In a first, US Ambassador to UN Nikki Haley declared that she would vote against a resolution condemning Israel’s control of Syrian Golan since 1967. Israel took the land for strict reasons of greed, as then Defense Minister Moshe Dayan conceded, though the illegal occupation is rarely mentioned in the US press.
It is bizarre, ludicrous– that to condemn the response to the brutality inflicted by the Zionists is called anti-Semitic, writes poet Lillian Rosengarten. Who shall raise their voices for Palestinians, for freedom from intolerable suffering, for their land?
Since the Great March of Return protests began at the Gaza fence last March, more than 90 protesters have suffered amputations. The Artificial Limbs center in Gaza City is struggling to keep up the demand for prosthetic limbs, with intermittent electricity and shortages of the raw materials needed.
When it comes to the profession of liberal values in Hollywood, Israel is still the exception. Pharrell Williams and Gerard Butler support the Israeli army– and dis Trump and Saudi Arabia. Producer Jason Blum appears at a Sheldon Adelson-sponsored event, but trashes Trump.
After seeing the effort by UCLA to ban the conference of Students for Justice in Palestine, Nada Elia couldn’t help but marvel at how some administrators bend over backwards to accommodate any representatives and requests from Zionist organizations, while also bending over backwards to censor and criminalize any representatives and requests from pro-Palestine rights organizations. Justice for Palestine? OMG, what a heinous crime!
Eight Democratic women of color newly elected to Congress appear to epitomize the progressive base’s ambivalence on Israel. Deb Haaland of New Mexico condemned the “murder” of Palestinians last March. Ayanna Pressley in Massachusetts backs a bill to withdraw US funds from Israeli detention of children.
On Thursday, Moshe Feiglin, a rightwing political figure in Israel, went on television and explained his plan for the Gaza Strip: ethnically cleansing it, and those who survive the IDF can then ask for refugee status in the EU. Yossi Gurvitz has written to the government’s counsel demanding an investigation under the law of preventing or punishing the crime of genocide.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports on water & sanitation crisis in Gaza, increase in Israeli settler violence. “97 per cent of ground water extracted in Gaza is unfit for human consumption, generating the risk of a waterborne disease outbreak.”
Bari Weiss’s said last night “you better believe” that the insurgent leftwing non-Zionist Jewish group IfNotNow welcomed rightwing Israeli officials flying in to Pittsburgh to express condolences in the wake of the Oct. 27 massacre at the synagogue because they were expressing the spirit of “Am Yisrael,” the people of Israel. Nothing could be further from the case.
A lot of drama is ostensibly playing out in Israel – Defense Minister Lieberman resigned because he opposed a ceasefire and being soft on Hamas. But this drama is more about politics than actual security – it is about Israel’s upcoming elections