The Shift: “They shot to kill”

On February 22, Israeli forces invaded Nablus and killed 11 Palestinians, including two resistance fighters of the Lion’s Den. The raid took place in broad daylight, involved 60 Israeli vehicles, and wounded more than 100 people. The deaths included a 72-year-old and a 14-year-old. Mainstream outlets like the New York Times have reported that unarmed Palestinians were shot.

“It was very scary…We could hear the sounds of explosions and people screaming in the street, and many of us started crying and praying to God to protect the city and its residents,” Nablus resident Nabeela Suliman told Middle East Eye.

“The situation in Nablus has clearly been escalating since the summer. But this most recent raid seems to represent a qualitative shift—a raid in the busiest parts of the city, during the day, leaving multiple dead and at least a hundred injured. I feel sick with worry for my city,” tweeted researcher and professor Yara Asi.

Here’s the AP talking to Ahmad Aswad, the head nurse of the cardiology department at Najah Hospital:

The 36-year-old medic told The Associated Press that he saw many patients shot in the chest, head and thighs. “They shot to kill,” he said.

In a moment he said will haunt him, he and a colleague carefully extracted a bullet from a 61-year-old man’s heart. After the chaos subsided and they pronounced their patient dead, they looked at the man’s face. It was his colleague’s father, Abdelaziz Ashqar.

His colleague, Elias Ashqar, was overcome and went silent. “It didn’t feel like we were in reality,” Aswad said.

At the time I am writing this the only congress member who has tweeted about the massacre is Rashida Tlaib. “Today the extremist right wing government of Israel violently attacked the city of Nablus, leaving 82 Palestinians shot and bringing the 2023 death toll to 61, including 13 children,” she wrote. “Until the U.S. stops funding this apartheid government, it will enable more death and destruction.”

It has been silence from other prominent progressives so far. AIPAC had a bunch of tweets explaining how Israel was “forced” to kill all these people. One wonders if Glenn Ivey, Haley Stevens, and the other Dems who took millions from the lobbying group for their primaries agree. This is all happening with four congressional delegations in Israel right now and it is business as usual. “Shared challenges make America and Israel strong allies — but it’s our shared values that make us such strong friends. Glad to be with so many friends in Israel today,” tweeted Mitch McConnell from the country yesterday.

Where’s Biden on all this? Once again the response is a call for “both sides” to “de-escalate.” Yesterday State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that the administration is “deeply troubled” by the event. “It’s especially critical that now, in the midst of a period that has seen far too many lives lost to violence on both sides – Palestinian lives, Israeli lives – it is especially important during this period that both sides – Israelis, Palestinians – not take steps that only serve to inflame tensions and that actually take steps to de-escalate tensions,” Price explained.

Just days ago, Secretary of State Blinken brokered a deal with the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to prevent a UN Security Council vote condemning settlement expansion. Yesterday we had a deadly raid in broad daylight, and today we had Israel’s Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Council advanced plans to build 3,612 housing units in the settlements. When Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was asked about U.S. opposition to such moves he said, “In the end we do what is right for us, and they understand that. We will continue planning, and building in the West Bank…”

Who looks at all this and believes “both sides” have to de-escalate tensions? One side blatantly violates international law to the tune of $3.8 billion a year from the U.S. government. There’s no accountability, but virtually no one in Washington bothers drawing attention to this reality.

Iran

Speaking of impunity, let’s turn to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which recently took place in Jerusalem this month. “As President Biden has said, we will not stand by and watch Iran get a nuclear weapon, number one. Number two, he said, all options are on the table,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides told the crowd. “Number three, Israel can and should do whatever they need to deal with and we’ve got their back.”

Since taking over in Washington, the Biden administration has ostensibly been trying to resurrect the Iran nuclear deal, which was violated by Trump. However, these efforts can’t possibly be taken seriously if Israel can do whatever it wants. They’ve been trying to torpedo any progress since Biden was elected. When negotiations began again in 2021 they attacked an Iranian enrichment site, causing a blackout and setting back talks. Then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki wouldn’t even admit that Israel had done it. “I would just reiterate that we don’t have any additional speculation to add to the cause or the origin of the attacks over the weekend,” she said. “What our focus is on is on the diplomatic path forward and the diplomatic conversations.”  U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin simply reiterated the usual refrain: “our commitment to Israel is enduring and ironclad.”

When Israel hit an Iranian defense compound with a drone in January Blinken essentially voiced support for the attack, saying it was “very important that we continue to deal with and work against as necessary the various actions that Iran has engaged in throughout the region and beyond that threaten peace and security.”

Now there’s a report from Channel 12 that Netanyahu has huddled with Israel’s defense minister, IDF chief, Mossad head, and Military Intelligence chief to plot a potential strike against Iran. According to the report the information has been shared with Blinken and U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

Odds & Ends

???? The Alliance for Global Justice’s had its online fundraising platform shut down after complaints from a Zionist lawfare group.

????️ The Supreme Court won’t take up a challenge to Arkansas’ anti-BDS law. A number of pro-Israel voices have celebrated this as the court “upholding” the law, but it actually suggests nothing about the merits of the case. It doesn’t mean that SCOTUS backs the lower court’s decision, but that less than four justices believed the ruling warranted a review.

The court was being petitioned by the ACLU on behalf of the Arkansas Times and its publisher Alan Leveritt. In 2017 the state passed a law requiring all companies that contract with the state to sign a pledge promising not to boycott Israel. Although not a supporter of the BDS movement, Leveritt refused to sign the pledge over First Amendment concerns.

“We are obviously disappointed at the news today from the U.S. Supreme Court,” Leveritt told Mondoweiss. “Permitting the State of Arkansas to withhold public contracts from citizens who voice dissenting opinions is abhorrent and a violation of our First Amendment rights.”

“Our newspaper is not boycotting anyone, we cover local politics and issues, not the Middle East – but we do not allow the state to dictate our political positions on any issue in return for advertising dollars,” he continued. “We have made changes to our business model to become less reliant on advertising revenue, and our newsroom is now 100% funded by readers and donors. Thanks to their support, we do not have to worry about signing any political pledges dictated by our legislature. The Supreme Court can ignore our First Amendment rights, but we will continue to vigorously exercise them.”

???? On CBS’ Face the Nation, Senator Bernie Sanders criticized the Israeli government’s recent judicial moves and reiterated his support for the conditioning of U.S. military aid to the country:

“I am very worried about what Netanyahu is doing and some of his allies in government and what may happen to the Palestinian people. And let me tell you something, I mean, I haven’t said this publicly. But I think the United States gives billions of dollars in aid to Israel. And I think we’ve got to put some strings attached to that and say you cannot run a racist government. You cannot turn your back on a two-state solution. You cannot demean the Palestinian people there. You just can’t do it and then come to America and ask for money.”

???????? Here’s a predictably wild one from Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR). A bill to train Israeli pilots to be better prepared on Iran. “We should provide our Israeli allies the tools they need to protect themselves from an increasingly dangerous Iran,” he tweeted. “Training these pilots now will send a message to Tehran and will ensure that Israel is able to use these planes the day they receive them.”

✉️ Over 450 NGOs, advocates, and academics have signed a letter to Secretary of State Blinken criticizing the State Department’s withdrawal of Professor James Cavallaro’s nomination for commissioner to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and calling it to be reinstated. His nomination was withdrawn over his past comments and tweets criticizing Israeli apartheid.

“Human rights practitioners and scholars should not fear professional reprisal for expressing their views about human rights violations, especially those carried out by U.S. allies,” it reads. “This undermines free expression, academic freedom, and the work of all human rights advocates, particularly those who do not have the same kind of platform as Cavallaro.”

“The State Department’s move is harmful to the global human rights movement and undermines the credibility of the United States in advocating for human rights in other parts of the world.”

????️ In an interview with David Axelrod Tom Nides said that Palestinians need money more than they need rights and that Israel losing the narrative on college campuses is his “biggest fear.”

Stay safe out there,

Michael