The Fray

Occupied Palestine: A Primer - May 22

The War on Gaza has been called "the moral issue of this student generation."  While the horrors inflicted on the Palestinians over the last seven months are more than enough to outrage almost anyone, the young have led the way - showing up in numbers and questioning the dominant narrative about Israel and Palestine accepted so unthinkingly in America.  I hope this post, by reviewing the history and providing some context, can bring a greater understanding of the roots of the conflict and serve as a corrective to that dominant narrative.

Biden duped and impotent as Israel pounds Rafah - May 7

For seven months,  President Biden sat back and watched Israel destroy Gaza with US weaponry, in the process violating international law and committing genocide.  At times he expressed regret at the civilian casualties, but did nothing to stop the flow of bombs to Israel.  He drew a "red line" at a ground assault on Rafah.  This past weekend Hamas agreed to an internationally brokered ceasefire, Israel rejected it and began the final phase of its genocide.  After bombing Rafah for weeks, they began their incursion.  Biden stopped a shipment of bombs.  Netanyahu figuratively laughed in his face.  He already had the billions of dollars of weaponry he needed.

On the docket: the next two months at SCOTUS - May 3 

As the 2023-2024 session of the Supreme Court enters its final months, progressives are bracing for a slew of decisions threatening democracy, common sense and simple human decency...what's at stake should the 6-3 majority conservative court rule, well, conservatively: Trump's immunity claim, South Carolina's electoral map, domestic abuse gun curbs and Idaho's abortion law.

World News Updates - April 4

Haitian violence; Ecuadoran Easter weekend massacres; Israeli atrocities, the Cuban embargo, and American hypocrisy; DRC's humanitarian crisis

Biden appears intent on losing the election over Gaza - March 28

Trump's approval rating (44%) is now 6 points higher than Biden's (38%).  A Gallup poll shows US public support for Israel's assault on Gaza has plummeted, particularly among the Democratic party base. While US decision to allow a ceasefire resolution through the Security Council was a step in right direction, we still are withholding funds from a critical aid agency, continue to arm the genocide and cover for Israeli war crimes.  Biden is risking his second term and our democracy by continuing his Gaza policy.  He needs to change direction now or step aside a la LBJ in 1968

Is US unconditional arming of Israel coming to an end or is Biden about to become complicit in the invasion of Rafah? - March 21

The past couple of weeks have seen a shift in US rhetoric.  The threat of famine and the imminence of an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah appear to have crossed some red line in Washington. An Israeli delegation is meeting with the Administration about their announced ground assault on Rafah.  The $14 billion question is whether Biden will greenlight a bloodbath or will he give Israel conditions so stringent and consequences so great that they will refrain from more war crimes...what Biden would do if he were serious about ending the war in Gaza, the UNRWA controversy, and what our allies are doing about aid and arms shipments 

Beyond the "American Century": an antidote to the arrogance, failures, and tragedies of US foreign policy 

Mikhail Gorbachev died on August 30, 2022.  Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, he helped end the Cold War.  With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States became the world's sole superpower.  The world was ready for a new era of international cooperation, but instead of a diplomacy-first  approach to foreign relations, the US chose to continue the "armed primacy" mentality of the Cold War.  The events of the last three decades (and earlier) have demonstrated that attempts to rule the world through force will fail.  We are now facing another Cold War.  We need a new approach if we are to avoid further conflict and tackle the global threats to mankind - climate change, poverty, pandemic, and nuclear war. 

Occupied Palestine: A Primer

The War on Gaza has been called "the moral issue of this student generation."  While the horrors inflicted on the Palestinians over the last seven months are more than enough to outrage almost anyone, the young have lead the way - showing up in numbers and questioning the dominant narrative about Israel and Palestine accepted so unthinkingly in America.  I hope this post, by reviewing the history and providing some context, can bring a greater understanding of the roots of the conflict and serve as a corrective to that dominant narrative.

But how shall we pay for it?

A friend speaking to her more progressive daughter: "Free college, free healthcare...that's all very nice. But how shall we pay for it?"  When conservatives don't cry "socialism" at programs that help anyone but the rich, they fall back on "we can't afford it" or "raising taxes will slow economic growth" or, more spitefully, "they just want a handout."  These arguments do not stand up to scrutiny.  A three-part series that explores how we could have an economically just twenty-first century America.

An anti-fascist looks at Jan 6

Within hours after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol last January 6, right-wing media were ablaze with a conspiracy theory.  It was "Antifa"* that was responsible for the attack, not Donald Trump and his thugs and fanatics.  As with the Big Lie of voter fraud in the election, there was not a shred of evidence linking anyone on the left with the Insurrection.  Make no mistake: the Right is the protector of Capitalism, not Democracy. ..what fascism looks like, how fascism happens, why Americans should be concerned, a brief history of anti-fascist movements, how to be an  everyday antifa, what we can do as right-wing extremism takes over the Republican Party.

Moving Forward 

Getting past Trump's fear-mongering, xenophobia, and divisiveness will not be easy, and restoring America's credibility on the international scene will take some time.  A series of posts from early in Biden's presidency as to how we might move forward: defending democracy and voting rights, defeating mass delusion, overcoming racism, and restoring our reputation for respecting international law and agreements.

Criminal Justice System Reform

From enforcement to trial to imprisonment and its aftermath, the criminal justice system in the United States is in need of reform.  Shot through with economic inequality, fueled by a desire to punish, and tainted by racism, it fails to achieve the equality before the law that a democracy requires.  Three-part series discusses crime & punishment in America.  Policing reform: one year after the death of George Floyd

Atrocities upon war crimes upon genocide

POSTED MAY 28, 2024

January 26 - The International Court of Justice (ICJ) indicates provisional measures in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel,  finding it "plausible" that Israel has committed acts that violate the genocide provisions of the Geneva Conventions and ordering Israel to allow aid into Gaza and prevent acts of genocide.

April 1 - The ICJ again orders Israel to make sure that more aid is allowed into Gaza. The court says famine isn't just imminent, but has already set in.

May 21 - The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) applies for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallan for war crimes and crimes against humanity

May 24 - The ICJ orders Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah: Israel must “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

May 26 - In the latest in a seemingly endless series of atrocities and massacres, Israeli forces kill more than 40 Palestinians in a bombing of a Gaza camp for displaced Palestinians. In a designated ‘safe zone’ in Rafah, fire tears through tents, burning people alive.  Netanyahu calls the massacre a "tragic mistake." The world calls it a heinous war crime.  Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of Congress replies to Netanyahu on X: “You don’t accidentally kill massive amounts of children and their families over and over again and get to say, ‘It was a mistake.’” 

Mr. President, 

More than 36,0oo Palestinians have been killed and more than 81,000 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7.  There are thousands of others buried under the rubble.  An estimated 70 per cent of the victims are women and children.  

The Gaza Strip has been made uninhabitable; its universities, hospitals, mosques, and infrastructure, destroyed.  Aid workers and aid seekers, healthcare workers and ambulance drivers, hospital patients and journalists have been wantonly killed.  Aid shipments have been interfered with to the point of famine. Clean drinking water is in critically short supply.  In the midst of all this and the overwhelming number of casualties needing treatment, the healthcare system has been utterly destroyed.  

Hundreds of Gaza Doctors Disappeared Into Israeli Detention (theintercept.com)

Observers estimate that Israel has bombed the refugee town of Rafah as many as 100 times since the ICJ ruling that it stop its assault on the city —a travesty of international justice and a slap in the face to the international court. Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the United Kingdom’s Labour Party, described Israel’s bombing of the Rafah camp as a “monstrous failure of humanity.”

Your comments? Oh, that's right.  You are waiting for Israel to complete its "investigation."

People Burned Alive, Child Decapitated: Report from Rafah on Israeli Strike That Killed 45 in Camp (Democracy Now!, May 28) 

I don't know what "redline" Israel hasn't yet crossed, but it is time to use our considerable leverage to bring about a permanent ceasefire and immediately end the Israeli assault on Rafah as ordered by the ICJ on May 24 [link below left].  Stopping a single shipment of bombs is not going to accomplish either of these.  Stopping all military aid to Israel if they continue to reject a permanent ceasefire [link below right] will.  

Over the past seven months, you have lost US credibility as a supporter of human rights and international law.  At home, you have endangered both your second term and our democracy.  It's long past time to do the right thing.  Soon it will be too late.

P.S. I stole the title of this post from the United States Campaign for Palestinian Rights. 

P.P.S. Please consider signing the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights' petition to stop the bloodshed.

Occupied Palestine: A Primer

POSTED MAY 22, 2024

The War on Gaza has been called "the moral issue of this student generation."  While the horrors inflicted on the Palestinians over the last seven months are more than enough to outrage almost anyone, the young have led the way - showing up in numbers and questioning the dominant narrative about Israel and Palestine accepted so unthinkingly in America.  I hope this post, reviewing the history and providing some context, can bring a greater understanding of the roots of the conflict and serve as a corrective to that dominant narrative.  The post "Occupied Palestine: A Primer" can be found here.

Biden duped and impotent as Israel pounds Rafah

POSTED MAY 7, 2024 (UPDATED MAY 8)

Sometimes we need to wonder what planet Joe Biden lives on.  He talks about how we need a ceasefire in Gaza, how too many civilians have been killed, and how Israel should not launch a ground assault against Rafah where more than one million Gazans have been driven to seek shelter by Israeli forces.  But, for seven months, he basically does nothing to stop a genocide being conducted with US weaponry.

This past weekend, Hamas agrees to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt and Qatar.  

Israel rejects the ceasefire, bans Al Jazeera, the largest international news organization in Gaza [link below center], tells the people forcibly displaced from Rafah to choose between an overcrowded strip of scrubland or neighborhoods turned to rubble, and prepares for its ground assault against Rafah after weeks of  bombing of the city.  

Democracy Now!, May 7: "Palestinians in Rafah say they are trapped as Israeli tanks have taken over the crossing on Gaza’s border with Egypt. The U.N. says Israel is denying access to the southern Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing, as aid groups warn of impending catastrophe amid chaotic scenes of families fleeing with no safe option for shelter. The area came under heavy aerial bombardment again overnight as Israel vowed to continue its attacks on Rafah even after Hamas said it had accepted a ceasefire proposal advanced by Qatari and Egyptian mediators Monday. Israel rejected the ceasefire but said it would send a delegation to Cairo for further talks." 

Biden says nothing publicly but pauses one shipment of bombs ("a drop in the ocean") to try to delay the all out assault.  Netanyahu laughs in his face.

Getting nowhere with Netanyahu as Israel begins its final phase of the genocide, Biden smears protesters as "antisemites" [link below right], and a spokesperson says our commitment to Israel is ironclad.  Meanwhile Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are reportedly planning to invite Netanyahu, a war criminal who is actively carrying out a genocide, to speak to Congress. 

No one can stop the Israelis in their rampage but the United States. [link below left] That Biden has failed to do this makes him complicit in the genocide and will mar his legacy forever.  That he sits and watches as Israeli forces do exactly what he warned against two months ago destroys any credibility the United States may have still had with the rest of the world.

On the docket: the next two months at SCOTUS

POSTED MAY 3, 2024

As the 2023-2024 session of the Supreme Court enters its final months, progressives are bracing for a slew of decisions threatening democracy, common sense and simple human decency.

We'll look at several of those cases and what's at stake should the 6-3 majority conservative court rule, well, conservatively: Trump's immunity claim, South Carolina's electoral map, domestic abuse gun curbs and Idaho's abortion law.

Trump v. the United States

The foundation of Anglo-American jurisprudence is the Magna Carta.  In 1215, when King John of England confirmed it with his seal, he was acknowledging the now firmly embedded concept that no man - not even the king - is above the law. That was a milestone in constitutional thought for the 13th century and for centuries to come.  Eight hundred years later, that firmly established concept is up for grabs at the US Supreme Court as they somehow think they must grapple with whether a former president is above the law for crimes he committed while president.  Not ordinary crimes, mind you - crimes that strike at another core concept of democracy, the peaceful transition of power after an election.

The justices on April 25 heard arguments in Trump's claim of immunity from prosecution for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden. Trump appealed after lower courts rejected his bid to be shielded from a federal criminal case pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Conservative justices voiced concern about presidents lacking any level of immunity including for less obviously egregious acts. Liberal justices raised hypothetical examples of presidential wrongdoing such as selling nuclear secrets, ordering a coup or political assassination or taking a bribe. 

In their questioning of the parties on April 25, the conservatives on the court have turned what should have been a slam-dunk "get the hell out of here" into another chance to prove they have no concept of what "democracy" means. (link below left)

Trump will never be held accountable - for anything (July 1, 2021)

Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP

This one falls into the "justice delayed is justice denied" category.  The Supreme Court can act fast when it wants to.  Note the immediate attention it gave to states keeping Trump off the ballot for his attempt to subvert the 2020 election.  Not so when the rights of minority voters are at stake.  The case involves the legality of a Republican-drawn electoral map in South Carolina that was blocked by a lower court for racial bias after 30,000 Black residents were moved out of a U.S. House of Representatives district.  The lower court in 2023 found that the map violated constitutional provisions that guarantee equal protection under the law and bar racial voting discrimination. On March 28 it decided that the map could be used in this year's elections because the Supreme Court's ruling had not yet been issued and the election calendar was fast approaching.  A ruling by the Supreme Court is expected by the end of June.  If the democracy-challenged Court decides that South Carolina must redraw its egregiously racial gerrymander, the decision could be put in place for the 2026 elections.

SCOTUS conservatives uphold voter roll purging, partisan and racial gerrymandering (June 29, 2018)

Democracy under attack: the Roberts court strikes again (April 8, 2020)

United States v Rahimi

One of the John Roberts Court's more paradoxical gun control rulings was New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.  It was in line with their other gun rulings that gave short shrift to common sense, but it was out of line with the concern they show for states rights when principles of  democracy is challenged, for example, egregious gerrymandering.  In their wisdom, the justices voided a 108-year-old New York City ordinance that required would-be gun owners to say why they needed a gun.  In essence the justices declared, "No longer can 'common sense' gun laws be passed just because they reduce gun violence.  Data does not matter. Laws to protect lives do not matter.  Any legislative body attempting to impose gun control must find some historical analogue to justify the law."  Bruen thus set the stage for a challenge of a federal gun control law, perhaps the first of many.  Last November, the Court heard arguments over the legality of a federal law that makes it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to have guns. The challenge was filed by a Texas man charged with illegal gun possession while subject to a domestic violence restraining order after assaulting his girlfriend.  

One month after the massacres in Buffalo and Uvalde, SCOTUS sets the stage for dismantling the nation's gun control laws (June 23, 2022)

Idaho v United States

This case pits Idaho's strict Republican-backed abortion ban against a 1986 federal law that ensures that patients can receive emergency care. Biden's administration sued Idaho over the ban, which has a narrow exception permitting an abortion to save the woman's life. Idaho officials appealed a lower court's ruling that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) supersedes the state's abortion law when the two conflict. 

Putting it bluntly, Idaho's abortion law is Dobbs at its worst - a cruel and sadistic outcome of the ruling.  Idaho’s abortion ban requires doctors to treat pregnant women’s health as disposable, and the loss of their lives as an acceptable risk. For this, the Biden administration sued.  As the case wound its way through the federal courts, the Supreme Court stepped in to allow Idaho to enforce its abortion ban pending litigation, even without a health exception.   Dobbs, after all, did not require any state to allow abortions in the case of risks to women’s health. Sepsis, organ failure and loss of fertility in women were thereby tacitly accepted by the court as an acceptable cost of prohibiting abortions.  In practice, this has wound up being a ban on abortions needed to save women’s lives: according to Idaho hospitals, six pregnant women experiencing medical emergencies have had to be airlifted across state lines to hospitals in states with life and health exemptions in the months since Idaho began enforcing its abortion ban. [link below right]

Is there no end to the disgusting behavior of Republican politicians and their media allies? (July 19, 2022)

Decisions are expected in all the cases by the end of June.

Sources: Reuters,  National Archives, The Guardian

In 1968, Vietnam sunk LBJ and forever tarnished his legacy.  In 2024, Gaza may do the same for Biden.

POSTED APRIL 24, 2024

A horrific war is in progress with American bombs and bullets destroying entire villages.  Peace marches in the streets and antiwar protests on college campuses sweep the nation.  The Democratic National Convention will be in Chicago and demonstrations are being planned.  

Notes: 

* One of the more damaging deceptions was Israel's assertion that 12 of UNRWA's 13,000 employees in Gaza were involved in the October 7 attack against Israel military and civilian targets. This led the United States to cut off funds to the most effective aid organization in Occupied Palestine. To this day, Israel has not provided any evidence of their claims. To this day, Biden has not restored UNRWA funding.

**Antisemitism, properly defined, has no place in the antiwar protests.  On the one hand, any antisemitic statements or actions made by fringe protestors (and there will always be a few) must be  condemned. But these actions by an irresponsible minority should not discount the moral imperative of demanding the United States push Israel towards ceasefire and peace in the region.  On the other hand, smearing protesters, politicians and others who call for a ceasefire or for an end to the oppression of Palestinians as "antisemitic" does no good.  Instead, it weakens the term.  

Genocide, impunity, complicity

POSTED APRIL 19, 2024

As the world awaits Israel's response to Iran's telegraphed drone strike made in response to the Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria, new reports indicate that the Biden administration is seriously considering approval of Israel’s plan to launch a ground invasion of Rafah in exchange for Israel not launching counterstrikes on Iran.  

Let's see if I got this straight.  

Israel is committing genocide with US supplied weaponry.  

US blocks UNSC ceasefire resolutions and when the United States finally allows one to get through their veto, we outrageously claim it is not binding.

In violation of international law, Israel attacks an Iranian consulate in Syria, killing 16, including two high-ranking military officers.

Ignoring Iran's statement that it would not retaliate if the UN Security Council condemned the attack, the United States, Britain and France veto a Russian-drafted U.N. Security Council statement condemning the Israeli attack on Iran's embassy compound in Syria.

Iran responds to Israel's attack with a drone attack that kills no one.   The attacks, reportedly telegraphed in the days beforehand as part of backchannel negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, were mostly intercepted en route to Israel.  

The West condemns the Iranian response to the Israeli attack.

Israel considers refraining from beginning a wider war with Iran, if the United States approves their ground invasion of Rafah.  

The US has long said they would not support a ground invasion without a plan for the protection of civilians.  Given US statements that Israel is using our supplied weaponry in accordance with international law and is not committing genocide, given our continual whitewashing of Israeli war crimes and violations of international law, can we believe that the Biden Administration will be honest in their evaluation of the Israeli "plan" to protect civilians?

On Thursday, the United States exercises its Security Council veto to deny Palestine's request for statehood.  It was the only no vote. 

On Friday morning, Israel launched missile strikes on military bases near the Iranian city of Isfahan. 

As  a senior Israel analyst for the International Crisis Group notes in a Democracy Now! interview, Israel, which has long wanted to drag the US into a war with Iran, now "has the benefit of being able to dangle both threats”: an invasion on Rafah that would heavily increase the death toll of Palestinians in Gaza, or an attack on Iran that would likely spark a wider regional war.  [link below left]

Meanwhile, the genocide continues in Gaza [link below right] and the famine widens as Israel continues to systematically block aid shipments. 

• Nearly 34,000 Gazans are now confirmed dead with thousands more buried and presumed dead under the rubble.  

• More than half of Gaza’s homes have been destroyed or damaged

• 80% of commercial facilities

• 80% of school buildings

• 24 out of 35 hospitals are not functioning; the remaining 11 are only partially functioning.

• 83% of groundwater wells not operational

• 267 places of worship

The good and bad about the outrage over the 7 aid workers killed last week by Israel

POSTED APRIL 7, 2024 (UPDATED APR 9, 12)

On April 2, Israeli forces killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen.  Israel claims it was a "mistake".  The world replied, "Bullshit!"  The killing elicited a strong message from President Biden to the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, and other US Israel hawks are now considering conditioning military aid to Israel.  Biden's call led Netanyahu to agree to open up an aid path "temporarily" and demonstrated that Biden did have the leverage to cause a change in the Israeli approach to starving Gaza.  The concession to international law and human decency is still too little to stop the famine but at least it's a step in the right direction.

UPDATE (4/12):   Netanyahu has flimflammed Biden again. A week after Israeli officials promised the Biden administration they would open a border crossing and a port to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, relief organizations and the United Nations reported Friday that life-saving supplies are still being blocked, and warned that the White House must take more decisive action to force Israel to stop starving Palestinians.  The U.N. reported that just 212 aid trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday.  The Guardian reported Friday, that the Ashdod port has not been opened yet, and instead of opening the Erez crossing last Sunday as promised, Israel has opened another crossing into northern Gaza but has not yet allowed U.N. agencies to use it.

Aid Workers and Aid Seekers

Among the more than 33,000 killed by Israel, there have been at least 196 aid workers.  These seven recent killings are the latest in a long string of aid worker killings.  189 prior "mistakes" went more or less unremarked by Israel apologists.  So, why the outrage now? First off, it was the international composition of the dead: 6 were foreign aid workers, including one American.  Palestinian lives are apparently not as valued as those of Westerners.  

Secondly, the respected founder of World Central Kitchen was among the first to call bullshit.  Jose Andres – who founded WCK in 2010 – accused Israel of systematically targeting the seven WCK aid workers. "This was not a 'bad luck' situation where, ‘oops,’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place."  He described how WCK had coordinated the convoy's movements with the IDF and still were attacked.

It was other Israeli "mistakes" that resulted in at least seven "flour massacres" where people desperate for food aid were gunned down by Israeli forces.  The most notorious and most deadly occurred on February 29 when at least 118 people were killed and 760 injured after Israeli forces opened fire on civilians seeking food from aid trucks near to the Al-Nabulsi Roundabout on the coastal Al-Rashid Street in Gaza City. 

Healthcare Workers, Ambulance Drivers, and Patients

The Israelis have destroyed Gaza's healthcare system and killed almost 700 Gazan medical and medical transport workers.  Medical workers, just like humanitarian aid workers, are protected by international law.   Some weeks ago, Israel had claimed, without producing any concrete evidence, that Hamas was using al-Shifa hospital as a command center.  Then they came back to finish the job.  The result: Gaza's largest hospital is totally destroyed, dozens of civilians have been killed and at least 21 patients of the hospital are dead.  Let's be clear: no military objective can possibly justify the killing of medical workers, the deaths of patients, and the destruction of the medical system in Gaza.  This is, plain and simple, a war crime.

Journalists

Journalists are a third group protected by international law that have been killed in great numbers by the IDF.  Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has reported that the number of journalists killed by the Israeli armed forces mounted to 140 in the Gaza Strip since the onset of the ongoing onslaught.  

Two years ago, the United States whitewashed the killing of a Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist by an Israeli sniper.  Shireen Abu Akleh was covering an Israeli military raid on a refugee camp.  She was killed even though she was clearly identified as a journalist.  The documentary of her killing won the George Polk award.  [link below left] One must wonder: had the United States not been so quick to buy the Israeli lies and help whitewash the murder, would we be seeing the unprecedented numbers of journalists killed in Gaza? 

Apparently killing journalists who report on its war crimes is not enough for Israel.  Having failed to scare off the brave men and women reporters, the Israeli Knesset just passed a law that could ban Al Jazeera journalists from covering the war. Al Jazeera is one of the most respected news media in the world.  It is a measure of how far Israel will go to prevent the truth about its genocide from coming out.

Children

High on the list of Israel's horrific "collateral damage" are the children of Gaza.  Save the Children reports that 13,800 have been killed in the six months since October 7.  This is more than all the children killed in all wars across the globe in the previous four years.  If anything should have gotten the Israel apologists attention, this should have.  The trauma inflicted on Gaza's children is incalculable.  An entire generation is being decimated as the world stands by and the US continues to ship arms to Israel for its genocidal rampage. [link below center]

The outrage of some Israel apologists at the targeted killing of 7 aid workers in a time of encroaching famine is encouraging.  Angry Joe's comments to his long-time friend Bibi appear to have made a small impact on aid deliveries.  But the famine and the genocide continue, and the US continues to ship arms to Israel.  Only a ceasefire will allow enough aid in to stop the encroaching famine, and a ceasefire will only happen if the US stops shipping arms to Israel.  

Joe Biden's warnings to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who just announced that a date for the invasion of Rafah was set, will go unheeded.  Netanyahu knows that Biden has never followed up any of his critiques of Israel's war against Gaza with any meaningful action. Nor has he been willing to explicitly condition arms sales and military aid on ending the bombing and starving of Palestinian civilians.   Until he does so, Biden's words are empty and the United States continues to aid a genocide. [link below right]

World News Updates

POSTED APRIL 4, 2024

Haitian violence; Ecuadoran Easter weekend massacres; Israeli atrocities, the Cuban embargo, and American hypocrisy; DRC's humanitarian crisis

Biden appears intent on losing the election over Gaza 

POSTED MARCH 28, 2024

With less than eight months until the election, Trump's approval rating (44%) is 6 points higher than Biden's (38%).  Trump was actively deficient at the onset of the pandemic which claimed more than 1 million lives, sowed division across the country with hateful rhetoric, and attempted to subvert a free and fair election.  And still Biden's approval rating is much lower.

Well meaning news sites such as Vox and Slate are proposing reasons for the gap in approval rating , such as "people have forgotten what Trump did", and warning of an imminent threat to democracy and a reversal of the progress made since the days of the New Deal should Trump win.  They have missed the point.  People have not forgotten what Trump did, and no amount of harping on Trump's past misdeeds will energize disaffected Democratic voters.  A Common Dreams post [link below left] more accurately explains why Biden's approval rating is so low:

"A Gallup survey released Wednesday shows that U.S. public support for Israel's military assault on Gaza has plummeted since November, with the decline particularly sharp among Democratic voters whom President Joe Biden will need to turn out to win reelection against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. Just 18% of Democratic voters currently approve of 'the military action Israel has taken in Gaza' and 75% disapprove, according to the new poll, which was conducted between March 1-20."  [Sam Rosenthal, political director of the progressive advocacy group RootsAction points out], "Even more striking is that nearly two-thirds of people under 54, people of color, and women disapprove of the military action in Gaza...That is effectively the Democratic Party's base." 

Biden's Gaza policy is more in line with that of right-wing Republicans, and Faheem Khan, president of the American Muslim Advancement Council and a lead organizer of Uncommitted WA, summed up what this means for Biden's election chances and for all of us, "Biden is risking his second term and our democracy by continuing to support the kind of violence and cruelty that is being perpetrated in Gaza right now."

It will soon be too late for Biden to regain the approval, let alone the enthusiastic support of his core constituency.  The U.S. decision to abstain and allow the U.N. Security Council to pass a cease-fire resolution earlier this week was a step in the right direction.  But we continue to arm the genocide, and the Administration continues to make appalling statements on the greatest humanitarian crisis of this century.

• State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller incredibly characterized the United Nations Security Council resolution 2728 demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza conflict as “non-binding,” a phrase also used by US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Of course, UNSC resolutions are binding. 

• Even more incredibly, Miller said the Biden administration has not found Israel’s actions in Gaza to be in violation of U.S. or international humanitarian law, "either when it comes to the conduct of the war or when it comes to the provision of humanitarian assistance.”  Look closer, Matt.  The US State Department stands alone in not recognizing the genocide now taking place there. [link below right]

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues unabated.  It will continue until we stop unconditionally arming Israel and covering for their war crimes.  Joe Biden needs to change direction now or he should step aside as Lyndon Johnson did in 1968. 

Is US unconditional arming of Israel coming to an end or is Biden about to become complicit in the invasion of Rafah?

POSTED MARCH 21, 2024

The United States has, for many years, shielded Israel from the consequences of its war crimes and its violations of international law.  For decades, we have supplied arms to Israel unconditioned by any concern of its abuse of Palestinian human rights.  The result has been a growing sense of impunity among Israeli leadership that has now reached the point of genocide, a genocide we are aiding and abetting.  At least 28,000 of the nearly 32,000 deaths in Gaza have occurred since the first US veto of a humanitarian pause on October 18, 2023.  Even then, eleven days after the assault began, it was becoming apparent to most of the world that we were on the verge of something horrific, that what was unfolding went far beyond responding to the attacks of October 7.

In the ensuing months, as Israeli war planes bombed hospitals, schools, homes, mosques and refugee camps; as Israeli forces destroyed civilian infrastructure and Gaza's health care system; as Israel deprived 2.3 million people of food, water, fuel and medicine, US support of Israel's assault remained constant and unconditional.  President Biden approved more than 100 arms shipments to Israel, and the United States continued to block Security Council resolutions calling for a humanitarian ceasefire.  

The result: Israel continued its genocidal rampage.

2024 Elections Update: Voter roll purges, NY redistricting, AIPAC v Justice Democrats, Project 2025 v Democracy

POSTED MARCH 15, 2024

The 2024 elections are less than 8 months away.  The latest national polls have Trump up by about 2 points over Biden in the popular vote.  A daunting, but believable, 15 percent are undecided or "other".  Way too early to mean much, but the prospect of a second Trump presidency is discouraging, and Biden's Gaza policy has lost him much support among his base.  The enthusiasm level that pushed him to victory in 2020 is not there.  Trump may not have to steal the election.  He may win it legitimately...with a little help from his friends.  

Voter roll purges

Republicans are taking no chances that Democratic turnout in 2024 will be low.  The Brennan Center for Justice reports on evidence that abusive mass voter purges will be a major weapon in the political battles of the coming months. If you can’t win citizens to your side, it appears, then try to prevent them from voting.

The New York Times recently detailed an organized effort involving leaders of the election denial movement. One is Cleta Mitchell, who joined Donald Trump on the notorious phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that is now the subject of two separate indictments. Another is a top deputy to pillow-magnate-turned-election-conspiracy-theorist Mike Lindell. Their acolytes are launching mass challenges of voter registrations, sometimes 1,000 at a time. 

Their efforts appear to be focused on precincts that lean Democratic or are home to large communities of color. In one incident, activists sent a local election office a list of people on the U.S. Postal Service’s mail-forwarding list who remained registered to vote in the district.  People can ask for their mail to be forwarded for any number of reasons, including college, temporary work assignments, or caring for sick or elderly relatives elsewhere. Sometimes voters haven’t moved; they’ve merely been listed as relocated because someone else in the household asked for mail to be forwarded. In all of these scenarios, the person remains eligible to vote.

A challenge alone should not, in theory, prevent someone from voting. But it can kick off an investigation that results in removal from the rolls if the citizen fails to respond to inquiries — in other words, if they miss a piece of mail!

This will only add to the growing "turnout gap" between white and non-white voters.  Since the election of Barack Obama Republicans have put in place numerous voter suppression measures to reduce turnout in communities of color.  The difference between white and nonwhite turnout rates in elections has been consistently growing since 2008. That’s the major finding of a new Brennan Center study. This racial voter turnout gap cannot be explained by differences in income or education. A key cause is the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which weakened the Voting Rights Act’s protections against racially discriminatory voting policies. The ruling opened the door for more than two dozen states to enact voter suppression laws, disproportionately impacting people of color. 

New York's Redistricting

The 2020 census resulted in a loss of one House seat and one electoral college vote for deep-blue New York.  All told, the census, before redistricting. resulted in a gain of 6 House seats (and electoral votes) for Red States and a loss of 6 House seats (and electoral votes) for Blue States.

Redistricting in Republican-controlled states tilted the balance even more favorably to the Republicans.  One example: evenly divided but Republican controlled North Carolina will have a 10-4 or 11-3 Republican advantage in the 2024 elections.  New York, with a now more liberal state Supreme Court, was one state where Democrats hoped to retake some lost ground.  

New York's redistricting effort is now over, and the results are disappointing.  The Democrats had a chance to redraw the map to gain as many as five districts. Instead they settled for maybe two.  

Democratic state legislators largely stuck to the 2022 maps drawn by the court-appointed special master that so enraged Democrats because they overrode opportunities to easily flip districts and didn’t take the needs of long-serving incumbents into account.  For example, the special master, a political scientist and redistricting expert appointed by an upstate Republican judge, carved out a Manhattan seat that tossed together Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, forcing them to run against each other in a primary.

AIPAC v Justice Democrats

One of the most powerful lobbies in Washington is turning its eyes and checkbooks once again towards unseating Democrats who support Palestinian human rights and criticize Israel's apartheid policies and violations of international law.  

AIPAC announced that their super PAC will spend $100 million in the Democratic House primaries to unseat the likes of Jamaal Bowman, Rashida Tlaib, and Summer Lee.  Financed by AIPAC’s major donors, including Republican billionaires and key GOP funders, the Israel lobby launched its super PAC in 2021.  AIPAC and its allies are attempting to reshape the electoral field in key primaries and impose costly consequences for criticism of U.S. support for Israel’s human rights abuses.  

AIPAC's first test of their 2024 campaign to oust progressive Democrats was in CA-47.  Their super PAC surprisingly spent close to $5 million in negative ads against Dave Min, who’s a state senator in that district but not a vocal critic of Israel's policies.  Min will run against Republican Scott Baugh in what is one of the most tightly contested House seats in California. 

The slurs are already being slung at Justice Democrats like Jamaal Bowman.  At a Black History Month event in New Rochelle, New York, AIPAC-bankrolled George Latimer said Bowman, whom he is challenging in a Democratic primary, was taking money from the Palestinian militant group Hamas.  Latimer’s totally unfounded comments came when a constituent, who requested anonymity for personal safety, approached the Democratic challenger with two questions: "Why was he running?" and "Why was he taking money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee?"

Enough is enough, though, and progressives are now fighting back against the powerful Israel lobby.  A group of 25 progressive organizations — including Justice Democrats, the Working Families Party, the IfNotNow Movement, and Jewish Voice for Peace Action— launched the Reject AIPAC coalition this past Monday. In a press release announcing its launch, the coalition said it would work to “organize Democratic voters and elected officials to reject the destructive influence of the Republican megadonor-backed AIPAC on the Democratic primary process and our government’s policy towards Palestine and Israel.” [link below left]

While progressive candidates have fended off AIPAC and its allies in the past, its effects reach far beyond elections. The group also has an outsized lobbying influence on Capitol Hill and spends millions of dollars a year on lobbying efforts, another arena in which the left has been outmatched. The Reject AIPAC coalition says it will call on members to disavow AIPAC’s endorsement and instead sign a pledge not to take any more money from the group.  They are fighting an uphill battle here.  Many senior Democrats have benefited over the years from AIPAC’s largesse.  Senate Majority Leader Schumer took $546,000 from the lobby in 2022; Foreign Relations Chair Menendez, $576,000 in 2018; and President Biden, $3.7 million in his 2020 campaign.

Lobbies are a threat to democracy, and powerful lobbies such as AIPAC and the Gun Lobby thwart the will of the people time and time again.  Two examples.  

• A significant majority of Democratic voters favor a ceasefire in Gaza   As the carnage in Gaza became evident, Rashida Tlaib advocated for a ceasefire in Gaza.  She was censured by Republicans and 22 Democrats.  Of the House Democrats who voted for censure, all but one received money from the Israel lobby.  

• An overwhelming majority of Americans favor universal background checks for gun purchases.  So far it has never made it through both houses of Congress.

Project 2025 v Democracy

With his approval ratings hovering below 40 percent and much of his base unenthusiastic because of his Gaza policy, President Biden has found an issue he hopes will energize voters - the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025.  

Biden’s re-election campaign is intensifying its attacks on Project 2025, the unofficial conservative umbrella group working to staff and prep Donald Trump’s potential upcoming administration.  Over the last several weeks, the Biden campaign and allies have begun frequently referencing the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” by name in interviews and social media.  

Project 2025 is described by its critics as an authoritarian playbook for a second Trump presidency that would "transform America into a far-right, Christian nationalist, militarized state"  by increasing executive power.  

A report from United to Protect Democracy [link below right] tells us what we can expect from an unchecked Trump presidency based on the Project 2025 recommendations and Trump's own words:

• Pardons to License Lawbreaking  Trump’s pardon plans further the Authoritarian Playbook tactics of aggrandizing executive power, targeting marginalized communities, and stoking violence.  

• Directing Investigations Against Critics and Rivals  “Equal Justice Under Law” is a bedrock of our democracy guaranteed by the Constitution and enshrined in marble on the Supreme Court. Trump would replace that with an approach where he personally directs investigators and prosecutors to go after critics and perceived political opponents, and protects himself from criminal exposure. His plans for the Department of Justice are a classic example of the authoritarian tactic of politicizing independent institutions, enabling him to target vulnerable communities and quash dissent. 

• Regulatory Retaliation  A hallmark of any democracy is the freedom to criticize the government without fear of censorship or reprisal. Trump has promised — and has developed plans — to use the regulatory and administrative powers of government to force political loyalty; sow disinformation; and quash speech by journalists and media outlets, businesses, and other private citizens. These plans follow the measures used by Viktor Orbán in Hungary and other 21st century autocrats to transform government power to serve the parochial interests of the ruler, not the broader public.

• Federal Law Enforcement Overreach  Trump intends to expand the footprint of federal law enforcement by consolidating resources under his control at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He will do this primarily in the context of immigration enforcement, where he has plans to invoke part of the Alien and Sedition Acts to facilitate large-scale arrests, which will involve constructing mass detention camps. He will also leverage executive powers to dispatch federal law enforcement officers to our cities to use against protesters or for other purposes. 

• Domestic Deployment of the Military  A foundational safeguard against autocratic rule is that, with tightly limited exceptions, the U.S. military is not used here at home on the streets of American cities. Trump has promised and planned to change that, deploying military force to quash dissent, target vulnerable communities, and possibly corrupt elections.  

Already stacked with conservative justices, many of them Trump appointees,  The courts may not provide much of a bulwark against this authoritarian takeover.   The firewall will have to come from Congress.  Failing this, United to Protect Democracy lists ten strategies to mitigate the threat.  Here are some of them:

• Build stronger and deeper pro-democracy coalitions that are educated about what’s at stake and prepared to act together. 

• Keep a broad pro-democracy movement united against the acute autocratic danger.  This includes supporting Republicans who stand firm for democratic institutions.

• Rally around non-partisan independent public servants.  Among the autocratic faction’s first moves in power will be to dismantle the civil service and independent law enforcement and replace them with regime loyalists.

• Protect the first targets and arrange to advocate for the most vulnerable. A central tenet of the autocratic playbook is to target vulnerable people and populations to deflect from an autocrat’s failures and consolidate support. Community groups, civic and industry associations, and state and local governments should articulate agreements to support each other in times of need. 

What Biden should have said in his SOTU

POSTED MARCH 8, 2024

As the genocide continues in Gaza, President Biden delivered his State of the Union address ruling out conditioning aid or stopping weapon transfers to Israel to pressure it to allow more assistance into Gaza.   Instead he announced that his administration would build a “temporary pier” off the coast of the Palestinian territory to facilitate aid deliveries.  Israel has blocked aid deliveries as it continues its military offensive.  Critics of Biden’s stance said the Gaza pier will likely fail to alleviate a growing hunger crisis in the territory.  One such critic, Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti, told Al Jazeera “It seems to be just another effort to divert attention from the real issue here, which is that 700,000 people are starving from north Gaza down, and Israel is not allowing humanitarian aid needed to them."

Biden justified Israeli war crimes, claiming “Israel has an added burden because Hamas hides and operates among the civilian population like cowards — under hospitals, day care centers and all the like."  This parroting of Israeli propaganda is, for the most part,  sheer bullsh*t.  An example.  In its investigation of the infamous assault on the al-Shifa hospital complex, the Washington Post refuted Israel's claim that it was a Hamas command center.   The newspaper’s examination of material released by the Israel Defense Forces, satellite imagery, and open-source visuals did not turn up anything resembling the “concrete evidence” that the IDF promised.  In an alternate reality similar to what we saw with Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction, US intelligence sources claimed that Hamas had evacuated the hospital before the Israeli assault.  If that really were the case, the Israeli assault on the al-Shifa complex would be even more heinous than it was.

Let's be clear about one thing: no military objective can possibly justify indiscriminately bombing civilian targets including hospitals and schools serving as shelters, starving 700,000 people, and destroying their homes and infrastructure.  

With that in mind, this is what a humane response to the humanitarian disaster could have been:

"As a small first step in mitigating our role in the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, we are immediately restoring our funding to UNRWA.  I really don't know what I was thinking when I suspended funding on the basis of unproven allegations against 12 staffers out of the 13,000 that are delivering life-saving and vital services to Gaza. 

"The Hamas attack on Israeli military and civilian targets and the taking of hostages was an act of terrorism.  1139 people, mostly civilians, were killed.  Israel's assault on Gaza has now killed nearly 30 times that number, the vast majority civilians.  It's taken a while, but the past weeks have finally brought home to me the enormity of the harm that Israel, with our assistance, has visited upon the Palestinian people.  Israel has bombed hospitals, homes, and schools serving as shelters.  It has blocked aid shipments, denying the people of Gaza food, water, fuel and medicine and has brought Gaza to the brink of famine.    

"Last week's killing of more than 120 Palestinians waiting for emergency food aid and supplies was the final straw.  Israeli tanks reportedly drove over the wounded, adding to the death toll, and injured people had to be transported to hospitals on donkey carts because ambulances were unable to reach the site.  No civilized nation - let alone one that purports to believe in human dignity and international law - can ignore such an event. 

"Nor can such a nation continue to support an assault on a civilian population so rife with war crimes that it has been called "a textbook case" of genocide.  To this end:

"We acknowledge that the stated military objective of destroying Hamas has caused an overwhelming cost to civilian lives and infrastructure, which cannot be justified under international law.  We hope that Israel admits the same.

"We call upon Israel to immediately comply with the directives of the International Court of Justice to prevent genocide and allow aid to reach the people of Gaza.  

"We call upon the International Criminal Court to act decisively to deliver indictments for crimes committed by all parties to the conflict.

"We call for an immediate negotiated ceasefire that stops the fighting permanently, surges humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza, and frees both the remaining Israeli hostages and all Palestinians currently imprisoned illegally by Israel.  Failure to agree to a ceasefire within two weeks will result in a suspension of all US military aid to Israel.

"We will continue to provide for Israel's security by acknowledging that peace is more achievable when justice prevails and the rights of all are respected.  Future military aid will be conditional on Israel's compliance with international law, a rapid end to apartheid across all of Occupied Palestine, and the creation of a Palestinian homeland.  

"Finally, in recognition of the role we have played in the destruction of Gaza and in our decades long support of Israeli apartheid, we are announcing a "Marshall Plan" for Occupied Palestine, focusing on, but not limited to, rebuilding Gaza.  We pledge to work with Western and Arab nations to ensure a secure future for all.

"God bless America, and God bless all the peoples of the world."

Postscript: For readers unfamiliar with the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the effects of the world's longest military occupation and of the seventeen-year Gaza blockade, the three links below provide some context.

Sources: Al Jazeera -1, Informed Comment, Reuters, Al Jazeera-2, Foreign Affairs

Super Tuesday Takeaways

POSTED MARCH 7, 2024

I. What we all knew was going to be the case is going to be the case.  The "zombie election", the rematch between a multiple-felony-indicted, twice-impeached former president and an incumbent president currently aiding and abetting a genocide, is on.  Both men swept the Super Tuesday primaries - the one exception being Haley's victory over Trump in Vermont.

II. The "uncommitted vote" is not large enough to force Biden to reassess his Gaza policy, but it may be large enough to lose him a couple of states. Despite Biden’s victories, many Democratic voters continue to show their opposition to the president’s support for Israel’s assault on Gaza. In Minnesota, 19% of voters in the Democratic primary cast their ballots for “uncommitted.” About 12% voted “no preference” in North Carolina, as did 9% in Massachusetts.  February polls show Trump leading Biden by 3% in Michigan, a key swing state that Biden won by 3% in 2020. Next stop for the "uncommitted campaign" is Georgia's March 12 primary.

III.  Mark Robinson, one of the most radical gubernatorial nominees in modern history, won the Republican nomination for Governor of North Carolina. Currently North Carolina's lieutenant governor,  he has a well-documented record of promoting conspiracy theories, maligning LGBTQ people, using anti-Semitic tropes, and demeaning women.  Robinson will face Attorney General Josh Stein (D) in the general election in what is expected to be one of the closest contests in the country.  Will Robinson's extremism hurt other Republican candidates in the state as some surmise? Or will Donald Trump sweep Robinson to victory as the lack of enthusiasm of the Democratic Party base for Biden sets in across the country?

IV. The Democratic Senate primary in California highlighted the divide between the the party's centrists and progressives.  Thanks to an $11 million campaign ad blitz, centrist Adam Schiff defeated progressive challengers Barbara Lee and Katie Porter and elevated Steve Garvey, a former ballplayer and the Republican candidate to second place in the open "top two" primary.

V. California 47th District, Katie Porter’s seat that she vacated to run for Senate proved a set-back for AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.  The Israel lobby has pledged to spend $100 million in the Democratic primaries to defeat progressives especially those who support Palestinian rights. There were two top Democratic candidates and one Republican, and it turned into a proxy fight involving AIPAC.   AIPAC's super PAC surprisingly spent close to $5 million in negative ads against Dave Min, who’s a state senator in that district but not a vocal critic of Israel's policies.  Min will run against Republican Scott Baugh in what is one of the most tightly contested House seats in California.

VI. California delivered disturbing news for Democrats in a couple of other House districts that they hope to flip or hold.  In California’s 22nd District, a Biden-won district where David Valadao, one of the last remaining Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, Democrats avoided a lockout, but the combined Republican vote share of 55 percent looks bad for November.   In the 45th District, a Biden-won enclave, incumbent Republican Michelle Steel dominated the field with 57 percent of the vote in a blue district, despite supporting some of the most extreme anti-abortion legislation in the country, including a national ban and some illegalization of IVF.

VII.  Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema announced her decision to retire from the U.S. Senate on Super Tuesday.  She had previously switched her affiliation to Independent from Democratic.  Her retirement avoids a three-person race for her seat, which surely would have resulted in a Republican victory. The Arizona Senate race will now be a two-person race between the winners of the Democratic and Republican primaries on July 30.

Sources: Democracy Now!, Politico, The Guardian, Slate, Popular Information