindsey.  It's like Diana Ross sang in "Love Lies" on her ROSS album:


Whenever I touch you
Lately you seem to pull away OK
Maybe I'm trying too hard to hang on

But whenever I hold you
You never look into my eyes, surprised
I guess I was fooling myself all along

Love lies
'Cause it doesn't last forever
Love lies
It makes you feel so clever
You give and it just takes
And leaves your heart to ache
Love lies

Whenever I kiss you
You never want to lose control so cold
Its taken so long to find out
But now I see that we can't even talk now
How your love always turned me on
They're gone
This isn't how I thought love is gonna be

Love lies
'Cause it doesn't last forever
Love lies
Though it makes you feel so clever
You can give and it just takes
And leaves your heart to ache
Love lies 





"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, June 19, 2024.  BBC finds new propaganda to broadcast, Netanyahu stomps his feet and has a hissy fit on the world stage,  Senator Bernie Sanders points out "We should not be honoring people who use the starvation of children as a weapon of war," and much more.


Let's start with a liar and then let's move to a person allowing themselves to be used as propaganda.  The liar is in the US.  

So many liars.  Take Tom Chavez who ran a failed campaign for Elmhurst school board during which  he boasted:


My parents instilled the values of hard work, commitment, honesty, compassion, treating others as you wish to be treated and emphasized the importance of education. They set expectations high, held us accountable to live up to them, and there were consequences when we fell short.


What a liar and an idiot.  David Giuliani  (PATCH) explains how Chavez started his work week:

An Elmhurst conservative activist on Monday criticized the city's mayor, saying he was under the influence of a "radical" LGBTQ group.

Resident Tom Chavez, who often addresses the local school board, spoke at Monday's City Council meeting.

Mayor Scott Levin did not respond to Chavez's comments. A representative for the Elmhurst Pride Collective said Tuesday that Chavez was "very confused" about what the group is and does.

[. . .]

In 2021, Chavez started regularly appearing at school board meetings. At the time, he contended local schools were teaching "critical race theory," though he provided no evidence.

He ran for school board last year, but lost by a wide margin.



And he had a lot of funding and created a professional looking website . . . that just revealed what an idiot he was.

I'm sorry, I don't care if you like Zora Neale Hurston's writing or not (I do), if you're ragging on one of her books, get your facts right.  Yes, she did write THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD but, no, her name is not Ann Hurston.

The idiot chose to put a noted writer's name on his site and didn't even know her name but we're supposed to believe that he's going to lead the charge to improve education?

He's a lazy nit wit.  Churned out by DePaul which doesn't say very much for that university.

He boasts at the website, "If elected to represent our community, I will bring the same energy, enthusiasm, and commitment. I will demand the same excellence and accountability of myself as I will from every other board member, administrator, and teacher."  When?  When would you demand accountability of yourself?  

Zora Neale Hurston.  I can't imagine any adult American reader hasn't heard the name.  And of course Oprah turned THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD into a very high rated TV movie starring Halle Berry.   But in case not, from WIKIPEDIA:


Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891[1]: 17 [2]: 5  – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, folklorist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on Hoodoo and Caribbean Vodou.[3] The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, and essays.

Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama, and moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida in 1894. She later used Eatonville as the setting for many of her stories. In her early career, Hurston conducted anthropological and ethnographic research as a scholar at Barnard College and Columbia University.[4] She had an interest in African-American and Caribbean folklore, and how these contributed to the community's identity.

She also wrote about contemporary issues in the black community and became a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Her short satires, drawing from the African-American experience and racial division, were published in anthologies such as The New Negro and Fire!![5] After moving back to Florida, Hurston wrote and published her literary anthology on African-American folklore in North Florida, Mules and Men (1935), and her first three novels: Jonah's Gourd Vine (1934); Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937); and Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939).[6] Also published during this time was Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938), documenting her research on rituals in Jamaica and Haiti.

Hurston's works concerned both the African-American experience and her struggles as an African-American woman. Her novels went relatively unrecognized by the literary world for decades. In 1975, fifteen years after Hurston's death, interest in her work was revived after author Alice Walker published an article, "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" (later retitled "Looking for Zora"), in Ms. magazine.[7][8] In 2001, Hurston's manuscript Every Tongue Got to Confess, a collection of folktales gathered in the 1920s, was published after being discovered in the Smithsonian archives. Her nonfiction book Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo", about the life of Cudjoe Lewis (Kossola), was published in 2018.



 Of course, what's so hilarious is Zora was deeply conservative and if Chavez actually read her, he might have found a kindred spirit and been less eager to attack her just because she was Black. Chavez is an idiot who has held many titles -- among them "coach" and even "Indian Princess Chief" (it's there at the website under "volunteerism"),  I'm sure he made a very cute "Indian Princess Chief."


Turning to the propaganda,  BBC NEWS tells us this morning that Israeli Ada Sagi, following her release as a hostage by Hamas, no longer believes in peace.   At 75, she shouldn't have to, she won't be around much longer especially with all the weight she's packing on.  I see nonsense like her story all the time and ignore it.  But this time?  Well, the BBC NEWS wants you to know she's "an Israeli peace activist." Really?

I never heard of her.

What actions did she organize, what marches did she participate in?  

Oh.  That's right.  None.

Because she's not one and she's never been one.  You can find everything about her online.


This TIMES OF ISRAEL article -- after her release -- tells you she's a "peacenik" -- self labeled.  She could call herself thin and pretty but those descriptions wouldn't be accurate either.  This October AP article is a little more clear in her 'peace' actions:  "She moved to a kibbutz at the age of 18, not for religious reasons but because she was attracted by the ideals of equality and humanity on which the communal settlements were built."  Not really a peace activist.  She did teach other Israelis Arabic.  Not really a peace activist.  This lengthy GUARDIAN article quotes her son over and over as it provides her life history and, guess what, no peace activist.  This December BBC article -- long though it is -- didn't try to pretend she was a peace activist.  Ruth Kaplan's long article at JEWISH BOSTON makes no mention of peace activism and on this and the others when Ada was a hostage?  That's the first thing you put out -- my parent is being held by Hamas and I want to stress that she is a long time advocate for peace.

No.

From everything written -- and I've read more than the above -- she's not a peace activist.

She is a Miss Millie.

Remember THE COLOR PURPLE?

That's who she is.  Supposedly, she learned Arabic to speak to her neighbors.  And it stresses to make them feel equal.  How sweet.  Did you honk the horn too, Ada, to let 'em know you were in the car waiting?

Miss Millie goes into her rage over her basic, substandard efforts not being treated as amazing gifts to humanity.  

The same with Ada.  

At 75, you're smart enough to know -- or should be -- where to live.  Forget who has the right to what land or this or that, you're living a hot zone and you chose to.  Sorry you were taken hostage but I'm even sorrier that you didn't have the brains -- and I'm looking at some of you in Florida on this as well -- to move.  You should have been living with your son in London and you were honestly stupid not to.  As weather in Florida gets worse and worse, don't expect sympathy from me for those who had the means to move and didn't.    And when you're 75 and should damn well know better, don't expect a lot of sympathy from me when you're electing to live on a fault line.  I live in California, I know the risks.  A big earthquake comes and I'm dead, okay, maybe a few will be sad but there's no reason to pretend like I lived here and never heard of an earthquake before.

Ada's now a "peace activist" because that sells the continued assault on Gaza: LOOK WORLD -- they can scream -- EVEN THIS PEACE ACTIVIST HAS NOW DECIDED THERE CAN BE NO PEACE!

That's the whole point of the press created Ada and that's why we're bothering to spend time on the topic in the first place.  She's propaganda meant to continue the genocide.


At least seven people were killed overnight in Israeli air strikes on tents in the Al Mawasi humanitarian zone in western Rafah, Palestinian Wafa news agency reported on Wednesday.

Scores of others were injured and tents occupied by displaced Palestinians caught fire, local sources said.

Al Mawasi area was designated as a “safe zone” by the Israeli army. 


Seven dead in a "safe zone."  I wonder when the BBC will speak to the families of the seven murdered Palestinians?  Oh, that's right: Never.

RTE reports, "Israeli forces may have repeatedly violated fundamental principles of the laws of war and failed to distinguish between civilians and fighters in their Gaza military campaign, the United Nations human rights office said."  THE GUARDIAN adds:

According to Reuters, the OHCHR report details six incidents that took place between 7 October and 2 December, in which the UN human rights office was able to assess the kinds of weapons, the means and the methods used in these attacks.

“We felt that it was important to get this report out now, especially because in the case of some of these attacks, some eight months have passed, and we are yet to see credible and transparent investigations,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for OHCHR.

“We call first on the Israeli authorities to take steps to ensure that proper investigations, transparent investigations are held.” She added that, in the absence of transparent investigations, there would be “a need for international action in this regard as well.”



Meanwhile War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu continues to face calls to step down as prime minister of Isreal.  Amy Goodman (DEMOCRACY NOW!) noted yesterday:

In Jerusalem, at least one person was wounded and nine others arrested Monday night as thousands of protesters rallied near the home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Among those detained was a family member of an Israeli taken hostage by Hamas. It was one of dozens of protests taking place across Israel this week demanding immediate elections and a Gaza ceasefire. This is 26-year-old Yotam Cohen, whose brother remains a hostage in Gaza.

Yotam Cohen: “The last eight months have been an emotional roller coaster for me and the other hostage families. And I think that without a struggle and without the protest, this deal will also be put down. And we’re here to tell the government and shout for them to close the deal and to bring them home.”



Between facing mounting protests and overseeing a slaughter, you'd think the War Criminal would have his hands full but, turns out, he's still got time to whine.  ALJAZEERA reports:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised the administration of US President Joe Biden for “withholding weapons” to Israel in recent months as it presses its war on Gaza.

Netanyahu said in a video statement on Tuesday that it was “inconceivable” that the United States had been “withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel” in recent months.



  Barak Revid (AXIOS) notes, "A White House spokesperson responded bluntly on Tuesday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claim that the Biden administration is withholding weapons from Israel: 'We genuinely do not know what he is talking about'."  Senator Bernie Sanders reponded to Netanyahu's claims.



His office issued a press release that provides a transcript of the above video.

WASHINGTON, June 18 — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today released the following statement in response to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s claims that the United States should be supplying Israel with additional weapons and ammunitions in its war against Gaza:

Earlier today, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu put out a video attacking the United States for not sending him bombs fast enough. No doubt, we will hear similar complaints when he addresses Congress on July 24.

Virtually everyone recognizes Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorism and respond to the horrific October 7th Hamas attack that killed 1,200 innocent Israelis and took hundreds of hostages. But the Israeli government did not and does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people. Yet that is exactly what has happened.

Let’s be clear: the right wing, extremist Netanyahu government has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians and injured nearly 85,000, sixty percent of whom are women, children, or elderly.

After displacing nearly 1.8 million people from their homes, it has damaged or destroyed more than 60 percent of the housing stock in Gaza.

It has devastated the civilian infrastructure, including water and sewage systems. Today, despite extraordinarily high temperatures, there is virtually no electricity in Gaza.

The health care system has been decimated, with 19 hospitals knocked out of service and more than 400 healthcare workers killed.

The education system has also been devastated – 88 percent of all school buildings have sustained damage, and all twelve of Gaza’s universities have been bombed, leaving 625,000 students with no access to education.

According to humanitarian organizations, hundreds of thousands of people face possible famine. Already, more than 8,000 children under the age of five have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition, the result of the Netanyahu government’s restrictions on humanitarian aid.

Given all of this, it is easy to understand why Netanyahu is credibly accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court and the United Nations. He is beholden to extreme racists in Israel and has devoted his career to undermining the prospects for a two-state solution and lasting peace.

It is absurd that Netanyahu has been invited to address Congress. We should not be honoring people who use the starvation of children as a weapon of war. Instead, the United States should be withholding all offensive military aid to Israel and using our leverage to demand an end to this war, the unfettered flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, a stop to the killing of Palestinians in the West Bank, and initial steps towards a two-state solution.



Sanders and a growing number of Democratic lawmakers are planning to boycott Netanyahu's scheduled address to a joint meeting of Congress next month, citing his government's creation of one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in modern history and continued indiscriminate attacks on the Gaza Strip.

"I will not attend," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) toldNBC News on Sunday. "I said that if he wants to come to speak to members of Congress about how to end the war and release hostages, I would be fine doing that, but I’m not going to sit in a one-way lecture."



MIDDLE EAST EYE reports a disturbing development:

The number of US troops stationed in Jordan has soared to a two-decade high amid Israel's war on Gaza, according to a new congressional report.

US President Joe Biden informed Congress on 7 June that the US had deployed 3,813 to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a nearly 20 percent increase in troop numbers from December.

The troop levels are higher than at any time since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, according to US troop levels reported at the time.

The surge in troop numbers coincides with Israel's war on Gaza, which has seen the relatively stable Kingdom of Jordan cast into the centre of soaring tensions between the US and Iran.



Let's drop back to yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!


AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

We turn now to the acclaimed Holocaust and genocide scholar Raz Segal. Eight months ago, the Israeli American historian became one of the first scholars to accuse Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Professor Segal laid out his case in a widely read article for Jewish Currents headlined “A Textbook Case of Genocide.” The piece’s subtitle was “Israel has been explicit about what it’s carrying out in Gaza. Why isn’t the world listening?” Professor Segal went on to give numerous interviews, including to us on Democracy Now!

RAZ SEGAL: We need to recognize what’s going on around us, what’s unfolding in front of our eyes, which is really a textbook case of genocide, with the rhetoric, with the actions, with everything involved.

AMY GOODMAN: Raz Segal’s description of Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide has now cost him a job. Last week, the University of Minnesota withdrew an offer to Segal for him to head the school’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, after two of the center’s board members resigned to protest his hiring. The school’s decision also came after the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas launched a campaign to block professor Segal from getting the job. The group described him as a, quote, “extremist.”

Raz Segal joins us now. He’s currently associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University in New Jersey, an endowed professor in the study of modern genocide. He’s joining us from Bulgaria.

Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Professor Segal. Can you explain exactly what happened? And is there a chance you will be reoffered this job?

RAZ SEGAL: Thank you, Amy, for inviting me again to the show.

What happened is that there was a completely regular hiring process in a public university. There was a public announcement of the job. There were applications. There were Zoom interviews. There were campus visits. There was actually significant community engagement also during this process. And then, eventually, the search committee deliberated and made a recommendation to hire me to the interim dean, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. I was then, on the 5th of June, sent an official job offer.

And then, as you described, two professors who were formerly on the advisory committee of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota resigned and, together with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, put a lot of pressure, which was really a hateful campaign of lies and distortions against me and based on their political position in support of Israel. And on 10th of June — so within days, right? — the interim president of the University of Minnesota sent me an email withdrawing the job offer.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in that letter of withdrawal, did the interim president give a reason?

RAZ SEGAL: Yeah. He said that due to the public-facing role of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and its director, community members have come forward with some concerns. And that was given as the reason for the withdrawal. And it’s important to say, of course, that this is a crude and very dangerous political — the legitimization — right? — of a political interference in an absolutely legitimate hiring process in a public university. It’s, you know, completely unacceptable that a political pressure group, the JCRC of Minnesota and the Dakotas here, and a political position, of support of Zionism and the state of Israel — right? — especially, of course, at a time when Israel is committing the crime of genocide for eight months now, right? But regardless, actually, any political position, any pressure group is not a criteria — should not the defining factor in a hiring process, and certainly once an official job offer has been made.

This actually might be a case of discrimination, because I’m targeted here specifically as an Israeli American Jew, and I’m targeted because of my identity as a Jew who refuses the narrowing down of Jewish identity to Zionism and to support of Israel, whatever it does, which is the position of the JCRC of Minnesota and the Dakotas in its claim to speak for all Jews in the Twin Cities, which is absolutely false. I mean, I’ve received hundreds, hundreds of emails in support, including from many Jews in the Twin Cities, who say explicitly that the JCRC does not speak for them, does not represent them. A community letter from within and outside the university in Twin Cities, again including many, many Jews, have now attracted more than 500 signatures. There’s also a letter of scholars from around the world, including many in the University of Minnesota, of course, that has attracted about a thousand signatures, maybe a bit more, in support of me. So, this idea that the JCRC speaks for all Jews — right? — is absolutely false.

But again, this kind of crude political intervention in the hiring process, and its legitimization by the university, is extremely dangerous. It joins this attack that we’re seeing in the academic world, that has intensified since October, of really suppressing academic freedom. And this is a very, very dangerous sign. That’s the reason that students and faculty members across the University of Minnesota, not only in the College of Liberal Arts, are furious at this decision of their interim president and are not willing to accept it.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And among the people who have been supporting you have been some scholars in Israel who may not agree with your characterization of what Israel is doing in Gaza as genocide but still believe that you’re being treated unfairly?

RAZ SEGAL: Absolutely. The letter of the scholars that I mentioned, that has, again, a bit more than a thousand signatures right now, has many, actually — many Jewish scholars, of course, but many Israeli Jewish scholars in universities in Israel. Many of them do not necessarily agree with my interpretation of Israel’s attack on Gaza, but understand the very dangerous precedent here, you know, and are very fearful of the implications. And, of course, what we’re seeing in terms of suppression of academic freedom in Israel is in many ways related to this, so I think that’s also in their minds. But, yes, many Israeli Jewish scholars also support me.

AMY GOODMAN: So, I’m just looking at Minnesota Public Radio. They said hundreds of professors have signed a letter condemning the university’s decision. The University of Minnesota’s chapter of the American Association of University, AAU, sent a letter to the administration. And then, looking at a response from the spokesperson for the University of Minnesota, they said, “Members of the university community have come forward to express their interest in providing perspective on the hiring of the position of Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Because of the community-facing and leadership role the director holds, it is important that these voices are heard.” So, if you can respond to that? And also, Professor Segal, they’re still offering you what? An assistant professorship at the University of Minnesota, but withdrew your offer as director, or not?

RAZ SEGAL: No, no, no, no. The day, on 10th of June, when the interim president withdrew the entire offer, all of it, I was still — the provost called me and said that the university is still interested in offering me the academic position in the history department of tenured associate professor. That’s what was in the original offer, as well. But I have not yet received any revised offer. So, currently, what — the situation currently is that the official offer was officially withdrawn, and there’s nothing besides that at this point. That’s one issue.

Look, the response of the university is ridiculous. This was a completely — of the leadership of the university. It’s important to say. As I said, faculty and students across the university, overwhelmingly — I mean, professor Painter and Chaouat, the two professors who resigned from the advisory board of the center and started this scandal — right? — are absolutely unrepresentative of faculty and students at the university. And they are furious at this, because everyone knows — everyone knows — that this was a completely legitimate hiring process. It was actually public. It also actually had a lot of community outreach — right? — for people to come to the job talk, which was public. People could come, and people indeed came, also joined via Zoom, and provide feedback, provide their responses. You know, I met with a lot of people when I was in the campus visits here. So, the response of the university as if now, after an official job offer, after a professional and academic hiring process had been concluded and the job offer was made, now we need community consultation is simply in order to blur a clear truth in front of everyone’s eyes that the JCRC here, again, claiming falsely to represent all Jews, is putting political pressure in a very dangerous way on a public university, which is absolutely unacceptable.

It’s also important to say that this is a — the center directorship, this is a center in Holocaust and genocide studies. It’s not only about Jews. What about Indigenous communities, Native communities, which are very important in Minnesota? What about Armenians, which we have many, many communities of forcibly displaced and refugees in the Twin Cities, right? Again, the idea — this also is very, very dangerous, because it feeds into antisemitic ideas about Jewish power and influence, right? So, the JCRC here is also doing a very dangerous thing, feeding into these ideas about Jewish power and influence and intervention here. And it’s simply false. They had an opportunity to provide feedback in the regular hiring process.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Professor, I wanted to ask you about their broader picture of the enormous damage done to American universities in the last year as a result of people speaking out against the Israeli attack and genocide in Gaza — for example, the university presidents hauled before Congress and basically all having to state that they believe that opposing Zionism is antisemitic, the clamp downs on student protests, the rights of students to even hold protests on universities, the mass arrests that have occurred in so many universities. What is the impact of all of this on the idea of a liberal university?

RAZ SEGAL: Yeah, I mean, it spells the end of this idea of free inquiry, of academic freedom, of research and teaching — and all in the service, of course, of supporting an extremely violent state, a state now conducting a destructive assault for eight months on Gaza, genocide or not. I mean, I firmly believe that we’re witnessing a genocidal assault. But even if we’re not, I mean an extremely violent assault. There is a case of genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice. The chief prosecutor of International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, has requested arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on war crimes and crimes against humanity. I mean, an international outcry. Dozens of Holocaust and genocide studies scholars, not only me, who have spoken about genocide in Israel’s attack on Gaza, or at least a serious risk of genocide in Israel’s attack on Gaza. So, all this in the service of supporting a violent state and also supporting, again, this very dangerous idea that the only way to be Jews today is to be Zionists and to support Israel.

And as I said, actually, the opposite is the truth. It’s not that criticizing Israel is antisemitism. Not at all. Criticizing the people who criticize Israel in this way, this is antisemitic. This is an attack on Jewish identities. This is an attack, actually, on people who are aiming to criticize a violent state in order to protect a group facing state violence, which is actually very much in line with the historical struggle against antisemitism. So, this is really a world turned upside down. And in the frame of this world turned upside down, we also see the end of the academic world, of academic freedom, of free inquiry, of teaching and research. It’s very, very, very dangerous. And that’s why so many people in the University to Minnesota, across actually the academic world in the U.S. and around the world — right? — within and outside academia, are actually mobilizing now in support of me. But this is, you know, not about me anymore, right? This has far more significant implications and consequences.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about Israeli politician, the former Likud member of parliament, Moshe Feiglin, who Sunday favorably quoted Adolf Hitler while arguing in a TV interview in Israel for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. He said, “As Hitler said, 'I cannot live if one Jew is left,'” Feiglin said during a panel discussion on Channel 12, Israel’s channel, he said, “we can’t live here if one Islamo-Nazi remains in Gaza.” Professor Segal, your response and the significance of these comments, as well as Netanyahu possibly coming to address a joint session of Congress in July?

RAZ SEGAL: I mean, what is there — what is there more — what is there more to say, right? It’s all in front of our eyes: the utter destruction of Gaza, this genocidal discourse, these expressions of genocide that we’ve been exposed to and we’re witnessing since October. This is really — Israel is a society awash now in genocidal discourse, full of war criminals.

And yet, the support of the United States in this genocidal state, in its attack on Gaza, just continues and continues. And, of course, the reason is that if we need to come to terms with Israeli settler colonialism, with this idea that there can’t remain Palestinians — right? — in Israel, that Moshe Feiglin has articulated via Hitler — right? — if we need to come to terms with Israeli settler colonialism since '48, and actually even before it, until Israel's destructive assault on Gaza, that really means that we have to come to terms with settler colonialism more broadly, also in the United States and in other places. And who wants to do — who wants to do that? And that’s why we’re seeing — that’s part of the reason also that we’re seeing this horrific attack also against Jews right now intensifying more and more, including against me in this case — right? — because anything in order not to really come to terms, to open this Pandora’s box for the West of settler colonialism and settler-colonial genocide that we’re all witnessing now. This is the reason that the Biden administration continues to support Israel, whatever happens.

AMY GOODMAN: Raz Segal, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Israeli American historian. Earlier this month, the University of Minnesota rescinded its offer to him to head its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He’s currently associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University and endowed professor in the study of modern genocide.

That does it for our show. A very fond farewell to our digital fellow Eric Halvarson and our interns Soledad Aguilar-Colón and Hannah Fitz. We will miss you so, so much. You are now part of our DNA, the Democracy Now! alumni. We’re currently accepting applications for director of development. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.


Gaza remains under assault. Day 257 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE NATIONAL notes, "At least 37,396 people have been killed and 85,523 injured in Gaza during more than eight months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants, the Health Ministry in the territory said Wednesday.  The toll includes at least 24 deaths and 71 injuries in the past 24 hours, the ministry said."    Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

  



April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 

As for the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."



 


The following sites updated:

Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)