Shortly before President Joe Biden arrived in Israel, Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital was hit with a deadly strike that killed hundreds. The Gaza Health Ministry says Israel bombed the facility, but the IDF claims Islamic Jihad hit it with a misfired rocket.
The Israeli government has consistently lied about previous attacks on Palestinians. The IDF repeatedly insisted that Palestinian-American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was killed as a result of dueling gunfire, despite overwhelming evidence demonstrating it was an IDF soldier.
Appearing before reporters alongside Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden backed the Israeli version of events. “I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday,” he told the crowd. “And based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not — not you. But there’s a lot of people out there who are not sure. So, we got a lot of — we got to overcome a lot of things.”
Later, he said he didn’t think Israel was responsible because of “the data I was shown by my Defense Department.”
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi announced that the country had canceled the summit Biden was supposed to attend on Wednesday. The president was slated to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sissi, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
After the hospital attack, protests erupted throughout the Middle East, including Lebanon and Egypt. “America is the greatest devil,” chanted a large crowd outside the U.S. embassy in Iraq.
“The Arab street has a voice,” Kuwait University history professor Badr al-Saif told the AP. “That voice may have been ignored in the past by governments in the region and the West … but they cannot do this anymore. People are on fire.”
The major theme of Biden’s trip was the administration’s continued support of Israel. “I want you to know you’re not alone. We will continue to have Israel’s back as you work to defend your people,” he said. “We’ll continue to work with you and partners across the region to prevent more tragedy to innocent civilians.”
“What’s important here is not just that Biden is claiming Hamas bombed the Ahli hospital but that he wants the world to know that the U.S. is on Israel’s side,” wrote DAWN Executive Director Sarah Leah Whitson on Twitter. “The timing and tone of this message will cost the U.S. far more than it will help Biden in elections: While the Biden admin has been posturing its visit as a ‘bear hug’ to temper worst of Israeli excesses, Blinken’s all day pow-wow w Israeli war cabinet followed by Biden’s today will eviscerate any remaining doubt that the US is actively taking part in Israel’s assault on Gaza.”
Hilton caves to pro-Israel pressure, cancels Palestine conference
The Hilton company has caved to pro-Israel pressure and canceled a Palestinian event that was scheduled to take place at one of their hotels.
The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) annual conference was supposed to take place at a Hilton in Houston, Texas, on the weekend of October 27. Speakers included Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Professor Marc Lamont Hill, and activist Linda Sarsour.
In recent weeks, the event has been targeted by pro-Israel groups and right-wing pundits. “For anyone in Texas media: Hilton Hotels will be hosting a conference for Hamas supporters in Houston 27-29 Oct. Organizer is the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights,” wrote right-wing commentator Jeremey Frankel on Twitter. “Notoriously proud Jew-haters Rashida Tlaib, Linda Sarsour, Marc Lamont Hill, and Omar Barghouti are among the featured hate-mongering speakers. This conference will foment even more antisemitism in the U.S. CALL HILTON HOTELS TO VOICE YOUR OBJECTION and remind them they’re breaking their own policy.”
“Hilton Houston Post Oak by the Galleria serves as a place of public accommodation and does not endorse the positions of third-party groups or organizations,” reads the hotel’s cancellation statement. “The safety and security of our Team Members and guests is our top priority. Given escalating security concerns in the current environment, the hotel has determined that it cannot serve as the venue for this event because of the potential risks to our Team Members and guests. Our priority is and will remain the safety and security of everyone we welcome at our hotel.”
The USCPR sent out an email explaining the situation to those who had registered for the conference. “In response to Israel’s most recent onslaught on Gaza, which has now taken the lives of nearly 3,000 Palestinians, right-wing, Zionist forces have made persistent efforts to silence just speech and activism for Palestine, with our conference as one of their primary targets,” it read. “After days of back-and-forth with the hotel, we were informed earlier today that the hotel would no longer host our conference.”
“Over the last few days, the USCPR conference team has relentlessly sought out last-minute alternatives to the hotel,” it continues. “However, after extensive research, conversations with local organizations, and serious deliberation on the team, we have come to the conclusion that now is not the time to continue with the conference, but instead focus all our energy on advancing the demands for Palestinian freedom at local, state, and national levels.”
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott celebrated the decision on Twitter. “Hilton Hotels in Houston was correct to pull the plug on the U.S. Campaign for Palestine Rights event hosted by Hamas supporters,” he wrote. “Texas has no room for hate & antisemitism like that supported by Hamas. No location in Texas should host or sponsor USCPR.”
Rubio resolution
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has introduced a resolution that would deport foreign nationals and cancel their visas if they “support Hamas.”
“America is the most generous nation on earth, but we cannot allow foreign nationals who support terrorist groups like Hamas and march in our streets calling for ‘intifada’ to enter or stay in our country,” said Rubio in a statement.
“Marco Rubio to introduce legislation allowing deportation and cancelling of visas of people deemed to be Hamas supporters,” wrote The Intercept’s Murtaza Hussain on Twitter. Given that “Hamas supporter” has been defined broadly enough as anyone sympathetic to Palestinians, you can see where this is going.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) penned an open letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas echoing Rubio’s call.
“I write to urge you to immediately deport any foreign national — including and especially any alien on a student visa — that has expressed support for Hamas and its murderous attacks on Israel,” it reads. “These fifth-columnists have no place in the United States.”
Greenblatt says anti-Zionism is a “prelude to genocide”
During NBC Nightly News on Oct. 15, reporter Priscilla Thompson noted that the Palestinian solidarity protests in Austin, Texas were larger than the pro-Israel demonstration there. However, the segment quickly segued to supposed threats to Jews from anti-Zionists.
Reporter Jesse Kirsch said that the Hamas attack was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust and then spotlighted the claim by the ADL that antisemitic incidents have spiked almost 300 percent year to year, according to its “preliminary” data.
“We know that Jewish individuals and institutions are regularly targeted and victimized by people who collectively blame the Jews,” the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt said on air.
This includes some demonstrators denouncing Zionism, Kirsch said, which the ADL calls “the movement for self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland.”
Greenblatt then damned anti-Zionism as genocidal: “Anti-Zionism is actually a prelude to genocide. It’s conditioning people to see Jews as objects, to see Jews as subhuman.”
Greenblatt was even more direct in an MSNBC appearance where he said, “anti-Zionism is genocide.”
“As Anti-Defamation League officials appear on global televisions denouncing widespread rallies calling for an end to Israeli’s genocidal violence against Palestinians, we are seeing the most dangerous outcome of the ADL’s long history of asserting itself as a civil rights group,” writes Emmaia Gelman at the site. “The ADL’s framing of itself as an advocate against bias is completely belied by its advocacy for Islamophobic policy, its work to foster militarized policing and hyper-surveillance, and its clearly articulated role as an advocate for Israeli policies, including apartheid. The ADL crassly instrumentalizes the public’s real concerns about antisemitism, producing outrageously inflated statistics that list hundreds of protests against Israeli violence as “antisemitic incidents.” As a result of this disingenuous posturing, the ADL is being consulted as an expert on this war.”
Gillibrand says Hamas solely to blame for Gaza humanitarian crisis
In an appearance on The Brian Lehrer Show New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said that Hamas was responsible for the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Lehrer played a clip of U.S. Doctors Without Borders Avril Benoit, who had just appeared on MSNBC.
“There’s one hospital where we had harrowing stories,” explained Benoit. “They have run out of painkillers. The patients are screaming in pain. There is nothing to alleviate their suffering. To bring in the humanitarian supplies, obviously water is a huge issue as well. Our colleagues are reporting that the water people are drinking is salty, it’s brackish, it needs to be treated and you need fuel to be able to run the water treatment plant. You need fuel to be able to run the generators, to power the incubators where we’ve got neonatal cases, infants, newborns who are at risk of dying, if not from a lack of electricity, then from a lack of water.”
“We’re just in a terrible situation where many people are going to die, not from the direct consequences of the war and the bombardment, but from all the other issues that are surrounding them and making life untenable,” she continued.
When asked about Benoit’s comments, Gillibran insisted that Israel was not responsible for the suffering.
“This is the hell that has been wrought by Hamas. Hamas is using hospitals, are using individuals, are using civilian locations to create human shields for their terrorist attacks and for their constant launching of rocket attacks into Israel,” said the Senator. “This is what terrorism does to a country, it destroys it. Hamas does not care at all about the loss of life of the people in that hospital. They don’t care about the loss of life of anyone in Gaza, and they don’t care about Palestinian life. That is a fact.”
Israeli article doesn’t mention Elbit activism
This week the Israeli business website Globes ran a story about the stock of Israeli weapons supplier Elbit Systems falling despite a recent boom in defense industry profit.
“Wars and conflicts tend to benefit the defense industry and after 10 days of the Israel-Hamas war, The Wall Street Journal reports that the share prices of the world’s major defense equipment manufacturers have risen by 5%-17%,” Shiri Habib-Valdhorn points out on the site. “But during that time the share price of Israeli defense electronics company Elbit Systems Ltd, led by CEO Bezalel Makhlis, has fallen by 2% on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and by over 6% on Nasdaq. Elbit Systems share price is currently down 0.54% on Nasdaq at $194.13, giving a market cap of $8.746 billion.”
The brief article floats some theories about why Elbit isn’t benefitting from the boom, but neglects to mention that activists have spent years targeting the company over Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Last week the company’s Cambridge, Massachusetts facility was just spray painted 3 times in just 4 days.
“Right now Israel is using Elbit’s weapons to mass murder thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children indiscriminately,” said one protester during a recent blockade of the office.
h/t Phil Weiss
Biden goes to embrace Netanyahu in ‘Israel’.
After all, when the Master crooks his finger the Servant has to come running.
It seems to me that the monumental failure of the Israeli surveillance systems (by Elbit and others) along the apartheid “smart” fence, army bases and colonies and the ease in which they were overcome, contributed to the price drop. This will also spread to manufacturers of other military h/w.
A long story. Arguing about peripheral issues. If the discussion were about equality in a democratic state, we could make headway.
The sooner “any means” resistance is recognized as self-defeating, the closer liberation and peaceful coexistence.