It’s been a tumultuous week. The fragile ceasefire in Gaza seems to be mostly holding – for now. Seven Israeli captives, three civilians, and four soldiers, all female, have been released. In exchange, nearly 300 Palestinians have been released from Israeli prisons. Many of them are women and children. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are waiting to be allowed to return to their homes in the north. Israeli forces have not allowed them to cross the so-called “Netzarim Corridor” into the north after accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement by not releasing one civilian captive according to the agreed-upon schedule. There is news today that Arbel Yahud, the civilian in question, will be released before next week’s scheduled exchange.
In the U.S., Donald Trump’s first week brought chaos and disruption to U.S. and global politics, as promised. He signed a number of executive orders to lay the foundation for his immigration crackdown and plan to deport perhaps millions of people. Included in that plan may be foreign students involved in pro-Palestine protests. Critics are warning that punitive actions based on the exercise of free speech will be the first step toward criminalizing protests across the country.
Yesterday, Trump told reporters he spoke to King Abdullah of Jordan and told him, “I’d love you to take on more [Palestinian refugees from Gaza] because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess.” Trump continued, “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say: ‘You know, it’s over.'” Palestinian figures have rejected this call for ethnically cleansing Gaza, while Israel rightwingers like Bezalel Smotritch welcomed it and are eager to get started. Trump is also sending along 2,000 lb. bombs the Biden administration was holding on to in a vain effort to get Israel to lighten up on Gaza, or to at least pretend to.
Oh, and Elon Musk threw up the Nazi salute at a rally after Trump was inaugurated, then told the German AfD party not to “focus on past guilt.”
It’s been a wild week. Try not to get overwhelmed.
In solidarity,
Dave Reed, Publisher
Must-read: How the U.S. brokered ceasefire shows us Israel is a pet project, not an ally
Yazan Zahzah: The Gaza genocide revealed imperial tensions between the U.S. and Israel which show the U.S. will sacrifice Zionist demands for its own interests.
Catch-up
🙏 Tareq Hajjaj: As Palestinians find some respite in the midst of a ceasefire in Gaza, many families have one important job to do before returning back to their homes: giving their loved ones, many who were buried in mass or temporary graves, a proper burial.
🇮🇱 Miko Peled: Israeli society continues to wrestle with the incompetence, imperial hubris, and lack of accountability that contributed to Israel’s humiliating failures on October 7.
🍞 Shurooq Ahmed: Amid the many tragedies in Gaza, far too many go untold. We must not forget those who lost their lives while simply trying to get a loaf of bread or a sack of flour.
🚢 Michael Arria: A new report details the shipping and logistics giant Maersk’s role in sustaining illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine and Syrian territories.
🇵🇸 Abdaljawad Omar: The recent ceasefire celebrations with Hamas fighters in the heart of Gaza City exposed Israel’s military failures, and also showed how Palestinian joy is a direct affront to the petty gods who seek to rule over us.
🇮🇱 Qassam Muaddi: Israel is continuing an offensive on the West Bank city of Jenin that analysts say is meant to appease the settler movement as it pushes the government to exert more control over the occupied territory in preparation for annexation.
🇺🇸 Mitchell Plitnick: Some are hoping for a great “Trump effect” on U.S. policy toward Palestine after his envoy brokered the Gaza ceasefire. But Trump was only operating out of self-interest, and these same interests will lead him right back to full support for Israel.
🤦 Michael Arria: The Shift: The ADL’s reaction to Elon Musk’s “awkward gesture” proves that they’re not concerned with antisemitism. The group exists to defend Israel.
💰 Shanyat Turani-Chowdhury: Budget documents obtained by Mondoweiss show how the JNF supports the same violent Israeli settlers who were recently sanctioned by the Biden administration. Advocates say the organization itself should come under U.S. government scrutiny as well.
🎓 Umaymah Mohammad: When I applied to Medical School at Emory University, I was open about my dedication to Palestine activism, and was told it would never impact my studies. But now, the school has suspended me for that very reason.
🚑 Mustafa Al-Jarou: Although trained as a social researcher, when the war began in October 2023 I joined the search and rescue team in the Gaza City neighborhood of al-Shuja’iyya. Here are some of my stories of being a first responder during the Gaza genocide.
🤝 Michael Arria: Donald Trump’s first administration proposed what it called the “Deal of the Century” which would have redrawn Israel’s borders to include major swaths of the West Bank. As Trump reenters office there are fears the annexation plan is back.
More catch-up/must read: Peter Beinart has an editorial in todays New York Times, concerning the mythological/nonsensical ‘right’ of states to exist and the issue of equal rights:
States Don’t Have a Right to Exist. People Do.;;;In today’s Washington, which seethes with partisan acrimony, Democrats and Republicans at least agree on this: Israel has a right to exist….. In 2023, the House affirmed Israel’s right to exist by a vote of 412-1….This is not the way Washington politicians generally talk about other countries. They usually start with the rights of individuals, and then ask how well a given state represents the people under its control. If America’s leaders prioritized the lives of all those who live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, it would become clear that asking if Israel has a right to exist is the wrong question. The better question is: Does Israel, as a Jewish state, adequately protect the rights of all the individuals under its dominion?…The answer is no….Roughly half the people under Israeli control are Palestinian. Most of those — the residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — cannot become citizens of the state that wields life-or-death power over them. Israel wielded this power in Gaza even before Hamas invaded on Oct. 7, 2023, since it controlled the Strip’s airspace, coastline, population registry and most of its land crossings, thus turning Gaza into what Human Rights Watch called “an open-air prison.”…Even the minority of Palestinians under Israeli control who hold Israeli citizenship — sometimes called “Israeli Arabs” — lack legal equality. The Jewish National Fund, which has stated that its obligations are “to the Jewish people” and that it does not work “for the benefit of all citizens of the state,” holds almost half the seats on the governmental body that allocates most of Israel’s land….The belief that a Jewish state has unconditional value — irrespective of its impact on the people who live within it — isn’t contrary just to the way America’s leaders talk about other countries. It’s also contrary to Jewish tradition. Jewish tradition does not view states as possessing rights, but views them with deep suspicion. In the Bible, the Israelite elders ask the Prophet Samuel to appoint a king to rule over them. God tells Samuel to grant the elders’ wish but also warn that their ruler will commit terrible abuses. “The day will come,” Samuel tells them, “when you cry out because of the king whom you yourselves have chosen.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/27/opinion/israel-state-jewish.html
And Beinart’s editorial in todays Guardian:
A moral wreckage that we need to face’: Peter Beinart on being Jewish after Gaza’s destruction…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/jan/27/israel-gaza-us-jews-peter-beinart
RE: Trump continued, “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say: ‘You know, it’s over.’”
MY COMMENT: It sounds like Trump is planning on administering a colonic to the Gaza Strip to “clean out that whole thing”.
It’s such a mess!