Blog Betty (Thomas Friedman is a Great Man was an online novel)

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Bye, Vivie Ramaswamy

The obnoxious businessman and 9/11 truther told his followers there are only two genders, while asking for their votes on a frigid night.

“There are two genders. And no, a man cannot become a woman,” he posted. “Iowa, I’m asking for your vote tonight.”

But as it turns out, neither men nor women supported Ramaswamy. The author of Woke Capitalism Against America pulled in just 8,449 votes, finishing a distant fourth behind Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.

Ramaswamy spent nearly $17 million of his own money on his campaign, which averages out to roughly $2,012 per vote.

Here's what I know: Bigoted bullies never become heroes. You offered nothing but hate and you got exactly what you deserved.

Bye, Vivie.

I'm glad even the GOP rejected you. You're garbage.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, January 16, 2024. The slaughter continues in Gaza, a racist liar attacks South Africa today for what it did when racists were in charge in the forties, the same racist liar ignores the 'encouraging' role the Israeli government provided to apartheid in South African for decades, Iraq's attacked, and much more.

I am at my zero limit when it comes to dumb racists. Now racism itself is dumb, yes. We all know that. Or should. But sometimes an idiot doesn't realize that they are racist and they say something. Or worse, write something. Maybe it's time failed actress Noa Tishby goes home to her own country of Israel. Or is there another American male she needs to soak first -- two should have been more than enough even for a greedy person. Instead, she decides to stay in the US and run/ruin her little foundation that tries to guilt American Jews into donating to Israel.

The non-American takes to USA TODAY because she's a propagandist for the Israeli government and there the racist writes:

South Africa, which prohibited Jewish immigration before and during World War II, the Jewish people’s hour of greatest need. This is part of a ghastly trend of Holocaust misappropriation by anti-Israel extremists who attempt to use the Nazi systematic murder of nearly 40% of the global Jewish population to deny Israel, the country founded by the survivors, of its right to self-defense.

You ignorant racist.

South Africa was a disgusting country for most of the 20th century. Apartheid would be made legal in 1948 but it only codified what already existed in that country.

Yes, how sad that Jews weren't able to go to South Africa (1930 was when the law was passed).

How dare you, Idiot Noa, slam South Africa today for the sins that took place under a previous regime that practiced racism to hold down the majority of their citizens.

You are so ignorant and you are so self-focused. The vanity involved in trying to attack South Africa today for what its people (the majority of its people) didn't ask for and didn't want? You're just a disgusting whore.

And, in the end, you stupid fool, you really need to go back to your country. Are you registered as an agent for the Israeli government in the United States? Did you make that declaration when attempting to enter this country? Because I don't see how you 'fund raise' here without being registered. And I think it's time for foreign lobbyist to go home. Especially when they engage in racists attacks.

Greatest hour of need? What the hell, idiot, did you ever do to call out apartheid -- during the Black South Africans greatest hour of need?

Not one damn thing.

Truth bombs for Noa. Chris McGreal (GUARDIAN) reported in 2006:

Several years ago in Johannesburg I met a Jewish woman whose mother and sister were murdered in Auschwitz. After their deaths, she was forced into a gas chamber, but by some miracle that bout of killing was called off. Vera Reitzer survived the extermination camp, married soon after the war and moved to South Africa.

Reitzer joined the apartheid Nationalist party (NP) in the early 1950s, at about the time that the new prime minister, DF Malan, was introducing legislation reminiscent of Hitler's Nuremberg laws against Jews: the population registration act that classified South Africans according to race, legislation that forbade sex and marriage across the colour line and laws barring black people from many jobs.

Reitzer saw no contradiction in surviving the Holocaust only to sign up for a system that was disturbingly reminiscent in its underpinning philosophy, if not in the scale of its crimes, as the one she had outlived. She vigorously defended apartheid as a necessary bulwark against black domination and the communism that engulfed her native Yugoslavia. Reitzer let slip that she thought Africans inferior to other human beings and not entitled to be treated as equals. I asked if Hitler hadn't said the same thing about her as a Jew. She called a halt to the conversation.

Reitzer was unusual among Jewish South Africans in her open enthusiasm for apartheid and for her membership of the NP. But she was an accepted member of the Jewish community in Johannesburg, working for the Holocaust survivors association, while Jews who fought the system were frequently ostracised by their own community.

Many Israelis recoil at suggestions that their country, risen from the ashes of genocide and built on Jewish ideals, could be compared to a racist regime. Yet for years the bulk of South Africa's Jews not only failed to challenge the apartheid system but benefited and thrived under its protection, even if some of their number figured prominently in the liberation movements. In time, Israeli governments too set aside objections to a regime whose leaders had once been admirers of Adolf Hitler. Within three decades of its birth, Israel's self-proclaimed "purity of arms" - what it describes as the moral superiority of its soldiers - was secretly sacrificed as the fate of the Jewish state became so intertwined with South Africa that the Israeli security establishment came to believe the relationship saved the Jewish state.

Afrikaner anti-semitism
Apartheid sought to segregate every aspect of life from the workplace to the bedroom, even though whites in practice were dependent on black people as a workforce and servants. Segregation evolved into "separate development" and the bantustans - the five nominally "independent" homelands where millions of black people were dumped under the rule of despots beholden to Pretoria.

When the Nationalist party government first gained power in Pretoria in 1948, the Jews of South Africa - the bulk of them descendants of refugees from 19th-century pogroms in Lithuania and Latvia - had reason to be wary. A decade before Malan became the first apartheid-era prime minister, he was leading opposition to Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany entering South Africa. In promoting legislation to block immigration, Malan told parliament in 1937: "I have been reproached that I am now discriminating against the Jews as Jews. Now let me say frankly that I admit that it is so."

South African anti-semitism had grown with the rise of Jews to prominence in the 1860s, during the Kimberly diamond rush. At the turn of the century, the Manchester Guardian's correspondent, JA Hobson, reflected a view that the Boer war was being fought in the interests of a "small group of international financiers, chiefly German in origin and Jewish in race". Fifty years later, Malan's cabinet saw similar conspiracies. Hendrik Verwoerd, editor of the virulently anti-semitic newspaper, Die Transvaler, and future author of "grand apartheid", accused Jews of controlling the economy. Before the second world war, the secret Afrikaner society, the Broederbond - which included Malan and Verwoerd as members - developed ties to the Nazis. Another Broederbond member and future prime minister, John Vorster, was interned in a prison camp by Jan Smuts's government during the war for his Nazi sympathies and ties to the Grey Shirt fascist militia.

Don Krausz, chairman of Johannesburg's Holocaust survivors association, arrived in South Africa a year after the war, having survived Hitler's camps at Ravensbrück and Sachsenhausen when much of his extended family did not. "The Nationalists had a strongly anti-semitic platform before 1948. The Afrikaans press was viciously anti-Jewish, much like Der Stürmer in Germany under Hitler. The Jew felt himself very much threatened by the Afrikaner. The Afrikaner supported Hitler," he says. "My wife comes from Potchefstroom [in what was then the Transvaal]. Every Jewish shop in that town was blown up by the Grey Shirts. In the communities that were predominantly Afrikaans, the Jews were absolutely victimised. Now the same crowd comes to power in 1948. The Jew was a very frightened person. There were cabinet ministers who openly supported the Nazis."

Helen Suzman, a secular Jew, was for many years the only anti-apartheid voice in parliament. "They didn't fear there would be a Holocaust but they did fear there might be Nuremberg-style laws, the kind that prevented people practising their professions. The incoming government had made it clear that race differentiation was going to be intensified, and the Jews didn't know where they were going to fit into that," she says.

Many South African Jews were soon reassured that, while there would be Nuremberg-style laws, they would not be the victims. The apartheid regime had a demographic problem and it could not afford the luxury of isolating a section of the white population, even if it was Jewish. Within a few years many South African Jews not only came to feel secure under the new order but comfortable with it. Some found echoes of Israel's struggle in the revival of Afrikaner nationalism.

Many Afrikaners saw the Nationalist party's election victory as liberation from bitterly hated British rule. British concentration camps in South Africa may not have matched the scale or intent of Hitler's war against the Jews, but the deaths of 25,000 women and children from disease and starvation were deeply rooted in Afrikaner nationalism, in the way the memory of the Holocaust is now central to Israel's perception of itself. The white regime said that the lesson was for Afrikaners to protect their interests or face destruction.

"What the Nats were trying to do was protect the Afrikaner," says Krausz. "Especially after what was done to them in the Boer war, where the Afrikaner was reduced almost to a beggar on returning after the war, whether it was from the battlefield or some sort of concentration camp. They did it to protect the Afrikaner, his predominance after 1948, his culture."

There was also God. The Dutch Reformed Church, prising justifications for apartheid out of the Old Testament and Afrikaner history, seized on the victory over the Zulus at the battle of Blood River as confirming that the Almighty sided with the white man.

"Israelis claim that they are the chosen people, the elect of God, and find a biblical justification for their racism and Zionist exclusivity," says Ronnie Kasrils, South Africa's intelligence minister and Jewish co-author of a petition that was circulated amongst South African Jewry protesting at the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

"This is just like the Afrikaners of apartheid South Africa, who also had the biblical notion that the land was their God-given right. Like the Zionists who claimed that Palestine in the 1940s was 'a land without people for a people without land', so the Afrikaner settlers spread the myth that there were no black people in South Africa when they first settled in the 17th century. They conquered by force of arms and terror and the provocation of a series of bloody colonial wars of conquest."

Anti-semitism lingered, but within a few years of the Nationalists assuming power in 1948, many Jewish South Africans found common purpose with the rest of the white community. "We were white and even though the Afrikaner was no friend of ours, he was still white," says Krausz. "The Jew in South Africa sided with the Afrikaners, not so much out of sympathy, but out of fear sided against the blacks. I came to this country in 1946 and all you could hear from Jews was 'the blacks this and the blacks that'. And I said to them, 'You know, I've heard exactly the same from the Nazis about you.' The laws were reminiscent of the Nuremberg laws. Separate entrances; 'Reserved for whites' here; 'Not for Jews' there."

For decades, the Zionist Federation and Jewish Board of Deputies in South Africa honoured men such as Percy Yutar, who prosecuted Nelson Mandela for sabotage and conspiracy against the state in 1963 and sent him to jail for life (in the event, he served 27 years). Yutar went on to become attorney general of the Orange Free State and then of the Transvaal. He was elected president of Johannesburg's largest orthodox synagogue. Some Jewish leaders hailed him as a "credit to the community" and a symbol of the Jews' contribution to South Africa.

[. . .]

Shimon Peres was defence minister at the time of Vorster's visit to Jerusalem and twice served as prime minister during the 1980s when Israel drew closest to the apartheid government. He shies away from questions about the morality of ties to the white regime. "I never think back. Since I cannot change the past, why should I deal with it?" he says.

"I received these awards from international Zionist organisations claiming that it was my Judaic roots that had driven me," says Suzman. "When I said I didn't have a Jewish upbringing and that I went to a convent which didn't influence me either, they said it was not actively but instinctively."

For Kasrils, the embrace was short-lived. "They spent years denouncing me for 'endangering the Jews' and then suddenly they pretend they've been at my side all through the struggle. It didn't last long. As soon as I started criticising what Israel is doing in Palestine they dropped me again," he said.

Liars like Noa can't deal with reality so they bend the truth and bend it so far that it actually breaks.

The Israeli government embraced South Africa's apartheid while it took place, celebrated it, rewarded it. The last thing the world needs is this idiot being published by USA TODAY with her lies and distortions.

Israel, please come gather your whore, we don't need her in the US and she may be infected and spreading in numerous ways.

Maybe you can send her to another country so she can boast of having failed at acting in three nations and not just two?

Meanwhile, THE GUARDIAN reports more abuse by Israeli soldiers:

A Palestinian shop owner said Israeli troops used him as a human shield to protect themselves during a raid on the town of Dura in the occupied West Bank, Reuters reports.

Mobile phone footage showed Baha Abu Ras being marched up a street by a soldier who guided him from behind with one hand and kept a rifle resting on his shoulder with the other. Two Israeli soldiers advanced carefully behind them, their rifles raised.

Abu Ras said he had been taken from his mobile phone shop on Monday in Dura, near the city of Hebron, after Israeli soldiers searched the premises during a raid in which Palestinian officials said two Palestinians were shot dead.

“He (the first soldier) told me that he will use me as a human shield, that young people shouldn’t hurl stones,” Abu Ras told Reuters. “‘You will walk in front of me.’ That’s what happened and he took me toward the centre of the town.”

Asked about the incident, the Israeli military had no immediate comment. It said in an earlier statement that troops in Dura had used live fire to disperse about 100 people who had thrown stones and fire bombs at them.

What a proud moment for the Israeli military. Or, at least, what a revealing one.

This morning, Samra Zulfaqar (NBC NEWS) notes:

The head of the World Health Organization has called for "a fundamental step change" in the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in the enclave that's home to more than 2 million people.

In a post on X, Tedros Ghebreyesus called for the opening of new entry routes into Gaza and for more trucks being allowed through border checks every day.

He also said there is a need for fewer restrictions on the movement of humanitarian workers and guarantees of safety for people accessing and distributing aid.

Gaza remains under assault. 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 20,000. 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." ALJAZEERA notes, "The number of Palestinians killed since the start of Israel’s attacks on October 7 has risen to 24,285, Gaza’s health ministry says. At least 61,154 others have been wounded." 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."

Matthew Knott (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD) reports:

Australia will boost funding to help Palestinian civilians affected by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Penny Wong announced after arriving in the Middle East for her first visit as foreign minister.

Wong, who held meetings in Jordan on Tuesday ahead of visits to Israel, the West Bank and the United Arab Emirates later this week, said the government would provide an extra $22 million in humanitarian assistance to the Middle East.

The government said the latest round of funding would be “directed to conflict-affected populations in the occupied Palestinian territories and to address the ongoing regional refugee crisis, with a focus on women and children”.

The assault on Gaza has war spreading across the region. Such as in Iraq. THE GUARDIAN notes:

The Israeli military said on Tuesday its troops killed dozens of Palestinian militants around the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza and also uncovered about 100 rocket launchers. “During IDF activity in the area of Beit Lahia, the troops located approximately 100 rocket set-installations and 60 ready-to-use rockets. The troops killed dozens of terrorists during the activity,” it said.

The Iraqi Kurdish prime minister, Masrour Barzani, has accused Iran of killing innocent civilians in its strikes on the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards earlier said they attacked an Israeli spy centre in the region. Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos after the attack, Barzani said the Iranian allegations were baseless and added that now was not the time for US forces to withdraw from the country.

Iraq on Tuesday condemned Iran’s “aggression” on Erbil that led to civilian casualties in residential areas, according to a statement by the country’s foreign ministry, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they attacked Israel’s “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. The Iraqi government will take all legal measures against these actions that are considered a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty and the security of its people, including filing a complaint at the United Nations security council.

Iraq has recalled its ambassador from Tehran to discuss the recent Iranian attack on the city of Erbil, according to a statement by the country’s foreign ministry. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they attacked the “spy headquarters” of Israel in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region late on Monday.

A US state department spokesperson has said that an Iranian attack near Iraq’s northern city of Erbil on Monday “undermine Iraq’s stability.” “We oppose Iran’s reckless missile strikes,” Matthew Miller said, adding that the US supported “the government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government’s efforts to meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people.”

France has accused Iran of violating Iraq’s sovereignty after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed to have struck a purported Israeli “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, Reuters reported. “Such acts represent blatant, unacceptable and worrying violations of Iraq’s sovereignty and an attack on its stability and security, as well as that of Kurdistan within it,” France’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

And yet US President Joe Biden continues to send US troops to Iraq -- 1500 from New Jersey's National Guard will just be the latest -- and it's New Jersey's biggest deployment to Iraq since 2008.

The following sites updated;

Monday, January 15, 2024

Save the Court

Natalie Veengas (NEWSWEEK) reports:

On this year's Martin Luther King Jr. day, the oldest son of the prominent civil rights figure, Martin Luther King III, and his wife Arndrea Waters King is urging leaders in Congress to "rein in" the Supreme Court to "save democracy."

A minister and activist, Martin Luther King Jr. was the leader of the American civil rights movement, starting in 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King served as a minister until his leadership of the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott made King a national figure in the civil rights movement. He led a number of protests after that, including the Albany Movement, the Birmingham campaign, the March on Washington, and the Selma voting rights movement in 1965. King's oldest son, King III, has followed in his late father's footsteps as a civil rights activist, global humanitarian and political leader who has worked to advocate for social justice and change.

On Monday, in an op-ed published by the Guardian, King III and his wife Arndrea warn that while America prepares for a critical 2024 election, the Supreme Court is headed towards a darker path that impacts civil liberties with conservative justices.

"As a Maga supermajority, these justices have undone established rulings and legal norms in an attempt to reverse the progress of modern America and to systematically unravel Black political power. We – alongside United for Democracy – are calling on leaders in Congress to rein in the Supreme Court. Congress must conduct immediate hearings, investigations and reforms to fix the institution that is harming the Americans it is tasked to protect," the op-ed read.

Here's a link to the column and a bit of an excerpt:

The American people are taking notice of the ways in which the supreme court has corrupted the system – its approval rating sits at an all-time low, with three out of four voters supporting an ethics code. Now, we are taking matters into our own hands: after the court’s Dobbs decision shattered federal protections for abortion access, voters turned out in every single state that introduced a ballot measure to enshrine those protections into state constitutions.

As the extreme rightwing plot to capture our democracy progresses, we need our elected officials to step in and do their jobs. That’s why we – alongside United for Democracy – are calling on leaders in Congress to rein in the supreme court. Congress must conduct immediate hearings, investigations and reforms to fix the institution that is harming the Americans it is tasked to protect.

With the election right around the corner, and in the face of endless attacks aimed at dismantling my father’s legacy, Black voters will again be expected to “save democracy”. As our communities again prepare to out-organize voter suppression, we need those vying for votes to show that – on the other side of the victory speeches – they are committed to building a democracy that no longer needs saving, a democracy that reflects Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s vision.

That means restoring integrity to the supreme court.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Monday, January 15, 2024. Gaza remains under assault -- as do those who speak out against the violence. We note historical attacks on those who've spoken out and a world that is pushing back against the lies.

In South Africa today, the legal team attempting to hold the government of Israel accountable was warmly greeted.

DEMOCRACY NOW! covered the case presented by South Africa last Thursday -- here and here (and we noted it in Friday's snapshot). Friday, they covered the Israeli government's presentation.

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

Today, Israel defended itself against accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. In one of the biggest cases ever to come before the United Nations’ high court, South Africa accused Israel of acts of genocide against Palestinians and demanded an emergency suspension of Israel’s aerial and ground assault on Gaza. A decision on that request will probably take weeks, though the full case will likely last years. Israel often boycotts international tribunals and U.N. investigations, calling them unfair and biased, but this time, for the first time, they attended the hearing, sent a high-level legal team to defend against the accusations of genocide.

The two-day hearings at what’s called the Peace Palace in The Hague began Thursday with South Africa laying out its case against Israel, saying its three-month assault on Gaza is being conducted with the intent to bring about the destruction of Palestinians as a group. Israel defended itself today against the accusations. At the hearing, Israeli legal adviser Tal Becker criticized South Africa for accusing Israel of genocide.

TAL BECKER: The applicant has now sought to invoke this term in the context of Israel’s conduct in a war it did not start and did not want, a war in which Israel is defending itself against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations whose brutality knows no bounds. …

The applicant has regrettably put before the court a profoundly distorted factual and legal picture. The entirety of its case hinges on a deliberately curated, decontextualized and manipulative description of the reality of current hostilities.

South Africa purports to come to this court in the lofty position of a guardian of the interest of humanity. But in delegitimizing Israel’s 75-year existence in its opening presentation yesterday, that broad commitment to humanity rang hollow. And in its sweeping counterfactual description of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it seemed to erase both Jewish history and any Palestinian agency or responsibility.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to another clip of the Israeli legal adviser Tal Becker, who talked about the October 7th attack by Hamas, saying Israel had a right to defend itself.

TAL BECKER: First, that if there have been acts that may be characterized as genocidal, then they have been perpetrated against Israel. If there is a concern about the obligations of states under the Genocide Convention, then it is in relation to their responsibilities to act against Hamas’s proudly declared agenda of annihilation, which is not a secret and is not in doubt. …

Astonishingly, the court has been requested to indicate a provisional measure calling on Israel to suspend its military operations. But this amounts to an attempt to deny Israel its ability to meet its obligations to the defense of its citizens, to the hostages and to over 110,000 internally displaced Israelis unable to safely return to their homes. …

Madam President, members of the court, the hostilities between Israel and Hamas have exacted a terrible toll on both Israelis and Palestinians. But any genuine effort to understand the cause of this toll must take account of the horrendous reality created by Hamas within the Gaza Strip. …

Madam President, members of the court, the nightmarish environment created by Hamas has been concealed by the applicant, but it is the environment in which Israel is compelled to operate. Israel is committed, as it must be, to comply with the law, but it does so in the face of Hamas’s utter contempt for the law. It is committed, as it must be, to demonstrate humanity, but it does so in the face of Hamas’s utter inhumanity. …

It is respectfully submitted that the application and request should be dismissed for what they are: a libel, designed to deny Israel the right to defend itself according to the law from the unprecedented terrorist onslaught it continues to face, and to free the 136 hostages Hamas still holds.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now at The Hague by Diala Shamas. She’s a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. In November, CCR sued President Biden, accusing him of failing to prevent genocide.

Diala, thank you so much for being with us. I know it’s very noisy outside. There’s a major pro-Palestinian rally outside the International Court of Justice. This is historic, this two days. Yesterday South Africa accused Israel of genocide. Today Israel defended itself. Can you talk about their major arguments, saying this is an existential battle, they are simply engaging in self-defense?

DIALA SHAMAS: Thank you for having me.

Yes, it really is a historical moment. And I would have preferred to start with yesterday’s argument and just the significance of what we heard yesterday and what we saw yesterday and what all of these people that are here now, even over an hour after the hearings concluded, still chanting and protesting and thanking South Africa, the significance that South Africa brought this petition and started, at the outset of the hearing yesterday, reminding the world and the court that the context is 75 years of apartheid. And, of course, we all know South Africa and the South African people have emerged from a horrific battle against apartheid. They know what abandonment by the international community looks like and feels like. And it is in that spirit that they have come to this court and also were very clear in their statement that they have come to the court out of their legal and moral obligation, but their legal obligation to do something to prevent the unfolding genocide against the Palestinian people.

Today we heard predictable arguments in response, nothing that we haven’t already heard over the course of the last three months, and in many ways of what we’ve heard from the Israeli legal wing for the last 20 years, leaning heavily on self-defense — although South Africa, clearly, yesterday, and then today in a brief statement at the steps right here in front of me, reminded the world that self-defense is never a justification for genocide or any atrocity, really.

The other arguments, we heard a lot of more sort of factual disputes and gaslighting and cherry-picking and a lot of complaints that everything is sort of one-sided. And the two other main legal arguments that they leveraged were, essentially, first, that the court shouldn’t have jurisdiction in the first place, that South Africa hadn’t followed the proper procedures, that they hadn’t followed the appropriate protocols of notice to be in the court in the first place. And the second is that South Africa — the relief that South Africa is seeking, the provisional measures, are not something that the court is essentially permitted to grant, you know, citing various arguments to make that point.

So, you can’t be here, and then you can’t do anything about it, and, in the middle, everything we do is self-defense — and complete deflection, and never, at any point, addressing the incredibly powerful arguments laid out yesterday at a hearing for three hours by the South African legal team, the really compelling factual and legal arguments on intent, laying out, you know, the litany of statements by Israeli officials in the highest level of government all the way down to the foot soldiers, showing an environment and showing intent to commit genocide in Gaza, and everything else that was laid out.

So, it was really stark to sit today and listen to the arguments, after a day, yesterday, where, frankly, for the first time in the last three months, we’ve been able to hear, from beginning to end, uninterrupted, a compelling case of what we’ve sort of all seen play out over the course of the last three months. The South African legal team noted that we’ve been watching this on — atrocities on our phones. We have been seeing Palestinians broadcast their killing and the genocidal acts live. And the South African legal team put that out to the world and to the court very compellingly.

AMY GOODMAN: Diala, I want to turn to another clip from today’s hearing. This is Deputy Attorney General of Israel Gilad Noam calling on the court to dismiss the charges.

GILAD NOAM: This case concerns a large-scale armed conflict with tragic consequences for civilians on both sides. Yes, there is a heart-wrenching armed conflict, but the attempt to classify it as genocide and trigger provisional measures is not just unfounded in law, it has far-reaching and negative implications that extend well beyond the case before you.

Ultimately, entertaining the applicant’s request will not strengthen the commitment to prevent and punish genocide, but weaken it. It will turn an instrument adopted by the international community to prevent horrors of the kind that shocked the conscience of humanity during the Holocaust into a weapon in the hands of terrorist groups who have no regard for humanity or for the law. …

For us, provisional measures would lead to a perverse situation. It would effectively allow Hamas to continue attacking the citizens of Israel, to hold 136 hostages in unbearable conditions, to keep tens of thousands of displaced Israelis from returning to their homes, and, essentially, to promote its plan to massacre as many Israelis and Jews as it can.

AMY GOODMAN: Diala Shamas, you’re standing outside The Hague. You watched this argument inside The Hague. It just concluded. Senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, your response?

DIALA SHAMAS: Everything we expected. There were no new arguments raised by the Israeli legal team. Essentially, it amounted to them telling the court, “Trust us. Don’t believe what we’ve been telling the world, what we have been putting out in all of our statements, the statements that have circulated, clearly, you know, with genocidal intent, just saying we want to wipe out the population of Gaza, making comparisons, the famous Amalek quote.” And now they’re just saying, “Well, we were not serious there. Just trust us, that we are a, again, democracy with the rule of law” — this is something that — this is a public image that the Israeli government has, you know, done a lot of work to cultivate over decades, and that they do everything by the book. “And just don’t look at the evidence. Don’t look at everything the South Africans laid out plainly yesterday. Don’t look at everything the world has been seeing. And just trust us that we have procedures that we are following here, and, you know, we’re doing our best.”

And plenty of, you know, sort of concerns — and it’s hard to really figure out where to start picking, but a few really concerning statements about civilians, essentially making the argument that civilians have become targets because the legal team repeatedly stated over the course of their arguments that — you know, that because Hamas is operating in Gaza, Israel has to do what it has to do, and that includes the targeting of civilians.

But again, fundamentally, the claim that’s brought by South Africa here is the claim of genocide, which you can’t — there’s simply no argument that self-defense is a justification for genocide. The South African team has laid out the argument showing intent and also the underlying acts, and everything else is essentially a distraction.

AMY GOODMAN: Diala, the Biden administration is due in federal court later this month. While Israel faces charges of genocide at The Hague yesterday and today, in a case you’re working on with CCR, you’re taking it right to President Biden. Explain the theory of your case and what exactly you expect to happen. And is there any connection between that case in a U.S. federal court and what we’re seeing right now at the U.N.’s highest court, the World Court?

DIALA SHAMAS: Yeah, I couldn’t hear the full question, but I think you’re asking us about the case that the Center for Constitutional Rights has brought against Biden, President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken and Austin, and Secretary of Defense Austin, in California federal court, raising failure in their duty to prevent a genocide and complicity in genocide arguments. And that case has a hearing coming up on February — I’m sorry, January 26th, where our team will be standing up in court arguing for a preliminary injunction, asking the court to order the end of military assistance and other forms of assistance, political and diplomatic assistance, to Israel in light of the unfolding genocide.

The relationship is, you know, having to stand up in court and defend that a few weeks after this hearing, and possibly also after the ICJ has issued preliminary measures, is going to put this administration in a — I think it will be one of the first tests that we’ll have of how the U.S. government is responding to the ICJ — an ICJ decision and to the arguments raised here and the arguments that we’re also raising in the U.S. case. I think we’re all going to be looking to how the world responds to any preliminary measures issued by the Court of Justice.

As the South African attorney yesterday said, this is really, ultimately, a test of the very legitimacy of international law and the international legal order. If we can’t stop an unfolding genocide, then what is any of it for? She made a compelling closing argument, citing to a Palestinian, Munther Isaac, who spoke his sort of Christmas sermons, asking the world where — you know, “What will you say where you were when a genocide was unfolding?” And so, whether it’s at the ICJ or whether it’s in federal court in the United States, we’re really looking to government to do everything that they can to uphold their duty to prevent an unfolding genocide.

And having our case in the U.S. is, of course, incredibly important because the U.S. is the biggest supporter of Israel. There’s been investigative reporting showing how much military aid and military support has been indispensable to Israel’s assault and war on Gaza. And yet we’ve also seen repeated statements of unconditional support from the U.S. administration to the Israeli government, despite almost — you know, despite three months of daily attacks on civilians and daily statements showing an intent to destroy the civilian population of Gaza, in whole or in part, the Palestinian population.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you, Diala Shamas, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Again, in November, CCR sued President Biden, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, accusing them of failing to prevent a genocide. For those who missed yesterday’s show, it was just after South Africa made its case at the International Court of Justice. We wanted to bring you South Africa lawyer Adila Hassim, who helped to lay out South Africa’s case at The Hague.

ADILA HASSIM: For the past 96 days, Israel has subjected Gaza to what has been described as one of the heaviest conventional bombing campaigns in the history of modern warfare. Palestinians in Gaza are being killed by Israeli weaponry and bombs from air, land and sea. They are also at immediate risk of death by starvation, dehydration and disease as a result of the ongoing siege by Israel, the destruction of Palestinian towns, the insufficient aid being allowed through to the Palestinian population, and the impossibility of distributing this limited aid while bombs fall. This conduct renders essentials to life unobtainable.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s South African lawyer Adila Hassim speaking yesterday before the International Court of Justice, laying out South Africa’s case against Israel, saying it’s engaged in genocide in Gaza. To see excerpts of yesterday, you can go to democracynow.org.

When we come back, we’re going to speak with an Israeli Jewish Knesset member who’s facing expulsion for saying what Israel is doing in Gaza is genocide. This is Democracy Now! Back in a minute.

THE MAJORITY REPORT also covered the presentation put forward by the Israeli government.

AP notes, "South Africa says more than 50 countries have expressed support for its case at the United Nations’ top court accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in the war in Gaza." The ongoing system of apartheid has become genocide. Former US President Jimmy Carter. In November of 2006, Jimmy Carter's PALASTINE: PEACE NOT APARTHEID, Carter correctly -- and controversially for some -- identified the system as apartheid. Back then, the holler monkeys -- paid and unpaid -- screeched loudly to try to avoid this reality from being heard. They trashed and lied and whored and threw their feces in public. It's getting harder for this group to control the dialogue, to censor reality. A month after the book's release, Carter wrote a column for THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:

The many controversial issues concerning Palestine and the path to peace for Israel are intensely debated among Israelis and throughout other nations — but not in the United States. For the last 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts. This reluctance to criticize any policies of the Israeli government is because of the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee and the absence of any significant contrary voices.

It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine, to suggest that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defense of justice or human rights for Palestinians. Very few would ever deign to visit the Palestinian cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Gaza City or even Bethlehem and talk to the beleaguered residents. What is even more difficult to comprehend is why the editorial pages of the major newspapers and magazines in the United States exercise similar self-restraint, quite contrary to private assessments expressed quite forcefully by their correspondents in the Holy Land.

With some degree of reluctance and some uncertainty about the reception my book would receive, I used maps, text and documents to describe the situation accurately and to analyze the only possible path to peace: Israelis and Palestinians living side by side within their own internationally recognized boundaries. These options are consistent with key U.N. resolutions supported by the U.S. and Israel, official American policy since 1967, agreements consummated by Israeli leaders and their governments in 1978 and 1993 (for which they earned Nobel Peace Prizes), the Arab League’s offer to recognize Israel in 2002 and the International Quartet’s “Roadmap for Peace,” which has been accepted by the PLO and largely rejected by Israel.

The book is devoted to circumstances and events in Palestine and not in Israel, where democracy prevails and citizens live together and are legally guaranteed equal status.

Although I have spent only a week or so on a book tour so far, it is already possible to judge public and media reaction. Sales are brisk, and I have had interesting interviews on TV, including “Larry King Live,” “Hardball,” “Meet the Press,” “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer,” the “Charlie Rose” show, C-SPAN and others. But I have seen few news stories in major newspapers about what I have written.

Book reviews in the mainstream media have been written mostly by representatives of Jewish organizations who would be unlikely to visit the occupied territories, and their primary criticism is that the book is anti-Israel. Two members of Congress have been publicly critical. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for instance, issued a statement (before the book was published) saying that “he does not speak for the Democratic Party on Israel.” Some reviews posted on Amazon.com call me “anti-Semitic,” and others accuse the book of “lies” and “distortions.” A former Carter Center fellow has taken issue with it, and Alan Dershowitz called the book’s title “indecent.”

Out in the real world, however, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve signed books in five stores, with more than 1,000 buyers at each site. I’ve had one negative remark — that I should be tried for treason — and one caller on C-SPAN said that I was an anti-Semite. My most troubling experience has been the rejection of my offers to speak, for free, about the book on university campuses with high Jewish enrollment and to answer questions from students and professors. I have been most encouraged by prominent Jewish citizens and members of Congress who have thanked me privately for presenting the facts and some new ideas.

They went after Jimmy Carter. They go after anyone who won't lie or look away from the truth. The howler monkeys went after Helen Thomas in 2010. Ava and I covered this in "Media: Let's Kill Helen!" They lied about Helen and did so throughout the media and NPR even took the lies to KPFA thanks to the idiot Aimee Allison. From Ava and my piece:

Not that we can ever expect Alicia Shepard to call her out. No, the NPR ombudsperson refuses to do her job.

Sometimes she manages to do even worse than that. Tuesday, she showed up on KPFA's The Morning Show to chat with 'Bomb the children of Pakistan' Aimee Allison. And each attempted to out whore the other.

For example, the segment kicked off with Helen's comments being played followed by a sigh from Aimee and then a long, drawn out "Well" filled with sadness. Typical crap from Aimee that should have everyone in the Bay Area screaming for KPFA to drop her already.

Alicia was lapping it up with all the zeal of Melissa Etheridge on a drunken Friday night. She rushed to insist, "Three years ago, I was on a book panel with her [Helen] and at that point she was quite critical of the Bush administration about the [Iraq] War in a way that an advocate would be and not a journa -- a straight up journalist would be."

What?

Three years ago was 2007 and the country had long turned against the Iraq War. Only a cheap whore like Alicia Shepard, giving half-offs on cum facials, would bother to be offended by a journalist -- an opinion columnist in Helen's case -- expressing a sentiment in keeping with the majority of Americans.

Alicia continued her crazy, "And, yes, many people championed the fact that she was asking those questions but they were really not appropriate. And it's been known for maybe the last five or so years that there have been rules for White House reporters and then Helen Thomas rules. She has, in a way, gotten away with a lot that I can't imagine any other reporter would today."

The questions weren't appropriate?

So it's 'appropriate,' Alicia, for a president to bomb another country on false pretexts, it's just not appropriate to question him on it? Doesn't make for 'polite conversation,' is that it? Where the hell, airhead, do you get off thinking journalistic history demands that reporters be either 'appropriate' or 'respectable'? Alicia gave up her profession in order to practice another one, a much older one. And as we already noted, Whores Cheat.

"Well Helen has always enjoyed," Alicia began, "as I said, special treatment. She's always sat up in the front row. The president has always called on her no matter who it is."

Is she is an outright liar or just that stupid? Jack Shafer (Slate), no huge fan of Helen, noted March 12, 2003 how Bully Boy Bush "deliberately snubbed" Helen by refusing to call on her. "The president has always called on her," insisted Alicia, "no matter who it is." Want to try that again, Alicia? If it helps, you can stay on the clock while you do it.

She certainly stayed on the clock while lying repeatedly such as when she declared, "Her feelings about -- anti-Semitic feelings -- have been known. And many in the press corps -- or I would say -- those who watched the White House press corps have felt critical of her for I'm sorry, felt critical of their brethren for not challenging her more for letting Helen quote-unquote 'get away' with these anti-Semitic comments."

Aimee Allison's role was to challenge that. But Whores Cheat. So when Aimee finally got around to questioning whether or not Helen's comments were anti-Semitic, she pushed it off on callers who were calling in (though not heard on air) and disagreeing that the comments were anti-Semitic.

"There's no way of looking at it except if she was an advocate for [laughing] the Palestinians," Alicia snarked revealing her own hatred is targeting the Palestinians because there's nothing funnier to her than someone advocating on their behalf. "In the sense that there's just nothing that she said that could be looked at as respectable."

Is truth 'respectable,' Alicia? Because your remarks had little-to-no truth in them. After savaging Helen, mocking her and laughing at her, Alicia tossed it back to Aimee, "I mean, what was your take, Aimee? I was just shocked."

"Yeah. I guess," Aimee appalling agreed, refusing to stand up for Helen. "Just, at 89, why would she make the comments now? Has she been known to make those kind of comments in the past?"

There's a reason we're going slowly through this train wreck. And here comes your first pay off, Alicia responds, "I have not known that in terms of anti-semitism."

What?

Alicia says she's not known of past remarks "in terms of anti-semitism."

The same woman who, mere minutes prior, was saying, "Her feelings about -- anti-Semitic feelings -- have been known. And many in the press corps -- or I would say -- those who watched the White House press corps have felt critical of her for I'm sorry, felt critical of their brethren for not challenging her more for letting Helen quote-unquote 'get away' with these anti-Semitic comments."

Which is it, Alicia, were these alleged feelings known or not? You're a referee at NPR and you can't even offer a consistent answer?

She wasn't sure about anti-Semitic statements (at this point in the interview) but, "I've certainly watched and seen her say things that were anti-war and anti the administration and then challenge them again in a way that you wouldn't see a reporter for CBS doing."

Oh my goodness, Helen's anti-war! Strip her of her American citizenship! Truly, that must be a huge offense to Alicia since she likens it to anti-semitism. Can you get more stupid than Alicia Shepard?

Let's note that Alicia was outraged by our piece. That she accused us of distorting. Ty asked what we distorted, what statement we quoted wrong. Alicia replied that she couldn't say because we failed to provide a transcript in full of her remarks on air.

What?

In what world do we have to cover what she said by typing a full transcript of an eight minute segment?

Not any real world but that's how they play -- these liars. Ty replied back that she should either tell him where the mistake was or f**k off and that he'd listened to the archived broadcast and all our quotes were correct. Apparently. Alicia f**ked off because we didn't hear from her again.

But this is the impunity they've operated in all along. They've attacked people, they've distorted actions and when called on it, they insist that there's an error but they need a transcript to find the error.

At COUNTERPUNCH, Vijay Prashad observes:

The Israeli armed violence against Gaza since October has been in a qualitatively different form than any previous violence. The bombardment of Gaza was vicious, with Israeli aircraft hitting residential areas with no concern for civilian life. The number of dead increased day by day at a rate not seen before. Then, when Israeli ground forces entered Gaza, they effected an illegal mass eviction of the Palestinian civilians from their homes and pushed them further and further south toward the border with Egypt. The Israelis violated their own promises of “safe zones,” hitting areas more densely packed than before because of the internal displacement. It was this scale of violence that provoked an early use of the term “genocide” to describe what was happening in Gaza. By early January, more than 1 percent of the entire Palestinian population in Gaza had been killed, while over 95 percent had been displaced. The kind of violence used here was not seen in any contemporary war, neither in Iraq (where the U.S. disregarded most laws of war) nor in Ukraine (where the death toll of civilians is far smaller despite the war now lasting two years).

The momentum of mass protest pushed the government of South Africa to file a dispute in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel for the crime of genocide. Both countries are parties to the 1948 Convention Against Genocide, and the ICJ is the venue for dispute settlements. The 84-page filing by the South African government documents many of the atrocities perpetrated by Israel, and also, crucially, the words of Israeli high officials. Nine pages of this text (pp. 59 to 67) list the Israeli officials in their own words, many of them calling for a “Second Nakba” or a “Gaza Nakba,” a use of the term “Nakba” or Catastrophe that refers to the 1948 Nakba of the Palestinians from their homes that led to the creation of the State of Israel. These words are chilling, and they have been widely circulated since October. Racist language about “monsters,” “animals,” and the “jungle” shape the speeches and statements by these Israeli government officials. Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on October 9, 2023, that his forces are “imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.” This, along with the character of the Israeli military strikes, is sufficient as a benchmark for the accusation of genocide. At the hearing at the ICJ, Israel was unable to respond credibly to the South African complaint.

It is a combination of the images from Gaza and the words of these Israeli high officials—backed fully by the United States government and many of the governments of European states—that provoked the sustained anger and desolation that has driven these mass protests.

Gaza remains under assault. 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 20,000. 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 24,100 people have been killed and 60,834 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health." 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."

As all this takes place, the White House ignores the Palestinians. ALJAZEERA notes:

Palestine’s mission to the United Nations has criticised US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for not mentioning some 24,000 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip in his post commemorating 100 days of Israel’s war.

“Shame on those who remain complicit and not call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Shame on them,” the mission said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

ABC NEWS types:

President Joe Biden on Sunday marked 100 days since Hamas launched its deadly attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, vowing to get more of the American hostages freed.

"For 100 days, they have existed in fear for their lives, not knowing what tomorrow will bring," Biden said of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.

"For 100 days, their families have lived in agony, praying for the safe return of their loved ones," Biden added, saying the families have been "at the forefront of my mind."

"No one should have to endure even one day of what they have gone through, much less 100," he said.

And what of those terrorized in Gaza, Joe? Should they have to suffer? Friday, on DEMOCRACY NOW!, Amy Goodman noted:

In more news on Gaza, the NGO Save the Children says more than 10,000 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel’s assault — that is 1% of the total child population in Gaza. At least 1,000 children have lost one or both of their legs.

This comes as doctors warn conditions inside Gaza’s remaining hospitals continue to deteriorate amid Israeli attacks and dwindling supplies.

Dr. Khaled Abu Awaimer: “Today the area around Al-Aqsa was hit. All ambulances were destroyed. We even started to run out of medical supplies. And sadly, we have cases we can’t do anything about. We have nothing to offer, so we feel completely helpless. This is very sad and bad, to be honest. We hope that any side will be able to at least ensure the ability for the medical staff to work.”

Meanwhile, a new report by Oxfam finds that the daily death toll in Gaza from Israel’s attack “massively exceeds the daily death toll of any other major conflict of recent years.” Oxfam said Israel is killing on average 250 Palestinians a day — that is about five times the daily death toll reported in Iraq, Ukraine and Sudan, and more than double the daily death toll in Syria.

What did those children do, Joe Biden, to deserve this? Not one damn thing yet you're such a coward you can't even voice the difficulties, horrors and terrors they live under. How pathetic are you?

Saturday, around the world, there were shows of solidarity with Palestinians and calls for a cease-fire. DC in the video below.

The city of London in the video below.

At COMMON DREAMS, Jon Queally reports:

Major coordinated demonstrations took place across the world on Saturday to mark the 100th day of Israel's bombardment and military assault on the people of the Gaza Strip that have now claimed the lives of nearly 24,000 Palestinians, a large majority of them innocent men, women, and children who had nothing to do with the attacks orchestrated by Hamas on October 7 of last year.

In London, as many as 500,000 people marched on Parliament Square to demand an immediate cease-fire Gaza, condemn their own U.K. government's support of Israel's disproportionate and "genocidal" onslaught, and warn against a wider regional war that experts warn is creeping closer by the day.

"This Global Day of Action, from Australia through to Asia, Europe and the Americas, is the first coordinated, international movement against the war being waged by Israel on the Palestinian people," said Gaza Global Day of Action organizers ahead of the demonstration. "It will send a powerful message not just to the Israelis but to the Western powers who are backing them that the public say 'not in our name.'"

In Dublin, organizers of a march that saw more than 100,000 march through city streets called it the largest rally for Palestinian rights in Irish history.

As the Irish Timesreports:

The crowd was filled with Palestinian flags, posters calling for an "End to the Gaza genocide" as well as makeshift washing lines, with baby clothes hanging from it, representing the many young lives lost in the conflict.

At the front of the march, four people held mock corpses in bloody body bags to represent the growing number of civilian casualties.

In the United States, tens of thousands marched in Washington, D.C. to denounce the Israeli onslaught—which has claimed over 23,000 lives, including more than 10,000 children—as well as their own government's complicity in the carnage. President Joe Biden was on the tip of many demonstrators' tongues and polls in the U.S. have shown very little support across the political spectrum for how he is handling the situation.

Jake and Ida Braford, a young couple from Richmond, Virginia, who brought their two small children to the protest, told the Associated Press the situation in Gaza has made them unsure of their support for Biden come this year's election.

"We're pretty disheartened," Ida told the news agency. "Seeing what is happening in Gaza, and the government's actions makes me wonder what is our vote worth?"

Following the march, demonstrators left a pile of bloodied baby dolls, including severe parts, in a pile outside the White House as a message to Biden. "The blood of the over 10,000 murdered children in Gaza is on his hands," said CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia, thousands gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Jakarta to condemn the ongoing "genocide" in Gaza perpetrated by Israel with the backing of the U.S. government and other Western allies.

NPR has a photo essay on the DC protest. Meanwhile, Australia's ABC notes:

In the southern city of Rafah, an Israeli air strike on a house sheltering two displaced families killed 10 people, the Gaza health ministry said.

Holding up a photo of a dead girl with a piece of bread in her hand, Bassem Arafeh, a relative, said the families in Rafah had been eating dinner when the house was struck on Friday night.

"This child died while she was hungry, while she was eating a piece of bread with nothing on it. Where is the International Criminal Court to see how the children die?" Arafeh said.

"Where are the Muslims … and the world leaders?"

The following sites updated: