Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Science post: Whales and climate

Let's do science.  And let's start with this from the BBC.


 Inside the bodies of humpback whales are clues about how climate change is transforming Antarctica. In the rich, freezing seas off the peninsula, penguins, seals and many whales feed on Antarctic krill. These diminutive, almost unimaginably numerous, shrimp-like creatures thrive under sea ice. As the climate warms up, scientists are racing to understand what that means for this ice-dependent food supply.


And this is from Victoria Gill and  Kate Stephens (BBC NEWS) report:


Baby humpbacks spend a year nursing on their mothers’ rich milk. With a hungry, one-tonne newborn, calories are important.

“We need to find the most critical feeding habitats for whales, so we can protect them,” explains Chris.

The health of whales, he explains, shines a light on the health of the whole Antarctic ecosystem. And whales are physically necessary for a healthy ocean: Humpbacks eat krill, and krill eat microscopic plants that live in sea ice - plants that absorb planet-warming carbon as they grow. Whales then poop (in vast quantities) and fertilise the marine plants.

It’s a virtuous, productive cycle that climate change is disrupting. “These are natural processes we rely on for fresh air, food and clean water,” says Chris. “Places like this are important for all of us.”


And let's bring in a music video.




That's "Farewell to Tarwathie" and it's being sung by Judy Collins and humpback whales.  It's from her album WHALES &  NIGHTINGALES and I heard it the first time when I was a little girl and just wanted to lay on my side and listen.  My brother explained those were whales and I just found that song so comforting the first moment I heard it and to this day.  


Okay, now let's note a Tweet from the United Nations Secretary-General.



Don't you wish the leader of our country could talk like that?  And the sad reality is that I'm American but you could be from pretty much any country and make that same comment.  



"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, June 11, 2024.  A cease-fire (or 'cease-fire') agreement passes the UN Security Council, the UN notes the Israeli government may have committed War Crimes last weekend, War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu is eager to pollute the US with his foul stench next month, and much more.


Adla Massoud (THE NATIONAL) reports, "The UN Security Council on Monday adopted a US-drafted resolution endorsing President Joe Biden’s ceasefire plan for the Gaza Strip. The measure won 14 votes in favour, with Russia abstaining. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East to promote the proposal."  Ana Faguy and Raffi Berg (BBC NEWS) note, "The proposal sets out conditions for a 'full and complete ceasefire', the release of hostages held by Hamas, the return of dead hostages' remains and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners."  REUTERS notes, "The UN Human Rights Office said that the civilian deaths in Gaza during the Israeli operation to secure the release of four hostages and their holding by armed groups in densely populated areas could amount to war crimes."



A cease-fire is needed.  A real one.  Instead we get ongoing War Crimes.  THE GUARDIAN notes:

The UN human rights office said on Tuesday that the civilian deaths in Gaza during the Israeli operation to secure the release of four hostages and their holding by armed groups in densely populated areas could both amount to war crimes, Reuters reports.

“Hundreds of Palestinians, many of them civilians, were reportedly killed and injured,” said Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN human rights office.

“Furthermore, by holding hostages in such densely populated areas, the armed groups doing so are putting the lives of Palestinian civilians, as well as the hostages themselves, at added risk from the hostilities. All these actions, by both parties, may amount to war crimes.”

A  meeting is taking place today, this one in Jordan, on the issue of Gaza.  ABC NEWS notes:


United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres has been speaking at an emergency aid summit for Gaza in Jordan.

It seeks to bring together leaders and aid officials to help solve the humanitarian issues in the Gaza, with much of the territory's food, water and energy cut off.

The conference is jointly organised by the UN, Jordan and Egypt and is being attended by US secretary of state Antony Blinken.

Mr Guterres says that "the speed and scale of carnage and killing in Gaza is beyond anything in my years as secretary-general."


THE NATIONAL explains the summit is called Call for Action: Urgent Humanitarian Response for Gaza.   Shahada Abu Baqar (JORDAN TIMES) explains why Jordan is co-hosting the event and why they called for it:


Since ascending to the throne of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan twenty-five years ago, His Majesty King Abdullah has continued the approach of his father, the late King Hussein, dedicating his efforts and meetings on bilateral, regional, and international levels, warning against the international community's neglect of the inevitable need for a just and peaceful solution that guarantees the Palestinian people their legitimate right to establish an independent state on their national soil occupied by Israel since 1967.

Despite Jordan's warnings about the magnitude of the tragedy experienced by the Palestinian people due to the occupation's practices of blockade, settlement activity expansion, killing, destruction, and violation of Palestinians’ simplest rights to a free life like other peoples on the planet, global powers have not given these repeated warnings the attention they deserve.

 The absence of decisive stance by global powers has granted the far-right government in Israel more opportunities to challenge international law and all universally recognized religious, moral and human values, leading to further humiliation of the people under its occupation, expansion of its settlement projects, and increased efforts to Judaize Palestinian land and desecrate Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and across Palestine. Israel has further intensified its oppression of a people who only seek their legitimate right to what remains of their ancestral land.

Meanwhile, the Gaza Strip has been enduring a harsh life, lacking the simplest necessities of decent living due to an Israeli blockade nearing its 18th year. This has led to the realization of what King Abdullah has warned about for 25 years, as life has become unbearably difficult for over two million people living in Gaza, barely surviving.

The Israeli government has never considered the severe suffering faced by Palestinian people and, instead, has launched its genocidal war now entering its ninth month, killing and destruction of humans, trees, stones, and everything necessary for human life in Gaza, in an effort to displace its residents, as it did in the 1948 war.


The genocidal war?  From yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!


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

For more on the Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp that freed four Israeli hostages and killed at least 274 Palestinians, wounding over about 700 people, we’re joined by Omar Baddar, a Palestinian American political analyst, member of the National Policy Council of the Arab American Institute. He’s joining us from Washington, D.C.

If you can, overall, respond to what took place, and then, because you’re in D.C., Omar, talk about the Biden administration response?

OMAR BADDAR: Sure, Amy. There’s no question that what unfolded in that operation is a massacre. I mean, we’ve seen just the bodies of hundreds of people littered everywhere, including the bodies of children. We’ve seen absolutely horrific scenes at the hospitals of weeping parents and bloody children. I mean, to look at a death toll of this scale and then to celebrate this kind of operation as some sort of success, you would basically have to openly say that the lives of Israelis are more valuable than the lives of Palestinians. That is the message that is sent by celebrating this operation.

Now, there is no surprise at the fact that an apartheid government like Israel’s would see it that way. They’ve made very clear that they have absolutely no regard for Palestinian life, that they don’t see Palestinians as equal human beings deserving of the same dignity and rights that Israelis enjoy. But what’s really disappointing is looking at the way that the Biden administration has reacted to all this, where the massacre is reduced to a footnote while the focus is primarily on the lives of the hostages who have been rescued. That kind of contrast, this declaration from the Biden administration that the lives of Palestinians matter less than the lives of Israelis, is just absolutely outrageous and completely indefensible. It speaks to a fundamentally broken dynamic with American foreign policy towards the region for a very, very long time, in which Israel is treated like a country that is above the law and above any rules, and their lives simply matter more, and they can do whatever they want, so long as it favors Israel, at the expense of the people around them.

And that kind of approach has actually guaranteed that we’re going to be living in a situation of perpetual conflict, because any time you treat Palestinians the way Israel treats them, put them under indefinite military occupation, rob them of their rights, of their land, treat them the way Palestinians are treated day in and day out under this brutal occupation, you are creating fertile ground for conflict. And that’s why we’re in the situation that we’re in, in the first place.

AMY GOODMAN: Omar, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said on the Sunday talk shows, quote, “Innocent people were tragically killed in this operation. The exact number we don’t know, but innocent people were killed. And that is heartbreaking. That’s tragic.”

OMAR BADDAR: Yeah. Amy, just imagine. Imagine if it was the other way around, right? Imagine right now, as you and I are speaking, there are thousands of Palestinians who have been kidnapped out of Gaza. They’re placed in Israeli detention centers across the border. And the treatment that they are witnessing day in and day out has been absolutely horrifying. There’s a report in The New York Times from just a few days ago outlining the daily sexual abuse that these prisoners are actually undergoing, the torture. And we know for a fact that dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli captivity over the past several months, since October 7th to this day. And if you were to imagine a scenario right now in which Hamas conducts an operation, kills several hundred Israelis and then rescues four Palestinians from Israeli detention, would anybody even know the names of those four Palestinians who had been rescued, or would the entire world and our discourse be condemning the massacre that had taken place? Would that be what’s dominating the headlines? We know the answer to that. And we know that we would not be reducing the massacre to nothing, had it been the other way around.

So, yes, maybe Jake Sullivan can talk about how tragic it is that people are dying, but when push comes to shove, the United States is providing the military funding that is allowing for these casualties to occur on a regular basis. At this point, every major human rights organization in the world is describing Israeli conduct in Gaza as war crimes. They are describing the deliberate starving of children. Several of them have died of starvation, as well. We are witnessing that the International Court of Justice effectively has found that Israel is plausibly committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. And in light of all this, for the Biden administration to continue providing unlimited and unconditional military funding for Israel to carry on this genocidal slaughter in Gaza, while expressing regret at the fact that some civilians are dying in the process, I mean, just who are they fooling? They are responsible for it in a direct way. If they do find it tragic, there is a very, very easy solution to it. And that is to put an end to U.S. military funding for Israel, until Israel starts abiding by international law and stops this indiscriminate onslaught on the civilian population in Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to President Biden during a joint press conference with the French president, Macron, on Saturday.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: But before I begin my remarks, I want to echo President Macron’s comments welcoming the safe rescue of four hostages that were returned to their families in Israel. We won’t stop working until all the hostages come home and a ceasefire is reached. That is essential to happen.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what about this ceasefire? What about this deal? What about Israel and Hamas? The U.S. focuses on Hamas, whether they will accept the deal. President Biden introduced it as an Israeli deal, and yet Netanyahu has not approved this deal.

OMAR BADDAR: Amy, I think it’s really important for your audience to actually understand a bit of the merits of that ceasefire proposal. There has long been tension between the Israeli position — which is effectively a temporary ceasefire, a return of all the hostages to Israel, and then a continuation of the war, of this onslaught on Gaza, that has so far killed nearly 40,000 people and just destroyed the overwhelming majority of the Gaza Strip — and the Hamas position, on the other hand. They’re saying they’re willing to give up the hostages, but they need an end to this onslaught. They want a permanent ceasefire.

And the proposal that Biden put forward effectively presents two phases. Phase one is a temporary ceasefire, and phase two is the permanent one. And in between, he’s left it vague about what needs to be negotiated in order to get to the permanent ceasefire bit. And Netanyahu — I mean, both sides are suspicious for different reasons, right? Hamas is suspicious of that kind of deal, because they’re afraid they’re going to be forced to give up nearly all the hostages at phase one, and then the war is simply going to continue. And from Netanyahu’s perspective, he’s worried that when the war is halted in that temporary ceasefire, that the U.S. is going to apply significant pressure on Netanyahu to turn it into a permanent ceasefire.

Now, Netanyahu immediately came out and effectively rejected any idea that the Biden plan is going to end the war, because he said all Israel has offered is a plan that allows us to continue this war until Hamas is completely destroyed. So he’s effectively openly rejected that deal. And the Biden administration, as it always does, then turns around and applies all the pressure that they want to on the Palestinian side. Now they’re trying to pressure Qatar into potentially throwing out Hamas, the Hamas leadership, out of Qatar if they don’t accept that deal.

So, time and again, we see this pattern where, when push comes to shove, the Biden administration is unwilling to apply any meaningful pressure on Israel. They threatened it here and there. They talk about potentially withholding some weapons. And the second there’s any bit of criticism of the Biden administration from right-wing politicians — and, frankly, some establishment mainstream ones — about how Biden is not backing Israel sufficiently, Biden immediately panics and just throws another unlimited supply of weapons in Israel and says that Israel can do whatever it wants.

That dynamic is not going to lead to anything positive. We can’t get an end to this onslaught if Biden is afraid to apply meaningful pressure on Netanyahu or on Israel. That has long been the core of the issue, by the way, not just in reference to this particular ceasefire effort, but it really is about the broader dynamic of Israel and the United States, where the impunity that Israel enjoys to continue this occupation, to entrench the occupation in the West Bank and in Gaza, and the fact that Biden has always offered unconditional diplomatic support and unconditional military support, that allows extremism to fester within the Israeli government. And that’s what pushes their policies in a more and more extreme direction, where there is no possibility right now for a genuine, long-lasting, just peace, because the Israeli government rejects that completely out of hand. And the only thing that can change that is a shift in American approach and to start saying that America will not be complicit in these kinds of atrocities, will not be complicit in entrenching apartheid and occupation, because that is not a recipe for a stable region or for any kind of long-lasting peace or justice in Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Omar Baddar, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Palestinian American political analyst, member of the National Policy Council of the Arab American Institute.

When we come back, we’ll be joined by two Israelis. One, near Tel Aviv, lost his parents on October 7th. He says Israel’s war is not the answer. The other, here in New York, is the head of Idealist.org. Back in 20 seconds.


On the War Crimes of Benjamin Netanyahu, let's note Liza Featherstone via ZNET:

With elections looming and the Democratic base overwhelmingly opposed to Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, Joe Biden seems at times to be feeling the heat and talking peace. On May 31, he claimed that Israel had agreed to a “permanent cease-fire.” But Biden was immediately rebuffed when Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu disgracefully rejected that idea, caving to far-right pressure from within his government.

The Democratic leadership should have seized the moment and, in a unified voice, urged the president to defund Israel’s brutal war. That would have been morally right. If successful, that action could have, most importantly, finally halted a genocide. It also could have helped Biden to defeat Donald Trump in the fall.

But that is not what the Democratic leadership did.

Instead, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, joined Republican House speaker Mike Johnson in penning a letter inviting Netanyahu, fanatic far-right architect of a war in which Israel has been  burning people alive without impunity or shame, to address Congress.

It’s hard to imagine a worse guest for the United States right now. Netanyahu has prosecuted an utterly callous war in which more than 36,000 people have died, most of them children. His war has exposed more than a million people to catastrophic starvation. He has also done his best to eradicate Palestinian civilization, bombing all its universities.

The New York Times reports that because of Israel’s ground offensive in Rafah, more than a million Gazans forced to flee that city have no power, water, or shelter. A construction worker who fled Rafah last week told the paper, “The situation is as bad as you can imagine. We are waiting for God’s mercy.”

Netanyahu has also knowingly targeted hospitals in this war, turning hospitals, “which should be safe havens, into scenes of death, devastation and despair,” according to the World Health Organization. Even after the International Court of Justice noted “catastrophic conditions” in Gaza and warned Israel that starving civilians and obstructing humanitarian aid were war crimes, Human Rights Watch reported that the situation had only grown worse. Israel’s vicious disregard for Palestinian lives is almost matched by its contempt for the international community.


Do you invite War Criminals to your home?  I mean maybe if you're trampy Jill St. John and spreading your legs for War Criminal Henry Kissinger to drive home just how lacking in standards and common sense you are, maybe then you invite a War Criminal into your home.  But people that are the same disgusting trash that smears a man's name (Lance Reventlow) in a divorce action ("extreme cruelty") only to show up nearly ten years later (and one marriage and divorce later -- to singer Jack Jones) and start calling the same man your "late husband" and acting like a widow when, in fact, Cheryl Holdridge (Cheryl from THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB) is the widow and had been married to Lance eight years. Jill St. John's not just a joke, she's a dirty joke. And she's the type who would invite a War Criminal (or wife killer) into her own home. 


Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has stated:

 

We are profoundly shocked at the impact on civilians of the Israeli forces’ operation in An Nuseirat at the weekend to secure the release of four hostages. Hundreds of Palestinians, many of them civilians, were reportedly killed and injured. The manner in which the raid was conducted in such a densely populated area seriously calls into question whether the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution - as set out under the laws of war - were respected by the Israeli forces.

Our Office is also deeply distressed that Palestinian armed groups continue to hold many hostages, most of them civilians, which is prohibited by international humanitarian law. Furthermore, by holding hostages in such densely populated areas, the armed groups doing so are putting the lives of Palestinian civilians, as well as the hostages themselves, at added risk from the hostilities.

All these actions, by both parties, may amount to war crimes.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, welcomes Security Council Resolution 2735 calling for a "full and complete ceasefire", the release of hostages held by Palestinian armed groups, the return of the remains of dead hostages, and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners. An immediate priority must be to ensure the full and unfettered flow of humanitarian aid to the desperate population of Gaza.

The High Commissioner calls on all parties as well as third States, in particular those with influence over the parties to the conflict, to also maximise efforts to work towards the goal whereby Israelis and Palestinians can fully enjoy all human rights and live side by side, in peace.


Full human rights.  That would include access to food and water.  But instead, the government of Israel attempts to starve the people of Gaza.  They've burned down universities and schools, they've bombed hospitals, it's been one War Crime after another.  ALJAZEERA notes:


More than month after Israeli forces began operating in Rafah, which was previously Gaza’s main declared safe zone, almost all displaced people have fled the area, leaving fewer than 100,000 still left, according to the UNRWA.

As a result, there are now 1.7 million displaced people in Gaza – more than 70 percent of the population – with many of the displaced having been forced to move multiple times, the UNRWA said in its latest situation update.


Gaza remains under assault. Day 249 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll reaches 37,164 with 84,832 injured."   Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

  



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

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


The following sites updated:


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Monday, June 10, 2024

It is past time for Alito to be removed from the Court

Mike named Samuel Alito "Idiot of the Week" on Saturday and noted:


 He's lied non-stop since the first report on the first flag emerged.  And his lies are so awful.  How can he be allowed to sit on the Supreme Court and be this stupid?  


We're not talking about some evil genius.  We're talking about a dumb ass who says ____ happened when he knows a police report exists that can prove he's lying.  He tells this lie, grasp this, while he knows he's been flying another flag at his summer home.


But this dumb ass goes all in on his lie.


Agreed. 


And there's 'another fine mess' that he's gotten himself into as Stanley and Ollie might have said years ago.  Julia Conley (COMMON DREAMS) reports:


Judicial reform advocates on Monday demanded that the U.S. Senate take decisive action to hold Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito accountable for his clear display of bias and conflicts of interest, after a documentary filmmaker released audio clips she had recorded of the justice discussing ideological battles in the U.S. he said "can't be compromised."

Shared exclusively with Rolling Stone, tapes recorded by filmmaker Lauren Windsor at the Supreme Court Historical Society's annual dinner on June 3 include comments from Alito about the need to return the country to "a place of godliness" and suggesting that he sympathizes with right-wing activists who believe they can't "negotiate with the left."

Windsor attended the annual dinner, which is frequented by right-wing activists who are able to interact with the justices at the event, using her real name and as a dues-paying member of the society, which costs $150 per year to join. The liberal filmmaker asked questions of Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts "as though she were a religious conservative," Rolling Stone reported.

Alito replied, "I agree with you," when Windsor said people who are conservative Christians need "to return our country to a place of godliness." He said Windsor was "probably right" when she said, "I don't know that we can negotiate with the left in the way that needs to happen for the polarization to end. I think that it's a matter of, like, winning."

"One side or the other is going to win," agreed the justice. "I mean, there can be a way of working—a way of living together peacefully, but it's difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can't be compromised. It's not like you can split the difference."


He's an idiot.  He's also a threat to democracy and the republic.  He needs to be removed from the Court immediately.




"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Monday, June 10, 2025.  Famine and starvation deepen in Gaza as the world reels from an Israeli attack that lefts hundreds dead in Gaza.

Starting with this:

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary has sent us an update from Deir el-Balah’s Al-Aqsa Hospital, where she says an extra emergency department has been opened to deal with the massive influx of injured patients.

The hospital, running on just one generator, remains flooded with sick and injured patients, and is performing surgeries on an “hourly basis”, she said.

At the same time, the flow of aid into Gaza has remained scarce, with many people now eating “only one meal per day”.

“This is not only in the south, but also in the north” of Gaza, said Khoudary, adding that markets are largely empty and what food available is hard to afford for most people.



This is from yesterday's FACE THE NATION (CBS).


MARGARET BRENNAN: We're joined now by the executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, Cindy McCain, good to have you here in person. 

U.N. WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CINDY MCCAIN: Thank you. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Now overnight, we learned that that U.S. pier off of Gaza that was set up by the military has reopened. It had stopped functioning for a bit. How is it going? Because I know you are helping to oversee distribution.

MCCAIN: Well, right now we're paused because I'm concerned about the safety of our people after the incidents yesterday. We also- two of our warehouses- warehouse complex, were rocketed yesterday, so we've stepped back just for the moment to make sure that we're in- on safe terms and on safe ground before, before we'll restart. But the rest of the country is operational. We're doing- we're doing everything we can in the north and the south.

MARGARET BRENNAN: How did your locations get rocketed? I imagine you do de-conflict and share your locations with the Israeli military. 

MCCAIN: We are de conflicted. I don't know. That's a- it's a good question. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Did you lose any of your– 

MCCAIN: We had one man injured, but everything else is fine. Nobody else is hurt. But indeed, it's- it's the kind of thing that's why a ceasefire is necessary. That's why we need to stop this so that we can get in at scale with our aid and other and other aid from other organizations as well. We can't continue this in a way, because what almost happened in the north with famine  could happen in the south. And so that's what we're trying to avoid right now. And it's been very difficult, just because of the- of what's going on. You know, we've had looting inside the country, we've had, you know, various problems around with it. You know, there's always something going on. It's very difficult to operate there. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You mentioned just now the full blown famine in the north. When you said that [on FACE THE NATION's May 3rd broadcast], it got a lot of attention. Prime Minister Netanyahu was asked about your comments by NBC and said quote "Cindy McCain, unfortunately, is misinformed." The Israeli government's been putting out pictures of food being brought into Gaza. They dispute there is famine. How does that square with what you are seeing on the ground?

MCCAIN: When I made that comment, my people had seen it on the ground, not only evidence of it, but the actual impact of it. Since then, they've allowed us to get more trucks into the north, and so we're getting much more food in- in up there, and that will stave it off, but- but listen, the bottom line here is- is I make choices every day to take food from the hungry to give to the starving. We need a ceasefire, we need it now so we can feed and this doesn't happen in the south. We're right on the edge in the south of the same thing occurring. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You're on the edge of famine in the south of Gaza? 

MCCAIN: Yes. There's- there's people that are very hungry and can't- don't have access because of the danger, because of- because they've been pushed, you know, into the center again. So we want to make sure that we can- can not just get in and feed, but do it at scale. They need more than food, too. It's water, it's sanitation, it's medicine, so it's all of the above, because famine is not just about starving, it's about all the other things too.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And I know how difficult I've heard it is to help a child with stunted growth. You just said you're- you're taking from the hungry to feed the starving. 


The Israeli government has been carrying out its assault on Gaza for eight months now.  Around the world, people are objecting and calling for a cease fire.  On Saturday, citizens protested outside the White House. 


 

 Megan Lebowitz (NBC NEWS) reports:

Thousands of people from cities across the country gathered outside the White House on Saturday to protest the Biden administration’s policies toward the Israel-Hamas war, many dressed in keffiyehs and red clothes to symbolize what they say is a red line that Israel crossed.

Hundreds of protesters held a red banner that stretched around the White House, urging President Joe Biden to change his approach to the war in Gaza.

“Biden, Biden you can’t hide, we are your red line,” protesters chanted.

The red line is in reference to remarks made by the White House and Joe last month that Israel would be in serious trouble, for real this time, no kidding!!!!

  
Strong words that never had any follow up.  THE HINDUSTAN TIMES notes, "Holding Palestinian flags and chanting 'From DC to Palestine, we are the red line,' the protestors demonstrated placards and banners with names of the Palestinians killed during Israeli offensive during the last nine months." Grace Newton (WTOP) reminds that "the president says Israel hasn’t crossed that line yet."  In the supposed land of the free, the police attacked the peaceful protesters.   Gloria Oladipo (GUARDIAN) reports:

Footage posted to social media showed police using pepper spray on protesters, who faced arrest at the mass demonstration.

At least one demonstrator also held a canister that released green and white smoke near the southern side of the White House.

The demonstrator, who was dressed as the superhero character Spiderman, shouted along with a crowd: “Biden, Biden, we can’t wait! We’ll see you at the Hague!”

The Hague is the Dutch city that is home to the international criminal court that prosecutes war crimes.

 
Joe Biden and other ineffectual leaders around the world have done nothing.  Well, they've flapped their gums.  It has been left to students to demonstrate leadership and we saw that take off at Columbia University and then spread around the world.  Apparently, jealousy on the part of the do-nothings led to attacks on the students.  Well the do-nothings and the media attacked.  When not smearing the protesters, the media pulled their other option out of their tool box -- ignore reality.  Last Thursday, Sarah Baum wrote about the media at THE PROGRESSIVE:


The night the riot police came to Columbia University, those of us still standing at the City College of New York (CCNY) pro-Palestine encampment watched in horror, in real time via live stream, as police brutalized students en masse. I’d spent the week oscillating between the two camps documenting the movement. CCNY  is a mere twenty-minute walk, or a couple subway stops, from Columbia. 

Word somehow got back to us that the thick, dark wall of police, with their riot gear and paddy wagons, were making their way uptown. We knew CCNY’s encampment would be their next stop.

Sure enough, just minutes before midnight on May Day, the NYPD burst through the gates, lights flashing, batons ready to meet the few dozen unarmed protestors left—throughout the night, the police had reportedly deployed tasers on anti-war demonstrators, shattered their teeth, and broke their bones. Iqra, a recent Hunter College graduate and organizer in her twenties, recalls how protestors were dragged to the precinct and left for hours without proper food, water or medical attention.

But what shocked her most were the headlines the next day. 

From the May 1 cover of the New York Daily News: “Cops Crush Columbia Takeover.” From the New York Post: “Hundreds of NYPD officers stormed Columbia University.” From the front page of The Wall Street Journal: “Police Move to End Protests at Columbia.”

Notably absent from every one of these front-page spreads is any mention of CCNY—even as the encampment saw the largest amount of single-day arrests of any pro-Palestine encampment at the time, with more than 170 people detained. This surpassed the number of students arrested on the same night from Columbia and its sister school, Barnard College, by dozens. (Only the University of California-Los Angeles has since topped this record.)

“We were arrested the same night [as Columbia students], from the same neighborhood, taken to the same jail,” Iqra tells The Progressive. “However, the media coverage [of CCNY] was so vastly different. And by vastly different, I mean almost non-existent.”

 Although anti-war organizers had camped out on the lawn of City College, calling it “the City College encampment” is misleading. Organizers from across the City University of New York (CUNY) system stood at the helm. CUNY is the largest public higher education system in the country, hosting more than twenty-five individual colleges (including Iqra’s alma mater, Hunter) and serving more than 250,000 students per year. 

“CUNY is the key to the city of New York,” Jordan, an organizer, Ph.D. student, and adjunct professor at CUNY, says. “Students come out and they go into a lot of unionized jobs, a lot of jobs in the city that have a lot of people power attached to them.”


Also covering the media, Naomi LaChance (FAIR) notes:


Across corporate media, journalists and pundits introduced conspiracy theories to discredit the pro-Palestine student protest movement, particularly that they are funded by foreign countries or “outside agitators.”

MSNBC‘s Joe Scarborough (5/9/24) went on a rant about the college students who have been staging the protests, suggesting to guest Hillary Clinton that they were influenced by China or Qatar:

I’m going to talk about radicalism on college campuses. The sort of radicalism that has mainstream students getting propaganda, whether it’s from their professors or whether it’s from Communist Chinese government through TikTok, calling the president of the United States “Genocide Joe.” Calling you and President Clinton war criminals.

Eventually, he called the students “extremists—I’m sorry—funded by Qatar.”

Clinton responded: “You raised things that need to be vented about.”

Scarborough’s claim that Qatar funds the students likely comes from a Jerusalem Post article (4/30/24), which called the protests “despicable.” The story reported, “Qatar has invested $5.6 billion in 81 American universities since 2007, including the most prestigious ones: Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Stanford.” Of course, funding  universities is not the same as funding student protests; the university administrations that actually received the Qatari funding have often been quite hostile to the protesters.

House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) suggested on CNN’s State of the Union (1/28/24) that Russia has played a role in the protests:

And what we have to do is try to stop the suffering and gossip….. But for them to call for a ceasefire is Mr. Putin’s message…. I think some of these protesters are spontaneous and organic and sincere. Some I think are connected to Russia.

CNN’s Dana Bash asked, “you think some of these protests are Russian plants?” Pelosi responded: “I don’t think they’re plants; I think some financing should be investigated.”

Like MSNBC, Fox News (5/2/24) has also pushed the narrative suggesting that China is behind the protests: “China may be playing a significant role in the anti-Israel protests by using TikTok to foment division on college campuses,” Alicia Warren wrote.

Gordon Chang, a senior fellow at the far-right, anti-Muslim Gatestone Institute, told Fox that “China is using the curation algorithm of TikTok to instigate protests.”

The presence of pro-Palestinian advocacy on TikTok has been cited by lawmakers as a justification for censoring the social media platform (FAIR.org, 5/8/24). But the messages on TikTok, which is popular among younger people, may simply reflect public opinion among that demographic. According to the Pew Research Center, “Younger adults are much less supportive of the US providing military aid to Israel than are older people.”

In a story headlined, “Campus Protests Give Russia, China and Iran Fuel to Exploit US Divide,” the New York Times (5/2/24) described “overt and covert efforts by the countries to  amplify the protests.” The story included some speculation about foreign influence: “There is little evidence—at least so far—that the countries have provided material or organizational support to the protests,” Steven Lee Myers and Tiffany Hsu wrote. If there was any evidence, they did not present it.

The journalists blamed the protests for having “allowed” these “foreign influence campaigns…to shift their propaganda to focus on the Biden administration’s strong support for Israel.”



The weekend’s news touted safety for four hostages held in Gaza, the success of a ​“rescue” operation celebrated across the front pages of U.S. and Israeli newspapers. The fact that ​“scores” of Palestinian civilians in Nuseirat refugee camp—274 according to one count — were killed in the process, that the soldiers came in on disguised aid vehicles, almost an afterthought. Yet these disproportionate numbers are once again a reminder that the calculation is being made day after day that hundreds of civilian deaths are permissible if the Israeli state is the one doing the killing.

That more hostages have been freed through negotiations than battle, that hostages may have died during the raid, makes it seem as though safety is not the point, after all.

The students who built the encampments knew well their relative safety compared to the people in Gaza whose updates they watched on smartphones for eight months. They knew they would also face crackdowns from their universities, assaults by police and right-wing counterprotesters, because they had faced them already for those eight months.

But within the tents they raised on campuses around the country — I spoke to students, faculty and community members from 11 universities and visited two encampments and the site of one’s dismantling — they built a space of temporary safety and community, turning the lessons of past movements to the growing Palestine solidarity campaigns across the United States and across the world, applying pressure to the institutions that turn their tuition dollars into prestige and profits and yes, risking their own safety when those institutions brought in the riot police.

Within the spaces of the encampments, students enacted the vision on that ​“We Keep Us Safe” banner at DePaul. They did their best to keep one another safe, and to provide for all of their basic needs.

“It was really beautiful,” said Christopher Iacovetti, a graduate student at the University of Chicago. ​“It was especially encouraging to me to see how many people from so many different backgrounds came to support, to mobilize, to provide supplies almost on the drop of a hat.”

Marie Adele Grosso, an undergraduate at Barnard College in New York, said the Columbia-Barnard encampment created ​“the strongest sense of community people have felt in quite a few years on campus.” 

“While we were on campus and while we were all together, we were making all of the decisions together,” Grosso said. ​“Organizers did just such an amazing job of bringing in the beauty of Palestine.” There was dance and music and teach-ins and conversation with people in Gaza at the moment. 


The weekend?  Saturday, the Israeli government launched a supposed 'rescue' mission in which they killed over 200 Palestinians.  Citing hospital workers, CNN's Jonny Hallam and Kareem Khadder note the death toll has risen to 236. THE TIMES OF INDIA notes, "Israel has heavily bombed Nuseirat, a historic Palestinian refugee camp."  ALJAZEERA notes:


In a post on social media, Francesca Albanese said she was “relieved” for the four Israeli captives, but added that Israel “could have freed all hostages, alive and intact, 8 months ago when the first ceasefire and hostage exchange was put on the table”.
“Israel refused in order to continue to destroy Gaza and the Palestinians as a people,” Albanese said.
“This genocidal intent turned into action,” she said.
“Israel has used hostages to legitimise killing, injuring, maiming, starving and traumatising Palestinians in Gaza.”   

The White House praised the mass killing on Saturday.  "Praised" -- past tense.  Ben Samuels (HAARETZ) observes, "After the Biden administration's initial full-throated praise of Israel's dramatic hostage-rescue operation in a Gaza refugee camp, rhetoric from senior U.S. officials has slightly shifted to acknowledge the reportedly significant Palestinian death toll." And the death toll has risen.


AP notes, "At least 274 Palestinians, including dozens of children, were killed, and hundreds more were wounded, in the Israeli raid that rescued four hostages held by Hamas, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday."  Malak A Tantesh,  Aseel Mousa and Emma Graham-Harrison (GUARDIAN) quote some of the survivors:


“The Nuseirat market is always crowded, but now more than usual because of the many displaced people,” said Haroun, 29, who is now staying with an uncle. She was looking at outfits for the girls when the first Israeli airstrikes hit, and almost without thinking raced out of the door to go to them.

Outside, she found a scene “like the horrors of judgment day”, as panicked crowds tried to escape the coming onslaught. Helicopters and quadcopter drones would soon join the assault that left hundreds dead, and shattered bodies scattered along the streets, images from the area show.

“Everyone was screaming, terrified,” she said. “The street I was on was only 50 metres long, but it was packed with hundreds of people, all running. A woman next to me fainted from terror, and I saw vendors abandoning their goods on the roadside to flee.”

Survivors provide eye witness testimony to CNN here.  The deaths pushed the death toll since October to over 37,000. Thomas Mackintosh (BBC NEWS) observes Saturday was "one of the deadliest days of the conflict so far."  Pope Francis spoke Sunday on the issue of Gaza. 



Pope Francis noted the upcoming conference ("the day after tomorrow") on Tuesday that Jordan is hosting calling for humanitarian solutions to end the assault on Gaza.  The Pope declared, "I encourage the international community to act urgently, with all means, to come to the aid of the people of Gaza, worn out by the war." Khaled Yacoub Oweis (THE NATIONAL) explains:


The "humanitarian summit" at a Dead Sea venue, a few kilometres from Israel, is aimed at enhancing "the response of the international community to the human disaster in Gaza”, Jordan said.

It is being held under the auspices of Egypt, Jordan and the UN. Egypt, a main player in ceasefire talks, is on guard over concerns the Israeli military will move deeper into the Rafah border area, driving Palestinian refugees into Egyptian territory.


Following Saturday's massacre, a member of Benjamin Netanyahu resigned.  Thomas Helm (THE NATIONAL) reports:


High-profile Israeli politician Benny Gantz has withdrawn his party from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime unity government, saying he made the decision "with a heavy heart, yet wholeheartedly".

One of three war cabinet ministers, Mr Gantz, who has become increasingly critical of Mr Netanyahu’s war strategy in recent months, said “Netanyahu is preventing [Israel] from progressing towards a true victory”.

In particular, he and his allies, along with a growing segment of Israeli society, accuse Mr Netanyahu of not prioritising the release of Israeli hostages.

"I want to ask the hostages' families for forgiveness," Mr Gantz said in his address. "We did a lot but we failed.

 

Claire Gilbody Dickerson (SKY NEWS) notes, "The popular former military chief's resignation had been expected after he gave Mr Netanyahu an 8 June deadline to present a clear day-after plan for the conflict in Gaza."  ALJAZEERA explains, "Gantz last month threatened to leave the emergency government – formed last year to oversee the war on Gaza -- if Netanyahu failed to present a post-war plan for the besieged and bombarded Palestinian territory, where Israel is continuing a ground and aerial bombardment campaign that has killed more than 37,000 people since October 7, according to Gaza health officials."  Gantz is calling for early elections.  

Does that mean change is about to happen?  No.  Last week on DEMOCRACY NOW!, Amy Goodman spoke with Daniel Levy ("president of the U.S./Middle East Project, former Israeli peace negotiator under Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin") and the issue of whether resignations could toppled Netanyahu's government was raised:



AMY GOODMAN: And also, even if Smotrich and Ben-Gvir — Ben-Gvir, who was not only charged with, but convicted of terrorism and supporting a terrorist group and inciting anti-Palestinian hatred — even if they were to leave the government, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the survivor, Netanyahu, would fall, which has often been said — right? — if the other parties came to his support.


DANIEL LEVY: Right. So, that’s a lot to unpack. [. . .]  On the Netanyahu side, he now has an equation to deal with. As you say, he could conceivably have a majority in parliament, because Gantz’s party and Lapid’s party have both said they will provide a safety net for Netanyahu if he takes the deal, and that gives him the numbers. However, and let’s be clear, Gantz and Lapid have supported this war throughout. They’ve had no qualms about any of the violations of international law that it’s committed — just so we correctly characterize those folks. But they have said they will offer a safety net for this deal, and that’s important. However, that makes Netanyahu dependent on people who want to bring him down, who want him out of power, as well they should as the leaders, putatively, of the opposition. Therefore, if he wants governmental stability, he needs to stick with the original coalition that he formed, that was in power until October 7th, that continues to be in power, which includes his own party, many of whom have opposed this deal, and which includes these characters from the extreme right, alongside his own extremists, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. And Netanyahu, therefore — this is the crucial thing, Amy — he, therefore, looks at the proposal and says, “Is it more risky politically for me to say no to Biden or to say no to Ben-Gvir and Smotrich?” 


Jake Lapham (BBC NEWS) observes of the resignation, "The move will not topple the Israeli government, since Mr Netanyahu will still hold a comfortable majority of 64 in the 120-seat Knesset."


This morning, THE NATIONAL reports:

Five people were killed and at least 30 others wounded in Israeli strikes on Rafah and Khan Younis on Monday, the official Wafa news agency has reported.

The dead and wounded were taken to Nasser Medical Complex following several strikes on Rafah, where "continuous shelling" stuck western parts of the city.

Strikes were also reported on Al Mawasi, a so-called "safe zone" near Khan Younis.


Gaza remains under assault. Day 248 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll reaches 37,124, with 84,712 injured."   Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

  



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

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


The following sites updated:





The 8-month-old conflict became the most destructive conflict of the 21st century, the Associated Press reported, with tens of thousands killed, most of them being women and children. The war left many parts of the city in ruins, leading to a collapse in its healthcare system, leaving 10 out of 36 of Gaza’s main hospitals somewhat functional, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported.

Israel’s bombardment has leveled and destroyed over 60% of Gaza’s homes, forcing over 1.7 million Palestinians to flee, the Associated Press reported.

“How many more homes have to be destroyed, how many children need to be killed, until this [United States] government takes definitive action to stop Israel’s war crimes,” said Celine Qussiny of the Palestinian Youth Movement.

 


The following sites updated:





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