Wednesday, December 20, 2023

The thief Clarence Thomas

The Crooked Supreme Court just can't unbend.  Adam Chitwood (THE WRAP) reports:


A new report from ProPublica released this week revealed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas privately lobbied for a higher salary, and MSNBC host Chris Hayes unpacked the findings in a segment that concluded Thomas essentially had "a benefits package" from right-wing benefactors.

"It really looked from afar, as I read all this reporting and we followed it here on the show, essentially like some sort of arrangement - I would have guessed implicit or tacit - had been worked out through these benefactors," Hayes said as he unpacked the reporting. "Thomas could stay on the Court instead of jumping ship to a fancy corporate lawfirm for a big payday and still live a life of enormous luxury."

The MSNBC host then drilled down how Thomas was seemingly able to operate with what looked like two sources of income.

"All this stuff put together for Thomas is almost like a benefits package," he continued. "The man could functionally operate with two sources of income and two sets of institutions he works for: the United States government that pays him his salary, the people of the United States, and then the right-wing movement that subsidizes the rest of his life."


He should be impeached, forced to resign, removed from the bench somehow.  He is not fit to serve.  He has betrayed any trust the American people have placed in him.  

Jonathan Turley's wet his panties again.  Ruth's "As of this moment, Donald Trump is off the ballots in Colorado" noted that the supreme court of Colorado has ruled that Trump can't be on the 2024 ballot due to his participation in an insurrection.  Turley's losing it.  He's insisting that Joe Biden do something!!!!

Get a grip.

He's such a liar.  He had moved over to Donald Trump in 2017 and kept pretending otherwise.  He had started interacting with and getting in bed with The Federalist Society back then.  Then he lied about how DOBBS couldn't overturn ROE.  He attacked transgender people, he attacked gay people.  He is scum of the earth which is why he's with FOX "NEWS."  He makes multi-phobic remarks to his students and has multiple complaints against him.  I really don't think we need to hear from him.  But we certainly don't need to hear Joe Biden questioning a state supreme court's verdict.  

Turley's an idiot.

 

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, December 20, 2023.  The UN Security Council may vote today on a cease-fire resolution or, as they've done twice already, they may push it back another day and meanwhile ugly realities from polling cover Joe Biden's self-inflicted wounds that may result in political suicide.


The assault on Gaza continues.  There was supposed to be United Nations Security Council vote on Monday.  It got postponed to Tuesday.  Yesterday, it got postponed until today.  AP notes, "U.N. Security Council members were in intense negotiations Tuesday on an Arab-sponsored resolution to spur desperately needed humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza during some kind of a halt in the fighting, trying to avoid another veto by the United States."  AP states that yesterday's decision to postpone followed a request for "more time" by the US government. Sadly,  nearly 20,000 residents of Gaza do not have "more time" because they've already been killed in the ongoing assault.


HuffPost's Akbar Shahid Ahmed reported early Wednesday that diplomats pushing for the resolution's passage "see just 'a tiny sliver of hope'" that the Biden administration will let the Security Council approve the measure, either by abstaining or voting yes. The U.S. is one of five permanent Security Council members with veto power.

The vote, which has already been delayed twice, is expected at noon Wednesday.

In recent days, diplomats have been racing to adjust the resolution's language to avoid a U.S. veto, changing the original measure's call for an "urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities" to an "urgent suspension of hostilities"—language resembling the resolution that the Security Council passed last month. It's nowhere near the lasting cease-fire that international humanitarian groups, lawmakers, and others around the world are demanding.

"The statistics are clear: 66% of the American people want an immediate cease-fire, including 80% of Democrats," Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote earlier this week. "Protests in favor of a cease-fire are continuing across the country and include Jewish organizations, unions, city councils, elected officials at all levels, churches of all denominations, and many others." 


Most people are repulsed by Joe Biden's actions regarding Gaza.  That's why he's being destroyed in the polls.  Jonathan Weisman, Alyce McFadden and Ruth Igielnik (NEW YORK TIMES via SEATTLE TIMES) report, "Voters broadly disapprove of the way President Joe Biden is handling the bloody strife between Israelis and Hamas, a New York Times/Siena College poll has found, with younger Americans far more critical than older voters of both Israel’s conduct and of the administration’s response to the war in the Gaza Strip."

Stop right there because nothing else matters in the 2024 vote.  Joe can't win without "younger Americans."  They're the ones who carried him across the finish line in 2020.  Not only did those voting overwhelming choose him but also there's the issue of the number of young Americans  -- ages 18 to 29-- who voted.   The number of them voting?  There was an 11% increase in the turnout of young Americans from 2016 to 2020.  They delivered and then some.  If the election were today, Biden would be on his own.  Brookings tries to dismiss it but they don't seem to grasp much of anything -- they so rarely do, remember their cheerleading for the Iraq War. 

Reality, they are being pushed into this decision not to vote by Biden's actions regarding Gaza.

They have conviction.  Most people tend to lose some of that as they age.  But the youth still has it.  Brookings doesn't factor that in.  Because they never know what's happening.  Here's what's happening: We just had Thanksgiving.  Hanukah's just wrapped up.  Christmas is next week.

Brookings doesn't seem to grasp that or the fact that many young people are taking stands when they gather for these holidays with family.  They're saying what they're going to do next year.  They're being backed into a corner.  It's not going to be easy for Joe to win over the numbers he needs in the next 11 months after some people have already gone public with their condemnation of his position and how they don't plan to vote.

Do we get how big that group is right now?

Earlier this month, NBC NEWS noted, "The NBC News national poll, conducted more than a month after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, shows 70% of voters under 35 disapproving of Biden’s handling of the war."  So when a Harvard poll earlier this month finds that less than half of young voters right now plan to vote in 2024, that's alarming.  The ship is going down right now and Brookings wants to say, "Hey, listen to the pretty music, ignore the lack of row boats."


Back to THE TIMES article:

Voters between 18 and 29 years old, traditionally a heavily Democratic demographic, jump out. Nearly three-quarters of them disapprove of the way Biden is handling the conflict in Gaza. And among registered voters, they say they would vote for Trump by 49% to 43%; in July, those young voters backed Biden by 10 percentage points.

“I don’t want to vote for someone who is not aligned with my own personal values, as Biden has shown he is not when it comes to Gaza,” said Colin Lohner, a 27-year-old software engineer in San Francisco. But, he asked, “Do I vote for Biden or do I not vote at all? That’s really difficult, because if I don’t vote for Biden, I open up the possibility that Trump will win, and I really do not want that.” 


Brookings is in denial as  is Joe Biden.  And they're acting as though the GOP is going to be Donald Trump.  America is sick of both Joe and Donald.  Imagine if the GOP's nominee is Nikki Haley?  You could have a significant number of voters drift to her just to escape the Biden-Trump trap.  Jake Johnson offers this:

  Matt Duss, a former foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), responded that Biden's choice is clear.

"He should choose the option that upholds human rights and international law, which is what he promised during his campaign," wrote Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy. "Support a cease-fire."

The Times/Siena College poll of U.S. voters found that Biden's current approach—which has consisted of unconditional military support for Israel accompanied by mild calls for the protection of Gaza civilians and opposition to a lasting cease-fire—has just 33% support and 57% opposition.

Among young voters who were critical to Biden's 2020 victory over former President Donald Trump, the opposition is even more pronounced, with 73% of those between the ages of 18 and 29 saying they disapprove, according to the new survey. Forty-seven percent of young voters said they believe Biden is too supportive of Israel, while just 6% said he's too supportive of the Palestinians.

The survey's findings amplified concerns that, in addition to rendering himself complicit in genocide, Biden is alienating key elements of the Democratic base by arming the Israeli military as it carries out mass atrocities in the Gaza Strip.

"Yet another major poll finds that Biden is killing his own reelection bid with his inhumane and strategically nonsensical Gaza policy," Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote on social media.

The survey was released ahead of an expected United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution calling for a "suspension of hostilities." A previous version of the resolution called for a "cessation of hostilities," but the text was reportedly watered down in an effort to prevent the U.S. from once again wielding its veto power.

As the Biden administration's opposition to a sustained cease-fire leaves the U.S. increasingly isolated on the world stage, the Times/Siena College poll found that 44% of U.S. voters—including 59% of Democrats—believe Israel should "stop its military campaign in order to protect against civilian casualties, even if not all Israeli hostages have been released."

Sixty-five percent of Democratic voters believe Israel should stop its assault on Gaza to prevent additional civilian deaths "even if Hamas has not been fully eliminated" in line with the Israeli government's stated objective.

During a meeting last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan reportedly urged the far-right leader to transition to a "lower intensity" form of warfare in Gaza "in a matter of weeks, not months," the latest signal that the Biden administration is feeling domestic and international pressure as the humanitarian catastrophe worsens and the death toll climbs. 






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

As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens, we turn now to Palestinians and Palestinian Americans who are trying to evacuate their family members to the United States. At least two Palestinian Americans have now filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, saying its failure to help them violates their constitutional rights. This is Yasmen Elagha, who says she lost at least a hundred relatives in Gaza, including two American citizens.

YASMEEN ELAGHA: The only thing that I’m being told is that there is nothing further that the U.S. government can do, which I don’t believe all.

AMY GOODMAN: The lawsuit notes that after the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, the U.S. government organized charter flights from Tel Aviv for Americans to leave Israel. So far, they say, the United States has not organized any flights to secure the exit of at least 900 U.S. citizens, residents and family members still in Gaza.

Al Jazeera reports more than a hundred staff members at the Department of Homeland Security signed an open letter to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas denouncing the response to humanitarian crisis in Gaza so far, saying it should be, quote, “commensurate with past responses to humanitarian tragedies” and offer a humanitarian parole program to Palestinians like it did after conflicts in Afghanistan and Ukraine.

More than a hundred Democrats, led by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, have called on Biden to make Palestinians who are already in the U.S. eligible for temporary protected status, or TPS.

Today we’ll hear two stories, one a Palestinian American woman in Detroit whose mother died in Gaza. She was approved to evacuate but was still but waiting to get out. The daughter is desperately seeking the government’s help to evacuate the rest of her family. We’ll also be joined by her attorney, Sophia Akbar. But first, we go to Cairo, Egypt, with another one of Sophia’s clients, Fadi Abu Shammalah. He is Just Vision’s outreach associate in Gaza, executive director of Gaza’s General Union of Cultural Centers. We spoke to him last month, when he was still in Gaza, about his New York Times op-ed, “What More Must the Children of Gaza Suffer?” Well, he was able to leave Gaza and is joining us now as he works to be reunited with his wife and his three children, who are still in Gaza — Ali, Karam and Adam.

Fadi, welcome back to Democracy Now! In a moment, we’re going to talk about the legal case here. But if you can talk about what is happening in Gaza right now, what’s happening in Rafah, in Jabaliya? Talk about why you left Gaza and what you think needs to happen.

FADI ABU SHAMMALAH: Oh, thank you so much for having me for the second time. I wouldn’t do the — I wouldn’t do the same for me. But, yeah, again, thank you so much for having me in this interview.

I will start by telling the situation on the ground, not in Rafah city itself, like in every city in Gaza Strip, is beyond our imagination. Like, not all of the news really come out to us here. I’m talking with you from Cairo. And the situation on the ground itself, it’s more horrible than what you can see by your screens and TVs. I would say also a horrific number. Like, all I would say that 1.9 million of the Palestinian people are displaced, already displaced, their homes. They all, most of them, were pushed into the far south of Gaza Strip in a city called Rafah. In the last — sorry, in the last 36 hours only, 177 Palestinians, civilian Palestinians, were killed.

This war, I would call it the war against the civilian, the Palestinian civilian, in order only to kill. That’s it. This is the main goal. I would say that there’s two goals. The first one is to kill the civilians as much as they can, and the second goal is to destroy as much as they can. Gaza City itself is erased. You will be shocked when you — if you will send your cameras after, hopefully, this nightmare and this war will end. You will be shocked because of the numbers of the neighborhoods, that it’s completely, completely damaged.

The south — the north, sorry, the north of the Gaza Strip, no one knows about the north of Gaza Strip. Only there is two journalists, according to what I knew — according to what I know, that only there’s two journalists who are trying to cover the situation, the situation there. Like, they are killing people in tents. That’s what I hear also. Like, also, sorry, witnesses say that the Israeli bulldozers buried the injured people in Kamal Adwan Hospital. They buried them while they are alive. They were still alive. They killed and they buried them.

This is — we should find a word that can express more than the word of “genocide.” That’s what is going on there. Like, the medical situation is horrible. The humanitarian situation is horrible, the water itself, the food itself, the electricity, the number of the killed people, the number of the bombed homes over the head of its residents. At the end, no one knows when this war is going to end. But what I know for sure, that we were all devastated, that our all hearts is broken for the destruction —

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Fadi, I wanted to ask you —

FADI ABU SHAMMALAH: — that’s happened, the cruel destruction that’s happening.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: — about your decision to leave Gaza. And also, what is the situation with your wife and your three children? Could you talk about the obstacles of them not being able to get out? Fadi, could you hear me?

AMY GOODMAN: Fadi, I’m going to put Juan’s question to you. For some reason, you’re not able to hear him. He’s talking about — he’s talking about your family and trying to get your family out. Can you describe —

FADI ABU SHAMMALAH: I don’t hear you, sorry.

AMY GOODMAN: I think the IFB has dropped, and we’re going to go back to you.


Of course young Americans are against Joe right now.  They see what's going on.  They see the suffering and the death and they were raised to believe in this country but this country's government is on the wrong side.  Again from yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!



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

As the death toll in Gaza nears 20,000, Human Rights Watch has accused the Israeli government of using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Human Rights Watch says Israel has deliberately blocked the delivery of water, food and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance. The group said Israel has also apparently razed agricultural areas inside Gaza as many Palestinians face starvation.

We’re joined now by Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, which has just published a report headlined “Israel: Starvation Used as Weapon of War in Gaza.” He’s joining us from Amman, Jordan.

Omar, why don’t you lay out your findings?

OMAR SHAKIR: We found five very disturbing trends coming together that led us to this conclusion, the first of which has been for more than two months now the Israeli government has been blocking all but a trickle of aid, food and water from entering the Gaza Strip. Secondly, the Israeli government has, in essence, cut off the entry and exit of goods from its own crossings with Gaza, despite being the occupying power that’s obligated to provide for the civilian population. Third, satellite imagery that we’ve been carefully studying shows the apparent deliberate razing of agricultural land. You can see entire farms and other areas turned from lush green agricultural land into barren wasteland in different parts of the Gaza Strip. Fourth, we look at the destruction of the kinds of objects necessary for human survival — bakeries, wheat mills, sanitation and water facilities, hospitals. In northern Gaza, you cannot find many of these facilities that are functioning. And fifth and finally, statements from Israeli government officials that set out in very plain terms — and this includes the defense minister, the national security minister, members of COGAT, the Israeli army — that state clearly that they will continue to prevent these basic supplies — food, water, aid — from entering until they accomplish the objectives they’ve set, such as the return of hostages and the destruction of Hamas. All this collectively amounts to starvation used as weapon of war, which is an abhorrent war crime, adding to the Israeli government’s many other war crimes, like collective punishment, that have been taking over the last 10 weeks.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Omar, specifically in terms of the deprivation of clean water to drink and fuel, could you talk about the impacts of this policy in terms of the spread of disease and access to food?

OMAR SHAKIR: Absolutely. Look, I mean, I think water is a basic thing that’s needed for health services, for everyday life, for cleaning. And you’ve seen several things take place with water. The first thing is to note that 97% of the groundwater in Gaza is unfit for human consumption as a result of overextraction of the ground aquifer that comes in from Israel, so Gaza has long relied on water that’s coming in from Israel. Israel cut that water supply after October 7th. It’s resumed piping to parts of southern Gaza, but in northern Gaza that’s not the case. We’ve also seen significant destruction of the water infrastructure. We’ve also seen destruction to other water facilities, pipelines. And you have the lack of fuel, that’s led to the shutdown of desalinization and water pumping facilities.

So you have some water coming in on trucks, but bottled water is not enough to allow the population to drink, for hospitals to function, for sanitation to take place. And the results are quite deadly. We’re already hearing, seeing reports of thousands of cases of contagious diseases, and we’re seeing hospitals trying to make do. And, of course, the majority of hospitals in Gaza are not functioning. The Israeli government has been systematically attacking hospitals, especially in northern Gaza. But those that are operating are trying to do so without adequate supply of medical supplies and water. And the consequences are stark. And they will get worse unless we see the taps switched on water and the ability for the water infrastructure to be repaired, and fuel to enter, so those pumping stations and desalinization plants can operate.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: What actions do you see necessary by the international community at this point, especially given the fact that the United States continues to veto any resolutions in the Security Council?

OMAR SHAKIR: I think today’s U.N. Security Council vote is quite essential. There’s an opportunity to take concrete action to protect civilians. It’s critical that states support that resolution, and the United States not exercise its veto. Lives quite literally hang in the balance.

Beyond the action at the Security Council, there is absolutely a need for states to unequivocally condemn this war crime. We’ve seen far too often, especially the United States and its allies in Europe that are condemning, rightfully, abuses that are carried out by Palestinian armed groups, but not using the same language to condemn the clear war crimes committed by the Israeli government.

There needs to be a call for an immediate resumption of full aid, not the trickle that’s being allowed in. But the aid alone is not enough. There needs to be a restoration of electricity, water and other basic services. And ultimately, that’s not going to matter, if unlawful attacks and incessant bombardment continue to wreak havoc on the lives of people. There must be an end to unlawful attacks.

And obviously, more long term, beyond these sort of immediate needs of the civilian population, there are a couple of essential things that are needed. One, there must be accountability for unlawful attacks and other violations, including at the International Criminal Court. Secondly, there must be an addressing of root causes, such as Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians. And finally, all states must evaluate all forms of potential complicity in these grave abuses. And in the case of the United States, that means imposing an arms embargo, ending the provision of military assistance and arms, given the high risk they’ll be used in the commission of grave abuses.

AMY GOODMAN: If you can talk, Omar Shakir, about the Biden administration’s, to say the least, mixed message, bypassing Congress, sending tank artillery that is being used against Palestinians, saying that they’re staunchly behind Israel, then at the same time saying they’re putting out a private message that they’ve got to reduce the casualties, and at the same time vetoing U.N. Security Council resolutions, though it’s not clear what’s going to happen today? They want the language watered down, but may not stop that resolution from going forward. We’ll find out soon. Can you talk about what exactly the U.S. is doing versus France calling for a ceasefire, versus Germany, Britain, and what it would mean if the U.S. were on the front of calling for permanent ceasefire?

OMAR SHAKIR: Look, I think the United States and Israel are isolated in the international community. There’s a growing consensus, as reflected in U.N. votes and otherwise, about the enormity of the catastrophe that we’re seeing taking place in Gaza and the urgent need for action to end that.

There has indeed been a shift in the U.S. government rhetoric. President Biden spoke of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing in Gaza. Indiscriminate bombing is a violation of the laws of war. So, if this is the assessment of the Biden administration, how can it justify providing military support? That risks complicity in what they themselves have acknowledged to be war crimes. The reality here is the Israeli government has a long track record of unlawful attacks. U.S. weapons, as has been documented in previous rounds of hostilities by Human Rights Watch, as has been documented by Amnesty International, has itself been used in the commission of grave abuses over the years. The reality here is the United States, by continuing to provide arms and diplomatic cover to the Israeli government as it commits atrocity, risks complicity in these underlying abuses. That not only sends the wrong message, that not only undermines the protection of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, but it undermines the very international human rights and humanitarian law that the United States mobilizes and cites when it comes to places like Ukraine and elsewhere in the world. Undermining the protection of civilians, the use of double standards in Israel-Palestine harms civilians everywhere in the world.

The Biden administration has the chance to make the right choice here to begin to match some of its recent words with action, and we hope the United States will not veto today’s resolution. Doing so will be incredibly damaging to civilians on the ground and to the United States in its position globally.

AMY GOODMAN: We just have 30 seconds, but this issue of starvation is not only being raised by Human Rights Watch. World Food Programme warned of the immediate possibility of starvation on December 6th. You have this high risk of famine right through to now. As we wrap up, what this means? We just heard our previous guest talking about what’s happened to his children, from disease to hunger. Your final comment?

OMAR SHAKIR: Look, you have a reality where nine out of 10 households in north Gaza have gone — you have a reality where nine of 10 households, according to the World Food Programme, in north Gaza have been without food for a whole day and a whole night. Imagine families that have to spend hours or more a day just to be able to get a couple of pieces of bread to feed their family. We’re seeing hundreds of bodies pile up a day in airstrikes. We risk seeing that or more in the days ahead if there isn’t urgent action by world leaders to end these atrocities. We’ve been on the wrong side of this.

AMY GOODMAN: Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch, we thank you so much for being with us. And we wrap by saying happy birthday to Renée Feltz.



The assault on Gaza continues.  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 now well over 18,000. NBC NEWS notes, "The vast majority of its 2.2 million people are displaced, and an estimated half face starvation amid an unfolding humanitarian crisis."  ABC NEWS notes, "In the Gaza Strip, at least 19,667 people have been killed and more than 52,000 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to figures released by Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health and the Hamas government media office."  In addition to the dead and the injured, there are the missing.  AP notes, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  And 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."  Max Butterworth (NBC NEWS) adds, "Satellite images captured by Maxar Technologies on Sunday reveal three of the main hospitals in Gaza from above, surrounded by the rubble of destroyed buildings after weeks of intense bombing in the region by Israeli forces."

When the United Nations Children’s Fund featured 12-year-old Dina on its Instagram feed on Sunday, she said she would “become a lawyer so that I can enjoy my rights and the rights of all children.”

The following day UNICEF said she was killed at the Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

In Sunday’s post, the organization said she was being treated for wounds and her right leg had been amputated.

In Monday’s update, it said the killing of children “must stop.”



But the killing of children sadly continues.  CNN’s Kareem El Damanhoury notes this morning:

Children in Gaza are getting only about 10% of the water they would normally use, leaving them with “barely a drop to drink,” UNICEF said in a statement on Wednesday. 

“Recently displaced children in the southern Gaza Strip are accessing only 1.5 to 2 litres of water each day,” the statement said.

It added that 15 liters are the minimum standard per day for drinking, washing, and cooking, while three liters are the minimum for survival alone.

UNICEF says water and sanitation services in Gaza are “at the point of collapse,” which could have severe repercussions on children.

“The impact of this on children is particularly dramatic because children are also more susceptible to dehydration, diarrhea, disease and malnutrition, all of which can compound to present a threat to their survival,” UNICEF said.

“Concerns of waterborne diseases such as cholera and chronic diarrhea are particularly heightened given the lack of safe water, especially following this week’s rains and flooding," added the statement.

Last week, the World Health Organization said it had recorded about 165,000 cases of diarrhea amongst children under the age of five, which it described as “much more” than normal.

“Without safe water, many more children will die from deprivation and disease in the coming days” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said. 


From the scene of one bombing this morning, Hani Mahmoud (ALJAZEERA) reports on the stark conditions:


I see more people, rushing carrying bodies, people with injuries.

There is a group of people running and carrying what seems to be a body to the hospital.

This is the situation in every place where relentless targeting takes place.

We’re not in the northern part to report the tragedies people have experienced since the early hours of this morning in Jabalia and Gaza City, but this is a real-life example.

[. . .]

It’s chaotic here. People are panicking.

We are getting reports that some 25 injured people were being brought to the Kuwaiti hospital, many of them women and children.

People have just brought an injured person to the hospital on a donkey cart, since an ambulance was not available, while performing CPR on him.



The following sites updated:

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Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Awful Milano

Back on the topic from last week's "The truth about Milano."  I watched the original CHARMED for years and years.  Long after it stopped making new episodes, in fact.  I really can't watch it today.  Shannen Doherty was the reason I watched to begin with.  I remember being so excited that she was coming back to TV.  Wasn't thrilled that Alyssa was going to be part of the show.  She'd already destroyed MELROSE PLACE with her bad acting by that point.  As I remember it, THE CW's only show worth watching had been BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER but, the next fall, they had CHARMED and DAWON'S CREEK on the same night.  

Pru, Shannen's character, was so great from the start.  And Holly Marie Combs was really good as Piper.  Alyssa Milano made a spectacle of herself and presented way too young (and stupid).  Shannen's ill (cancer) and that makes it hard for me to watch.  But what really upsets me is how Alyssa bullied everyone in real life and destroyed the show.  Holly and Shannen are talking about it publicly.  Alyssa told the producers to fire Shannen or she (Alyssa) was walking.  She's lied about this forever and a day.  But she did get Shannen fired.  THE MIRROR notes that Shannen and Holly addressed this in a recent podcast:


Shannen also spoke about being fired from Charmed and admitted she felt upset and confused. "I lived a year after that sort of replaying everything in my brain and really trying to find those moments [of alleged bad behavior on set] — and I couldn't find them," she said.

Shannen added: "I don't ever remember being mean to her on set. I remember an episode I directed where she did something on the Christmas break and they asked me to work around some things with her and I had no problem with it. I couldn't have been more kind and understanding."

She said she still hasn't forgiven Alyssa for what happened. "As you get older, you accept that a situation happened. Acceptance and moving on with your life does not equate to forgiveness. You just learn a lesson and look at somebody differently and move on," the actress continued.

  
Alyssa is a monster.  That's why they fired her from MISTRESSES (she says she left because she couldn't film in Canada -- she left because she tried to get an actress on that show fired but they wouldn't and told her she could go instead).  She was evil to Rose McGowan.  She's just evil.  


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, December 19, 2023.  The delayed UN Security Council vote is supposed to take place today, hospitals in Gaza continue to be attacked as do journalists, and much more.



UN officials have expressed anger and disbelief about the situation in Gaza hospitals, where injured people do not have basic supplies and children recovering from amputations are being killed in the ongoing conflict.

“I’m furious that children who are recovering from amputations in hospitals are then killed in those hospitals,” said James Elder, a spokesperson for the UN children’s agency, on Tuesday.

He added that the Nasser hospital, the largest operational hospital left in the territory, had been shelled twice in the past 48 hours.

Dr Margaret Harris, a World Health Organization spokesperson, described the situation in Gaza hospitals as “beyond belief” and “unconscionable”, Reuters reported.


CNN's Kareem El Damanhoury notes the attacks on the displaced:


At least 297 displaced people in Gaza have been killed since the Israel-Hamas war began, according to a statement from the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The number, as of Saturday, comes from those who were sheltering in facilities run by United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA),

Another 1,032 displaced Palestinians taking refuge in those shelters were also injured, the OCHA statement read, adding that UNRWA schools in the strip were also damaged.

"Seventy of the schools damaged are UNRWA schools, with at least 56 serving as shelters for IDPs [internally displaced persons]," the statement read. "Several schools, including UNRWA schools, have been directly hit by Israeli airstrikes or tank shells."

Overall, about 1.9 million Palestinians, constituting more than 85% of Gaza's population, have been displaced across the strip since October 7, according to UNRWA. A majority of them, roughly 1.4 million people, are sheltering in UNRWA facilities.

In Rafah: Gaza's southernmost area has now become the most densely populated area in the enclave, with a density of 12,000 people per square kilometer, following the arrival of tens of thousands of displaced people there in search for safety since December 3, OCHA said. 


Despite these horrifying actions and many more, the United Nations Security Council did not vote on a cease-fire yesterday as planned.  Patrick Wintour (GUARDIAN) explains, "The United Nations security council has postponed a vote calling for a sustainable cessation of hostilities in Gaza to give more time for diplomats to meet US objections to the wording of the draft resolution."   AP adds, "A key issue is how to implement and sustain a desperately needed aid operation. Human Rights Watch accused Israel earlier Monday of deliberately starving Gaza’s population by blocking the delivery of water, food and fuel, a method of warfare that it described as a war crime. The United Nations’ food agency reported on Dec. 14 that 56% of Gaza’s households were experiencing “severe levels of hunger,” up from 38% two weeks earlier."  The vote is now expected to take place today.  THE WASHINGTON POST reminds, "The expected Security Council vote Tuesday also comes a week after the U.N. General Assembly — which includes representatives of all 193 U.N. member states — voted overwhelmingly in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. The United States was one of 10 countries to oppose that resolution, highlighting Washington’s growing isolation on the world stage as it continues to largely back Israel’s actions in Gaza despite mounting criticism of the toll."


The assault on Gaza continues.  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 now well over 18,000. NBC NEWS notes, "The vast majority of its 2.2 million people are displaced, and an estimated half face starvation amid an unfolding humanitarian crisis."  ABC NEWS notes, "In the Gaza Strip, at least 19,453 people have been killed and more than 52,000 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to figures released by Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health and the Hamas government media office."  In addition to the dead and the injured, there are the missing.  AP notes, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  And 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."  Max Butterworth (NBC NEWS) adds, "Satellite images captured by Maxar Technologies on Sunday reveal three of the main hospitals in Gaza from above, surrounded by the rubble of destroyed buildings after weeks of intense bombing in the region by Israeli forces."

Yesterday on DEMOCRACY NOW!, Amy Goodman noted, "In occupied East Jerusalem, photojournalist Mustafa Alkharouf, who works for the Turkish Anadolu outlet, was hospitalized Friday after he was severely beaten by Israeli police officers. Alkharouf had been taking photographs outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque when officers pointed their weapons at him, then threw him to the ground and began beating and kicking him. The attack was caught live on CNN."  CNN adds, "Gaza has become the most dangerous place in the world for journalists and their families, according to the UN. Since October 7, at least 57 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). In total, at least 64 journalists have been killed since October 7, which include four Israeli and three Lebanese journalists, the organization said."  Ahmed Asmar (ANADOLU AGENCY) reports:

The death toll of Palestinian journalists killed by the Israeli army since Oct. 7 in Gaza has risen to 97, authorities in the besieged Palestinian enclave said on Tuesday.

"The number of journalist martyrs has risen to 97 since the start of the [Israeli] brutal aggression on Gaza," said the Gaza-based government media office.

The last journalist victim was Adel Zorob who was killed in Israeli overnight airstrikes on Rafah city, southern the Gaza Strip, it said.

The office accused the Israeli army of deliberately killing the Palestinian journalists with the aim “to obliterate the truth."




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

Israel is intensifying its attacks across Gaza as pressure grows on Israel to support another ceasefire. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports the head of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, has met with the prime minister of Qatar and CIA chief William Burns in Poland. Talks between the Mossad and Qatar also took place this weekend in Norway. Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has arrived in Tel Aviv for talks.

This comes as Israel continues to carry out attacks across Gaza, targeting hospitals, schools and refugee camps. Authorities in Gaza say an Israeli attack on the Jabaliya refugee camp killed 110 people on Saturday. Israel has also raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital, where doctors say Israeli bulldozers crushed Palestinians to death, including wounded patients who were living in tents in the hospital’s courtyard. Israel has also attacked Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing growing calls to secure the release of the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, after Israeli forces mistakenly shot dead three Israeli hostages who managed to escape captivity in northern Gaza. The three men, who were all shirtless, were shot as they cried for help in Hebrew while holding up a white flag.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to attack Palestinian journalists. On Friday, Al Jazeera journalist Samer Abudaqa was killed after an Israeli drone struck a U.N. school in Khan Younis where displaced Palestinians were being sheltered. In a statement, Al Jazeera said, quote, “Following Samer’s injury, he was left to bleed to death for over five hours, as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him, denying the much-needed emergency treatment,” unquote. This is Ibrahim Qanan, a reporter for Al-Ghad in Gaza.

IBRAHIM QANAN: [translated] This is a horrific crime, a direct target. The first missile hit Samer, and he tried to crawl for 200 meters, but the Israeli warplanes hit him again and directly, so he became a martyr, and his body was cut into pieces. This is a crime, day and night, against journalists and against the media outlets who are working to reveal the Israeli occupation crimes in Gaza Strip.

AMY GOODMAN: Al Jazeera says it will ask the International Criminal Court to investigate the killing of Samer Abudaqqa. He was working with his colleague Wael Dahdouh, the head of Al Jazeera in Gaza, who was injured in the same drone strike. They were reporting from the school together. Wael was able to walk to a hospital, dazed, to receive medical attention. He already had lost his wife, son, daughter and grandson in an earlier Israeli attack.

We begin today’s show with Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, longtime Palestinian journalist and author. His books include Palestine/Israel: Peace or Apartheid: Prospects for Resolving the Conflict. He’s joining us from the studios of Al Jazeera in Doha.

We welcome you to Democracy Now!, Marwan. We welcome you back. If you can start off, since you’re there at Al Jazeera, by talking about the International Criminal Court complaint that Al Jazeera has filed after the death of a beloved cameraman who’s worked with so many Al Jazeera journalists there, was working with the head of Al Jazeera in Gaza at the time, with Wael Dahdouh? Talk about what happened to him and just what it’s like to walk the halls of Al Jazeera right now, as I watched Al Jazeera over the weekend, every hour the tributes to him, the video, the photos of him, his colleagues remembering him, his family crying out for him.

MARWAN BISHARA: Well, as you know, this is not the first time we go through this. We’ve gone through it a number of times already, mourning our colleagues, the death of our colleagues and the death of their families. They are our family, and their families are also our extended family. And that’s just been going on for too long. We’ve covered too many wars. I personally have been in since the First Gaza Wqar back in 2008, 2009. We’ve gone through four wars like that. And only a couple years ago, one of our colleagues, as you know, Shireen Abu Akleh, was killed in the Jenin refugee camp. So this is all too close to home.

I mean, you know, every day we live the tragedy of the death of several hundreds in Gaza the past 10 weeks. But when it comes to our very own, I guess it’s human nature, right? You just can’t ignore it, can’t go on without being preoccupied with it and preoccupied with the feelings of those loved ones, that continue to endure the bombings, the inhumane bombings that we’re seeing in Gaza and the rest of Palestine. So it’s a somber atmosphere, but people here just, I guess, plow ahead — there’s no other option — as countless people die and countless families suffer without shelter, without medical treatment, even without food. It’s just the tragedy that we just have to live through every day and report on every day.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s talk about that issue of food. You have this new Human Rights Watch report that’s out that’s accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war, saying, “Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival.” This is Carl Skau, the deputy executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme, speaking to reporters last week in New York after a recent visit to Gaza.

CARL SKAU: What we found there was that half of the population are starving. The grim reality is also that nine out of 10 people are not eating enough, are not eating every day, and don’t know where the next meal is going to come from. … We are ready to deliver to another million people within a couple of weeks, should the conditions allow. And let me reiterate that caveat, that should those conditions allow, which would be opening of more crossings and a humanitarian ceasefire to be able to reach people across the strip.

AMY GOODMAN: The deputy executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme. He says nine out of 10 people are not eating enough in Gaza. I mean, in the past, with all of Gaza’s problems, hunger was not one of them. Can you talk about the significance of this, and also this latest news? I mean, even as we’re broadcasting, these attacks on one hospital after another. I mean, Abudaqa and Wael Dahdouh were covering the strike on the U.N. school in Khan Younis when Abudaqa was killed.

MARWAN BISHARA: Yes, absolutely. Just as a reminder to your viewers, there was also a report by Oxfam on October 23rd — that’s also just two weeks after the war started in Gaza, or on Gaza — where it also spoke about the weaponization of hunger, because this has actually been going on since day one, since October 8, when defense minister — so-called defense minister, minister of war, Yoav Gallant, if you remember, made his infamous threat by saying, “We’re going to cut their food, their fuel, their electricity,” basically denying the Palestinians of every basic need. It’s part of the collective punishment that Israel decided from day one to impose on the Palestinians, which of course is a war crime.

But that’s been the nature of the war, because right after he said that he’s going to deny the Palestinians in Gaza all of this, he said they are “human animals.” This was basically an intent for genocide, because right after he did make those infamous declarations, the president of Israel, Mr. Herzog, also came out with his statements about the fact, to his view, there are no innocents in Gaza. No innocents in Gaza. And that was followed by the prime minister, Netanyahu, who said something about an analogy with some biblical times, comparing the Palestinians to the Amalek, and hence basically saying that Israel will go after their families, their parents, the children, even the infants and their families. So we have the three leading Israeli officials basically admitting in public, once and again, [inaudible] collective punishment against Palestinians in general in Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Marwan, if you can talk about what’s happening, the increasing isolation of Israel, and the United States supporting Israel? You have yet another vote today in the U.N. Security Council around a ceasefire. You have the British and German foreign ministers calling for a ceasefire, further isolating the U.S., which blocked a ceasefire at the U.N. Security Council. Lloyd Austin is in Tel Aviv meeting with the Israeli leadership. If you can shed light on — you know, Netanyahu, after the killing of the three Israeli hostages, held a news conference. He is under enormous pressure right now to put the hostages at the top. You’ve got negotiations going on, apparently, in Norway between the Qatari and Mossad officials, and now William Burns, head of central intelligence, is in Poland to meet with the Qatari officials. Talk about all that’s happening right now, Netanyahu not wanting to end this war right now. And there is a question about, since he’s facing one criminal trial after another himself, whether, once this ends and there’s a real evaluation done, he could end up in jail himself, so putting that off.

MARWAN BISHARA: Well, OK, so let’s try quickly to dissect all of these very complicated issues. Let me just start by a quick — not going to call it “correction,” but just, you know, shed a light on the German, British position. They have not called for an immediate ceasefire. They called for a sustained ceasefire, which is the opposite of an immediate ceasefire, because, basically, they said it’s not anything that we think of that will happen anytime in the near future, when they mention “sustained,” which means the circumstances have to be suitable, which is basically very close to the American position. Unfortunately, the European clients of the United States, for the time being, remain so, clients of the United States, following in the footsteps of the United States, basically to the displeasure of the majority of their public opinion, also like that of the public opinion of the United States, apparently.

But clearly the Biden administration wants to beautify the genocide in Gaza. I think they’re being embarrassed, because the reports coming out of Gaza, the images, the suffering and all of that, is reaching American public and the Western public in general. And they need to, you know, give the impression that they’re doing something, hence they’re sending these envoys to the region and writing articles and so on and so forth, to at least prove that they are trying to do something, while, in fact, in reality, the United States continue to subsidize this war, manage this war, because we see Lloyd Austin sitting along with Yoav and the rest of the Israeli generals. And they also, of course, as we know, sent the two aircraft carriers and the nuclear submarines to the area, hence shielding Israel, not just militarily, but also at the United Nations, committing $14 billion to Israel’s war effort. So, all in all, the United States continue to unconditionally support Israel, while claiming to distance itself from the intensive phase of the war, claiming that they want to phase out to something different. Right? So, that’s what we have for the time being.

But the fact of the matter is that, until today, 10 weeks later, the United States has yet to condemn Israel in public, its war crimes in Gaza, yet to distance themselves from those war crimes that have been reported once and again that are taking place in Gaza. All what they’re saying is that Israel should try to minimize, because too many Palestinians have died over the past 10 weeks. And now when they talk about the phaseout — and here, this is a very, very interesting fact that we see — they’re saying Israel should perhaps target Hamas fighters, Hamas tunnels, and assassinate their leaders. That’s what they’re saying. So, it begs the question: If this is the way to fight Hamas, why did they go on and destroy Gaza, leading to tens of thousands of casualties the past 10 weeks? There is clearly another way to fight this war, which is going after Hamas, not going after Gazans. But from the beginning, Amy — and this is, again, very important to underline — is the fact that Gaza has been the target of this war, not Hamas. And if you look at the statistics, Gazans — the journalists, the doctors, the nurses, the teachers, the academics, the children — have been the main victims of this war. Hamas fighters, Hamas militants have been the collateral damage in this war. For the past 10 weeks, it was Gaza that’s being decimated, its civil infrastructure being decimated. It’s been a war on hospitals, on schools, on mosques and, yes, a war on children. And yet it was unconditionally supported by the United States and other Western powers. And we haven’t heard a single retraction for that support. And it’s still being shielded at the United Nations. Hundred and fifty-three members called for an immediate ceasefire, and what did the United States do? Voted against it. Thirty members of the U.N. Security Council voted for an immediate ceasefire. Britain abstained. The United States vetoed the resolution. The United States and Britain, until today, they sit isolated in the international community.

So, when President Biden tells a small group of people in Washington that Israel is perhaps losing the public support, what public support? What international public support? A majority in America, to my knowledge, ask for a ceasefire. A majority of the [inaudible] out are the Biden administration and his lackeys in London and Berlin. The rest of the international community, including the absolute majority of everyone in this region, wants a ceasefire.

And just quickly to cap that, we just interviewed a number of people in Gaza, in the streets in Gaza, asked them, “What do you think about Lloyd Austin coming to the area?” They said something to the fact, “Oh my god, this means we’re going to be bombed again and again the next few days,” because think about that. Since Biden landed in the middle of October, every time an American official showed up in Israel, Israel had intensified the bombings. After Biden came, the land invasion started. And every visit by Blinken or Sullivan or Lloyd Austin, we have seen an intensification of the bombings of the civilian infrastructure of Gaza, of the residential buildings in Gaza. That’s been the case. That’s been the reality. There’s no other interpretations of it.

So, the diagram, the process, if you will, shows unconditional American support, despite the various acrobatic verbal diarrhea that comes out of Western capital about, “Well, we’re not very happy about too many Palestinians dying.” Well, how many is enough exactly for them to stop Israel from continuing? Because Israel couldn’t launch this war, couldn’t sustain this war, couldn’t survive in the region like this without American support. In fact, Prime Minister Netanyahu says that “We will win this war with the support of the United States.” So, imagine: A country that calls itself the most important power in the Middle East is incapable of defeating a small guerrilla group that’s been under siege for the past 17 years, and it requires the deployment of aircraft carriers and the financial and military power of the world’s superpower. And yet, until today, it still insists it’s not even done with half of the job, because despite the tens of thousands of casualties, despite the death of more than 7,000 children, only a fraction — a fraction — of Hamas fighters have been killed in this war. It all goes to tell you that the endgame and the military objectives, none of them have been reached, despite the genocide that continues to unravel in Palestine.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Netanyahu holds this news conference on Saturday after the killing of the three Israeli hostages in Gaza, and he says, “We have to intensify the war to make Hamas release the hostages.” What is your response to this? Clearly at odds with even Israeli public opinion. And the idea that these three men, who were killed by Israeli forces, Netanyahu saying that his own forces violated the rules of war, was this any different or any surprise than the thousands — the way thousands of Palestinians have been treated, many also holding up a white flag? The surprise here is that these hostages were not treated differently than Palestinians.

MARWAN BISHARA: Absolutely, shirtless, white flag and shouting in Hebrew, and yet they were murdered by their own, which tells you, according now to a good number of Israelis speaking out, that there are no rules of engagements. It’s crap. It’s humbug. There are no rules of engagement in Gaza. You shoot whatever moves in Gaza. And, yes, it’s odd, because the Israelis have been doing exactly that since day one.

Now, as you said, it’s also odd, his arguments about the captives, because this is the most ridiculous arguments of all arguments. We’ve known from the beginning that they said the aim of the war is first to defeat Hamas, second to release the captives. And they kind of connected both by saying, “If we intensify the war, Hamas will be pressured to release the captives.” It never did. So they had to resort to diplomacy, asking the Qataris, the Egyptians and the Americans to help. And they did. And through diplomacy, they were able to release some of the hostages. And then they went back to war the day after. Now they want to try it again.

Well, the news is that Hamas will no longer accept humanitarian pauses. Hamas now insists on permanent ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from Gaza. Otherwise, what incentive does Hamas have in order to release any more of the, especially military, captives that it has in Gaza? Because if the Israelis, with the support of the United States, are going to continue the bombings the next day, and they insist that the war objective is to kill Hamas fighters, there is zero incentives why they would release anyone.

So, today, we are in the Netanyahu logic. And the Netanyahu logic is neither in the interests of Israel or the United States. And Biden knows that. Apparently, he got a file from Israel, through his intelligence agencies, that says something to the fact, according to Haaretz, the Israeli mainstream paper, that Netanyahu has a vested — has a personal vested interest in prolonging the war, because he, you know, as a political-criminal-indicted-on-corruption-charges-cum-war-criminal, he has a vested interest to prolong the war as much as he can in order to improve his chances for reelection. In fact, he just put in the military fatigue and started making his populist slogans, the ones that we know them, saying that only he can prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state, that only he can stand up to the United States, and hence the Israelis need to elect him again. So, Netanyahu, as a person, the military establishment, as well, have vested interest to continue with this war.

AMY GOODMAN: Marwan Bishara, I want to thank you very much for being with us, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, speaking to us from Doha, Qatar, born in Nazareth, in the occupied West Bank. Thanks so much for being with us.

Coming up, Nina Lakhani, the senior climate justice reporter of The Guardian. Stay with us.






Let's turn to Senator Bernie Sanders.  At THE NATION, Adam Johnson writes:


There’s been a lot of confusion over Senator Bernie Sanders’s position on the Gaza war. On the one hand, few elected officials have been more harshly critical of Israel’s siege and relentless bombing of Gaza. On the other hand, he refuses to join global calls—by everyone from Oxfam to Amnesty International to Doctors Without Borders, along with a growing number of his congressional colleagues, including both of the other federally elected officials from Vermont—for a longer-term cease-fire. Instead, Sanders has stuck to his demand for something fairly boutique and not backed by any major human rights or Palestinian organizations: a “temporary” cease-fire—ostensibly, so aid can get into Gaza and Israel can propose a plan for a more humane strategy to “eliminate Hamas.” 


In and of itself, another temporary pause is not a bad thing. But it’s neither useful or morally sound larger strategy. The week after the November 24–December 1 “humanitarian truce,” Israel, according to the Euro-Med human rights monitor, increased the rate of daily killing 40 percent, effectively just making up for lost time. And the number of Palestinian prisoners released from prison ended up being dwarfed by the total number of Palestinian civilians Israeli occupation forces arrested in the West Bank since October 7. Hamas freed more than 100 Israeli hostages, which is great news, but in the face of over 18,000 dead Palestinians, that is a relatively small humanitarian victory.  

If Sanders were only refusing to call for a longer-term cease-fire, it would be reputation-tarnishing but perhaps not worthy of a column-length rebuke. But Sanders—either because of partisan or personal loyalty to the president or a misguided belief that neat and clean regime change is a realistic option—is doing something far more harmful: He’s actively lobbying against the logic of a longer cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. As someone viewed by many in Congress and media as the furthest left pole of “acceptable” left-wing opinion, this has undermined the big tent demand among Palestinian groups, aid groups, and human rights groups for a longer-term cease-fire.

Sanders has repeatedly argued on national TV that a permanent cease-fire with Hamas is not only inadvisable but impossible. He told CBS’s Face the Nation on December 10, “I don’t know how you have a permanent cease-fire with Hamas, who has said before October 7 and after October 7 that they want to destroy Israel.” Such statements have been gleefully clipped and shared by the right-wing American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC): 

On their face, Sanders’s comments about a cease-fire with Hamas being impossible because of its desire to destroy Israel make sense. If one doesn’t look too hard, it has the right Tough Guy War on Terror vibes. But upon further examination, what Sanders is saying is ahistorical demagoguery. Far from spurning negotiations with Hamas, Israel has entered into cease-fires with the group over a dozen times since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2006. Both sides have broken the cease-fires, but some have lasted several months or even several years. These cease-fires have historical precedent, and this is one major reason most of the human rights, medical, and humanitarian world has rallied around this demand. It’s happened many times before, and there’s a framework for it to happen again. Now, these longer-term cease-fires are not the same thing as “peace”—no indefinite military occupation and blockade can ever be the same as peace—but they are a necessary antecedent to any step toward a resolution to the conflict, no matter how far off the prospect seems right now. What comes after a cease-fire is a complex and difficult question, but “stop killing a kid every 10 minutes” ought to be a baseline demand for any positive outcome.



The reason Sanders opposes a longer cease-fire is because he explicitly supports the logic of Israel’s stated aim to overthrow Hamas. In doing so, he is advocating what is effectively a timeout so that Israel can present Congress with a more humane alternative to their current strategy of what President Joe Biden himself calls “indiscriminate bombing.” (It’s rare a sitting president casually admits he’s a party to a war crime, but we live in strange times). 

There’s only one problem with this approach: Israel has shown zero interest in executing a humane or “targeted” war, because they clearly view every person in Gaza as a legitimate target. 



By the way, it's only Tuesday but in the full article (not in the excerpt above), there are two sentences that I think will be a "truest" for THIRD (I'll be nominating it) so that's another reason to read the article in full -- I think it'll stand out.



In Iraq, votes are still being counted from yesterday's provincial elections.  Despite the call for a large turnout, it appears that may not have happened and the government is currently attempting to spin 40% turnout in some areas as "large."


Turning to the US, we had a lot to cover yesterday so we didn't have time for bisexual Moms For Bigotry's Bridget Ziegler and her husband Christian who is accused of rape.  Let's rectify that now.  



The Republican Party of Florida suspended Chairman Christian Ziegler and demanded his resignation during an emergency meeting Sunday, adding to calls by Gov. Ron DeSantis and other top officials for him to step down as police investigate a rape accusation against him.
Ziegler is accused of raping a woman with whom he and his wife, Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, had a prior consensual sexual relationship, according to police records.

Did you want to sit in on the family conversation?  "Kids, Daddy's being asked to step down because he's accused of rape.  Meanwhile, me, your mother who won't let you say 'gay' has been sleeping with women.  I think I'm just bisexual but, who knows, I may be a lesbian."  


Sara Fillips (WFLA) adds that, if he doesn't resign, there will be an attempt to force him out of office:


There will be an emergency meeting held with the State Executive Committee on Jan. 8 to remove him from office.

“This is very sad for the Republican Party of Florida and very sad for the Republican Party of Sarasota County,” Brill said.

Brill also said Ziegler did not resign from office.

“He needs to resign, it was unanimous, every single motion today was unanimously voted on and he’s still there,” said State Representative Michelle Salzman.


Again, the family conversation between Bridget and her three daughters.  Regen asks, "Mommy, is it right for the state to try to force Daddy out?"  Bridget responds, "I don't know honey.  Was it right for Daddy to try to force himself on Mommy's female lover?"  Corbin Bolies (THE DAILY BEAST) explains, "During the meeting, which took place at Orlando’s Rosen Centre Hotel, Ziegler attempted to defend himself to the committee, according to Lee County GOP chairman Michael Thompson. His speech was followed by motions to reduce his salary to $1; strip him of his authority and powers; no longer approve expense reimbursements; and censure him, arguing Ziegler had lost the party’s confidence. All of the motions passed, and the chairperson’s powers were delegated to Vice Chair Evan Power and Treasurer Mike Moberley."

"One dollar?" Sloane asks.  "So, Mommy, I'm making more in a week with my allowance than Daddy's making in his high and mighty post?"  Bridget responds, "That's correct, honey.  And thus far, no one's accused you of rape so you're a winner there too."


Kimberly Leonard (POLITICO) notes, "Bridget Ziegler, a close DeSantis ally and a Sarasota County school board member, didn’t attend Sunday’s meeting."  In a family meeting, did Francis ask her mother, "As a 'family values' woman, Mommy, shouldn't you have stood by Daddy at the meeting?"  To which Bridget would  no doubt reply, "Honey, that's a gray area and I just don't know.  Tammy Wynette, you see, never sang about what to do when your man tries to reap your female lover."



Emily L. Mahoney (TAMPA BAY TIMES) reminds, "The alleged victim was a woman who told police that she previously had a consensual three-way sexual encounter with Ziegler and his wife, Bridget -- which prompted widespread criticism that the Zieglers’ vocal opposition to things like LGBTQ+ school lessons were hypocritical. According to a search warrant affidavit, Bridget Ziegler, who is a co-founder of the high-profile Moms for Liberty education group and a member of the Sarasota County School Board, confirmed to detectives that this threesome previously occurred."


Youth activist Zander Moricz – a 2022 LGBTQ Nation Hero of the Year – made an epic speech against Moms for Liberty co-founder and Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler in which he explained to her face why he believes she is awful at her job.

Calls for Ziegler’s resignation from the school board have mounted in the wake of rape allegations against her husband, Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler. Bridget Ziegler has since admitted that she, her husband, and her husband’s accuser engaged in a consensual threesome over a year ago. The admission angered many due to Ziegler’s vendetta against LGBTQ+ issues being taught in schools.

Wearing a sweatshirt stating, You Give Me The Ick, Moricz opened his speech by speaking directly to Bridget Ziegler and telling her their first interaction was when she retweeted a hate article about him while he was still a Sarasota County student. “You are a reminder that some people view politics as a service to others while some view it as an opportunity for themselves,” he said.

He called her out for using her position on the board to spend public funds that could have gone to raising teacher salaries to “change our district lines for political gain, remove books from schools, target trans and queer children, erase Black history, and elevate your political career – all while sending your children to private schools because you don’t believe in the public school system that you’ve been leading.”

He then posed a question to the public: Why is Ziegler’s threesome more of a scandal than the way she has used public funds to “harm our teachers and our students for her gain”?

Moricz said Zielger does not deserve to be on the school board but also does not deserve to be removed from it because of her threesome.

“That defeats the lesson we’ve been trying to teach you,” he continued, “which is that a politician’s job is to serve their community, not to police personal lives.”

He then emphasized his point once again: “Bridget, you deserve to be fired from your job because you are terrible at your job, not because you had sex with a woman.” 



The following sites updated:


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