[War in Israel]

By artappraiser on Sat, 10/07/2023 - 4:15pm |

President Joe Biden addressed the situation in Israel Saturday, saying, "The United States stands with Israel." https://t.co/SysbWg7KaI pic.twitter.com/kHBks5QlR5
— CNN (@CNN) October 7, 2023

URL:

https://x.com/CNN/status/1710732801056686447?s=20

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Ye Olde AIPAC bashing rears it's head - is like if we got rid of AIPAC, all would be right with the U.S. (speaking of blasts from the past, where's MJ Rosenberg when you need him?)

This baseless smear is meant to intimidate me into voting to send $14+ billion of your money to a foreign country. Please let AIPAC know we are broke, and these tactics don’t work on this Congressman. https://t.co/73HgkHrT5O
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 31, 2023

AIPAC endorsed scores of Jan 6th insurrectionists. They are no friend to American democracy.

They are one of the more racist and bigoted PACs in Congress as well, who disproportionately target members of color.

They are an extremist organization that destabilizes US democracy. https://t.co/I7KeLBHttJ
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 1, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/01/2023 - 2:35am

Josh Marshall retweeted this without comment:

By @BenjaminSales An Israeli first responder recalls tending to the body of a baby burnt in an oven https://t.co/BLXlq02BeU via @JTAnews
— Ron Kampeas (@kampeas) November 1, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/01/2023 - 2:49am

FBI Directer Wray, on the Hill: Hamas is greatest threat, in terms of inspiring terrorists, since ISIS. Predicts Islamist extremists alone or in ‘small groups’ will use war as ‘inspiration’ to plan attacks in US. Adds that Iran and proxies will look launch cyber attacks.
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) October 31, 2023

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned Congress Tuesday that the risk of a terrorist attack on the U.S. has risen “to a whole other level” not seen since the emergence of ISIS, and that antisemitism is reaching “historic levels.” pic.twitter.com/fvtVKvHWKk
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) October 31, 2023

"Antisemitism in the US is reaching 'historic levels' in the wake of violence in Israel and Gaza, FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned." He said "60% of all religious-based hate crimes targeted Jewish people." https://t.co/oxbrCsFxM4
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) November 1, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/01/2023 - 9:45am

Some may not be aware that while it is called refugee camp, Jabaliya is not an actual camp. It is a neighborhood run by UNRWA since 1948. It is not a camp where Gazans fleeing Gaza City and the northern part of the strip took refuge. Refugees fleeing this war crossed Gaza Valley… https://t.co/nRJZ6CcNFn
— Hussain Abdul-Hussain (@hahussain) October 31, 2023

Looks like #Israel hit Hamas tunnels filled with rockets and other explosives underneath Jabaliya refugee camp. Ground collapsed, Gazans fell into them, Hamas explosives started going off.
So what could go wrong when storing arms/terrorists underneath Palestinians in Gaza? https://t.co/jQzLGLpHzI
— Hussain Abdul-Hussain (@hahussain) October 31, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/01/2023 - 9:52am

Ghazi Hamad isn't just a random man-on-the-street. He doesn't want Israel to exist. Israel does exist. These aren't reconcilable positions. https://t.co/b27B4wtWjK
— Peter Moskos (@PeterMoskos) November 1, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/01/2023 - 12:41pm

It takes two to have a ceasefire. https://t.co/NIgf0IgDq2
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 2, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/02/2023 - 12:33am

I think a lot of Jews assumed this stuff was well known, but basically the only knowledge most people have about us is the Holocaust, which doesn't provide any of this context. https://t.co/MiCJi5tZ92
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) November 1, 2023

Clip by Jeffery is from

For Europe’s Jews, a World of Fear by Roger Cohen, Oct. 31

The Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israel and a surge in acts of antisemitism have awakened a repressed horror in Jewish populations across the continent

Quote by Rosenberg was found retweeted by Yglesias

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/01/2023 - 12:52pm

Thread starting here

Let's talk about this New Yorker piece on "Hamas Propaganda" which actually serves Israeli propaganda against journalists in Gaza as well as the only news outlets with dedicated on-the-ground correspondents & coverage of Israeli war crimes against Palestinians.

pic.twitter.com/PXK7mrQeOx
— Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) October 31, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/01/2023 - 1:32pm

what Peracles quoted on page 1

Former aide to Netanyahu with two sons on active duty: “Biden is the one saving Israel at this point. He’s the leader we don’t have. Netanyahu isn’t capable”
— Justin Horwitz (@JustinAHorwitz) October 30, 2023

maybe here

Scores of Dual Nationals and Injured Palestinians Cross From Gaza to Egypt

The southern Gaza border opened for the first such crossings since the war began, after a deal negotiated late Tuesday among Israel, Egypt, Hamas, the United States and Qatar

@ NYTimes.com/live, 5 minutes ago

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/01/2023 - 3:38pm

Twitter Blindness means a lot of people don't see the swathe of American opinion that thinks Biden should be more pro-Israel, even though it's larger than the group that thinks he's been too supportive. https://t.co/EvGppK51BC pic.twitter.com/3PJe3N6LMP
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 2, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/02/2023 - 11:45am

Matthew solves the Middle East.
And more seriously, I liked this article. He lays out the problems, one of which is that a lot of outside critics have peace plans that depend on Hamas and the Netanyahu government being radically different than they actually are. https://t.co/1f60JlP3Bv
— Carl (@HistoryBoomer) November 2, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/02/2023 - 3:17pm

[Graphic warning] I have just seen the raw footage from Hamas terrorists of their attacks on 7 October. The screams of civilians murdered in their cars, babies slain in Disney pyjamas, children begging for “daddy” as he is blown up, the dead spat on.

As they mercilessly…
— Benjamin Butterworth (@benjaminbutter) November 2, 2023

slaughtered, one terrorist yelled down the phone, “I killed 10 Jews with my hands, dad! I will go live on WhatsApp! Your son is a hero!”

If the Holocaust had cameras, this is what you would have seen.

I fear too many people do not grasp this.

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/02/2023 - 4:44pm

And likewise, the revenge porn doesn't increase anyone's humanity.

The Israelis couldn't figure out how to follow Hamas to prevent Oct7, and by mst indications they don't have a way to target Hamas now, so instead it's back to mass repercussions with the wrong people suffering. Too simple to dismiss as "that's how war is" - Obama's coalition spent months going street by street in Mosul to avoid civilian deaths. I guess if you blame all Gazans including the 40% under 15 it's a lot easier to pursue scorched earth. I'd think there's. Difference between Dresden as a far away train junction impossible to invade direct vs. a small plot of land you surround that you can enter freely, but what do I know. Sympathy and compassion are so last generation/last month.

“We are now in a situation where one child is killed every 10 minutes.” https://t.co/MqCORDVrfS
— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) November 3, 2023

by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 11/03/2023 - 2:54am

Whether or not you call it 'revenge porn', I believe if the TV news is going to continually show Ganzan victims of Israeli bombings which were announced (and they are continually showing them), they should at very minimum show stuff like this too, victims of an unannounced attack (and they are not showing them)

⚠️WARNING: DISTURBING⚠️

Nova music festival, October 7, 2023.

Israeli police officer searches for survivors of Hamas massacre.

There are only dead bodies.

This was the October 7 Massacre.

Don’t look away. pic.twitter.com/NYmvdOYvU9
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 3, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/03/2023 - 7:58pm

For sure, it's a huge imbalance - easier to see those buildings than the horrific planned killing of 1400 and the ongoing question of the hundreds kidnapped. And Hamas' initial attack was designed in cold blood to terrorize and split the global community. I'm hoping Israel's "Seal Team 6" or whatever gets to these fuckers hiding in Qatar, and certainly Qatar itself can't be excused for giving sanctuary.

by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 11/03/2023 - 10:18pm

Fantasies become some people's reality. This tweet has 25k likes for nonsense. They list "Equaldex" as their source (an LGBTQ+ rights tracking site), but Equaldex clearly states that Israel has better LGBTQ+ rights/attitudes than Palestine, where there is "severe resistance." https://t.co/VhVJ9T16pi
— Carl (@HistoryBoomer) November 3, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/03/2023 - 7:09pm

Well said

When we look with horror at the news each day and ask ourselves how any of this ends, the only answer is through people like Izzeldin.

Intergenerational pain and trauma permeate everything in the region, blinding people to the pain of the other just a few miles away 10/
— Ben P (@__BP__) November 2, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/03/2023 - 7:30pm

In a Worldwide War of Words, Russia, China and Iran Back Hamas

Officials and researchers say the deluge of online propaganda and disinformation is larger than anything seen before.

By Steven Lee Myers and Sheera Frenkel

@ NYTimes.com, Nov. 3, 2023

The conflict between Israel and Hamas is fast becoming a world war online.

Iran, Russia and, to a lesser degree, China have used state media and the world’s major social networking platforms to support Hamas and undercut Israel, while denigrating Israel’s principal ally, the United States.

Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have also joined the fight online, along with extremist groups, like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, that were previously at odds with Hamas.

The deluge of online propaganda and disinformation is larger than anything seen before, according to government officials and independent researchers — a reflection of the world’s geopolitical division.

“It is being seen by millions, hundreds of millions of people around the world,” said Rafi Mendelsohn, vice president at Cyabra, a social media intelligence company in Tel Aviv, “and it’s impacting the war in a way that is probably just as effective as any other tactic on the ground.” Cyabra has documented at least 40,000 bots or inauthentic accounts online since Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7.

The content — visceral, emotionally charged, politically slanted and often false — has stoked anger and even violence far beyond Gaza, raising fears that it could inflame a wider conflict. Iran, though it has denied any involvement in the attack by Hamas, has threatened as much, with its foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, warning of retaliation on “multiple fronts” if Israeli forces persisted in Gaza.

“It’s just like everyone is involved,” said Moustafa Ayad, executive director for Africa, the Middle East and Asia at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The institute, a nonprofit research organization in London, last week detailed influence campaigns by Iran, Russia and China.

The campaigns do not appear to be coordinated, American and other government officials and experts said, though they did not rule out cooperation.[....]

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/04/2023 - 5:00am

Tanzanian student in Israel: 'Shift change saved me, but my friends are Hamas hostages'

"If I was not on the farm that morning, I would be one of the missing." A stroke of luck saved Tanzanian Ezekiel Kitiku.

Two of his compatriots - Joshua Loitu Mollel and Clemence Felix Mtenga - were among more than 230 people taken as hostages by Hamas. https://t.co/cW4QRRyLFL
— BBC News Africa (@BBCAfrica) November 2, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/04/2023 - 5:35am

In Gaza, 54 of more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas are Thai nationals. Thailand has the second most victims among their migrant workers in Israel during the Hamas attack. Bangkok is trying to negotiate their release https://t.co/ahXoTTpe3V
— Andreas Harsono (@andreasharsono) November 4, 2023

30,000 Thai agricultural workers in Israel working on kibbutz farmlands. Thai muslim politicians flew to Iran for talks with Hamas to negotiate release of 23 Thai hostages. https://t.co/VwpjZ8TFwn
— csb (Cate & The Whole Catastrophe) (@csb02174941) November 4, 2023

Andy Vermaut shares: Thai nationals welcomed home after evacuation from Israel: Thailand is the nation with the most foreign workers affected by the crisis in Israel, as 32 Thais have been confirmed dead, 19 injured, and 23 hostages are being… https://t.co/yOzxF5nkMW Thanks. pic.twitter.com/pInZazG31e
— Andy Vermaut (@AndyVermaut) November 3, 2023

Didn't dig into the difference in numbers.

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/04/2023 - 5:44am

Hamas put wounded terrorists on departure lists for Egypt's Rafah Crossing, delaying efforts to evacuate civilian foreigners.

White House: "A third of the people who were on the list that Hamas submitted turned out to be Hamas fighters." pic.twitter.com/HvCOwH9WIp
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) November 4, 2023

link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/world/middleeast/hamas-gaza-evacuees-rafah-crossing.html

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/04/2023 - 6:43am

Excelling at being shitheads.

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 11/04/2023 - 9:49am

Congress and the White House are weighing in on the spike in anti-Semitic incidents across the globe, and notably on college campuses across the U.S., which have escalated since Hamas' attack on Israel. @biannagolodryga joins to discuss: pic.twitter.com/yPjj6pGV0F
— CNN This Morning (@CNNThisMorning) October 31, 2023

French woman stabbed on doorstep in anti-Semitic attackhttps://t.co/K2jWrFM4RY
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) November 4, 2023

NYPD Investigates Possible Hate Crime on 14th Street

Anti-Semitic Attack in NYC

Surveillance Video of Suspects Released

NEW YORK - The NYPD is investigating a quartet of hipsters for assaulting and pelting a man with Anti-Semitic remarks near Union Square.

See More…… pic.twitter.com/DozEAvjr4z
— Bronx Voice (@Bronxvoice1) November 4, 2023

Muslim Group Publicly Condemns Anti-Semitic Violence and Hate, Hamas, Terrorist Attack on Israel https://t.co/4Winkbgdif
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) November 5, 2023

Workers at the famous Canter's Deli stunned to find the walls of the Jewish restaurant vandalized with hateful messages. The graffiti fueling anxiety among SoCal Jews as anti-Semitic incidents grow. New concerns in the wake of the Israel terror attack. This morning at 6 from ABC7 pic.twitter.com/cGMwMCK2oZ
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) November 2, 2023

Austria’s main Jewish leader said Wednesday that a fire was set during the night in the Jewish section of Vienna’s central cemetery and swastikas were sprayed on external walls. #IsraelHamasWar https://t.co/P8PQ2iCi1K
— Gabby Gomez (@Gabbyy27) November 4, 2023

A steep rise in Anti-Semitic attacks in Europe. We traveled to Vienna after an incident there. Our report for @andersoncooper @AC360 @CNN @cnni @DeutschOskar @DavidRoet pic.twitter.com/Tik6A9SaY9
— Frederik Pleitgen (@fpleitgenCNN) November 3, 2023

Despicable!

Vienna's Jewish community in shock after arson attack on cemetery hallhttps://t.co/Z5GdtfKdhn
— ZenDaddy (@ZenDaddy3) November 4, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/04/2023 - 11:39pm

The Biden administration is working to fight a “gobsmacking” rise of antisemitism globally in the weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, the State Department’s special envoy for combating antisemitism said. https://t.co/mHqCQwaaGc
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 5, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/04/2023 - 11:49pm

It takes two to have a ceasefire

pic.twitter.com/yHYpOKywlu
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 5, 2023

It is not apartheid: A quick debunking of the most obvious lies about the State of Israel

For decades, the pro-Palestinian cause has assailed the Jewish state with basically any falsehood that would stick – and a lot of it has

Tristin Hopper, @ Nationa Post, Nov. .4

[....]

Israel is not, under any circumstances, an outpost of “settler colonialism” [....]

Want a two-state solution? Maybe ask the Palestinians why they keep rejecting one [....]

Want Israel to “deoccupy” Palestinian land? They did … in Gaza [....]

If Israel is trying to commit genocide, it’s very, very bad at it [....]

They’re also terrible at apartheid

[....]

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/05/2023 - 2:02pm

^ I'm here. I was here before Oct. 7 and I'm still here.

But now the parties have declared WAR and Hamas went first and caused the war. Hello: war is a different situation than in peacetime.> one party wins and the other loses! Until that happens - one party wins and another loses - civilians are in a different situation.(For example, the Marshall Plan was not created to help German citizens until WWII was over and their leaders had surrendered: until it was over, they went through hell.)

It does not in any way help me change my mind to argue that most of the Gazan population is very young and therefore did not elect Hamas. Because after years of paying attention, I know that the majority of them have been indoctrinated since birth to irrationally hate the fact of Israel and even hate Jews in general and expect Israel to disappear and won't settle for anything less than Palestinians ruling from "the river to the sea".

Fact: Israel is not goiing to disappear, the UN verifed their existence as a (tiny) nation after WWII, and they grew in strength as a democracy after that,. thru many challenges, while the 'Palestinians' floundered and went downhill (whoever, whatever they are, in the midst of huge and numerous Arab nations, who supported their cause in various ways over decades and then mostly gave up)

All the same old same old arguments about history of Jews in the mideast, while nontheless interesting, have little to do in this era of nation states after WWII with the U.N. abitrating who is considered a nation state and gets all the benefits of that status. Israel is a fact and it's not going away. The 'Palestinian' cause will go nowhere until they accept that, ESPECIALLY all those teenagers in Gaza. The saying "denial is not a river in Egypt" is especially appropriate here. Now that those two parties are at war, much is actually up to those teenagers to stop hating and blaming 'the other' and become like the German teenagers after WWII, and not like the German teenagers after WWI.

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/05/2023 - 2:14pm

"Palestinians' floundered and went downhill (whoever, whatever they are, in the midst of huge and numerous Arab nations" - I'd say this Mideast Arab-Persian world has floundered - aside from Dubai non-oil dependent economic success, what is there? Bonesaws and ISIS and Iranian mullahs and more Egyptian protests & Islamic Brotherhood? The trip to the 21st Century is lengthy. How kids locked in an isolated enclave would do better than their peers outside is hard to imagine. Start to feel nostalgic for Arafat - he was at least halfway goal oriented (even as he derailed his own goals) and could put a face to this effort rather than this anonymized evil as a cloud over Gaza. Awful or Israelis to o those roadblocks, but even more awful for teams of terrorists to brutally with careful plans murder 100s of normal civilians. How do you negotiate in Pol Pot terms?

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 11/06/2023 - 3:49am

Egypt outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood

Notice the flat line with no growth between 2011 and 2014? That's when the Muslim Brotherhood was in power in Egypt

General rule of thumb: the more power Jihadists have in a Middle East country, the less successful that country will be
— hevanti (@Hopozitzia) November 5, 2023

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 11/06/2023 - 3:55am

Good question, and probably applicable in general to the topic of Palestine!

What’s Egypt been doing right? pic.twitter.com/KQg8WjaaTR
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 5, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/05/2023 - 2:12pm

A reminder that 32 Americans were killed by Hamas, making it the deadliest foreign terrorist attack on Americans since 9/11. At least 10 more are hostages in Gaza, and hundreds more are being used as human shields by Hamas. https://t.co/wLiVynpxPj
— Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) October 28, 2023

I had no idea!

Really whazzit, the lack of stressing this in coverage? because they were dual-nationals and Jewish, or what?

Imagine if Iran had executed 32 Americans instead!

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/06/2023 - 4:02am

I just heard from a former student that her children have faced antisemitism at school. One child had a swastika drawn on their desk, the other was told they couldn't be friends because Jews were the enemy. In New York City! Heartbreaking that this is infecting children's minds.
— Carl (@HistoryBoomer) November 5, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/06/2023 - 4:54am

IT KEEPS HAPPENING!

Another anti-Semite attacked the Black Hebrew Israelites thinking that they're Jews!https://t.co/nxqDX5Achq
— Swann Marcus (@SwannMarcus89) November 5, 2023

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 11/06/2023 - 3:54pm

You don't say!

The avg kibbutz is a gated community now but the cost of living has been a perpetual issue & most of the youth is willing to search for better prospects elsewhere
— Rodin (@RodinsRevenge) November 6, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/06/2023 - 3:57pm

Do you know how many times I have been told to "go back to Poland" on this platform since October 7th? pic.twitter.com/6HvevrOuOn
— Zechariah Shar'abi | זכריה | زكريا (@ZechariahSharab) November 6, 2023

It truly is a circle.
nationalist:
— "Go back to Poland and Ukraine!"
nationalist:
— "Fuck off Jews. Pack your things and leave (to Israel)"
someone:
— "You have Israel, you are insolent to go to Germany"
supporter of far-right:
— "Come on, fuck off back to Russia" https://t.co/82h4FJAfrL pic.twitter.com/EMZTshHWbJ
— Michael Vokabre (@Vokabre) April 16, 2023

My great grandfather is actually from Poland but I’d be denied emigration because “not Polish enough”.
He died in Moscow murdered by communists as “Polish spy” in ethnic cleansing, the rest of Warsaw, Kyiv family died from nazis. I was still denied “Jewish migration” by Germany https://t.co/tJio9YOUEp
— Michael Vokabre (@Vokabre) November 6, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/06/2023 - 8:09pm

Hillary was right... again. pic.twitter.com/rPdqMyc6qp
— Christopher Bouzy (spoutible.com/cbouzy) (@cbouzy) November 6, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/06/2023 - 8:13pm

^ I don't know how anyone could be any clearer about their stance! And she was spot on. Made for a great Sec. of State.

(Mho, this type of thing is a good illustration of why she got a rep by some as a tough bitch; comparatively Bernie seems kindly and approachable by those with different views.)

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/06/2023 - 8:29pm

I'll listen to people arguing that Israel's bombing of Gaza is wrong because it's killing too many civilians, BUT most don't offer an alternative. What should Israel have done after 1400 of their citizens including children, were slaughtered, and 240 hostages taken? Nothing?
— Carl (@HistoryBoomer) November 6, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/06/2023 - 8:32pm

Am seeing this story posted a lot on social media claiming a Jewish man in Los Angeles died after being hit with a megaphone by a pro-Palestinian protester but haven't seen any U.S. news outlet (including Los Angeles outlets) reporting ithttps://t.co/JNenqW7Hke
— Steve Lookner (@lookner) November 7, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/06/2023 - 8:51pm

U.N. Says Israel-Gaza War Is Deadliest Ever for Its Personnel

The U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, said Monday that 89 employees of UNRWA, its agency aiding Palestinian refugees, had been killed since the war began.

By Nick Cumming-Bruce

reporting from Geneva, Nov. 6, 2023

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said on Monday that 89 employees of the U.N. agency aiding Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, had been killed in Gaza in the month of war between Israel and Hamas.

That is more “than in any comparable period in the history of our organization,” he told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York, adding that many of the employees had been killed with members of their family. The United Nations employs large numbers of Palestinians in Gaza, where almost half the working-age population is unemployed.

On Sunday, the leaders of United Nations agencies and other humanitarian groups issued a joint statement calling for an immediate cease-fire, saying, “Enough is enough. This must stop now.”

In the statement, they expressed “shock and horror” at the loss of life and called for the immediate release of hostages taken during the Hamas attacks in Israel last month. They noted that “more than 100 attacks against health care” had been reported and that “scores of aid workers” had been killed since the attacks and Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza.

Of the loss of U.N. staff members, Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, said: “The number goes up every day.”

“They are killed in the north, the middle and the south, men and women, some at home, some at displacement shelters, some bringing refugees to the shelters,” she added.

One staff member was killed as he waited in line for bread, she said, and another was killed at home with his wife and eight children. Most worked in the agency’s schools in Gaza, she said.

The World Health Organization said 16 health care workers had died while on duty in Gaza, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said its member organizations had lost seven staff members in the war.

The fatalities, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said, included three medical staff of Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency medical service, who were killed as they tried to rescue people from the kibbutzim under attack by Hamas and take them to the hospital.

It also said it lost four paramedics working for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza as they treated casualties from the bombardment and tried to bring the wounded to the hospital.[....]

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/07/2023 - 12:42am

UPDATE #Israel #Palestine

Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel would assume “overall security responsibility” of the Gaza Strip for an indefinite period after its war with Hamas.

The comments are the most public pushback against US President Joe Biden’s warning last month…
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) November 7, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/07/2023 - 1:29am

These people soon began firing bullets into our home through the living room window.
They tried to break through our locked door with their guns. They sprayed our two cars with bullets.
These people were Hamas terrorists, armed from head to toe, on a mission get in and kill us.
— Amir Tibon (@amirtibon) November 7, 2023

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 11/07/2023 - 2:19am

good thread, thank you--a victim, he's also an obvious liberal and *gets* the whole terrible nature of the problem; i especially like these 4

I don't want revenge in Gaza. I don't feel any satisfaction upon hearing that civilians are killed there now. I'm as sad as one can be over their deaths. But I know that when Hamas came into my community on that morning, it knew EXACTLY what would happen in Gaza the next day.
— Amir Tibon (@amirtibon) November 7, 2023

Hamas declared war after several years in which successive Israeli governments looked for ways to improve the economic reality in Gaza.
In my own community, we were proud to employ workers from there, paying them 10 times the average wage inside Gaza, helping them build homes.
— Amir Tibon (@amirtibon) November 7, 2023

I'm the last person to claim Israel has no fault or blame in our long conflict with the Palestinians. I have written hundreds of articles against the policies of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, and in favor of a real commitment to Palestinian rights and sovereignty. But..
— Amir Tibon (@amirtibon) November 7, 2023

What Hamas did on October 7 had nothing to do with any of this. It was a suicide mission to murder as many Israelis as possible, specifically in civilian communities, with no policy goal or endgame other than murder, torture and pain. It shut the door on improving Gaza's economy.
— Amir Tibon (@amirtibon) November 7, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/07/2023 - 8:08am

along the same lines

So many one-sided truths spouted by so many. Of course the below is entirely true, but so is the reverse.

"Israel’s attempt to destroy Hamas will breed more radicalisation, UN expert says"

Not destroying Hamas will lead to the same result of course. It's not like they're..

1/3
— Ben Lewis (@theuniversalben) November 7, 2023

2/3 gonna say, 'We chopped off loads of your babies heads and machine-gunned to death hundreds of ravers' so now we're quits and ready for a two state solution.'

As for Netanyahu, "Israel may have 'security responsibility' for Gaza for 'indefinite period' after war ends....
— Ben Lewis (@theuniversalben) November 7, 2023

3/3 "....Netanyahu says."

Hasn't he learnt anything??? Someone get this sociopath out of government and into prison now.
— Ben Lewis (@theuniversalben) November 7, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/07/2023 - 8:24am

FWIW: "A Zionist Trap" (those wily Jews?)

Israeli actress Gal Gadot 'plans Hollywood screening showing footage of Hamas terror attack atrocities' https://t.co/wgI2nTWhhi pic.twitter.com/3HYyHsfPlb
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) November 7, 2023

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT UPDATE WRT GAL GADOT’S SCREENING

it’s a trap to capture POC protesting outside the Museum of Tolerance and show them being “antisemitic”

if you’re not jewish and/or white, this protest isn’t for us. we have to sit this one out. pic.twitter.com/57mb3ZjuR6
— sunflower weeds reads (@sunflower_weeds) November 7, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/07/2023 - 7:54am

Does #Iran want a regional war they would have to fight?

"No, they don't. But this is their entire strategy. They are fighting Israel to the last Palestinian, to the last Lebanese, to the last Syrian and to the last Iraqi. They use proxy groups to their advantage so that they… pic.twitter.com/Bo9iYhEx0N
— FDD (@FDD) November 6, 2023

continuation:

sit safely back in Tehran and watch with delight. "

@JSchanzer

joins

@jaketapper

on

@CNN

to break down Hamas funding, Hamas strategy, and more.

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/07/2023 - 8:51am

Great cartoon featured just now on Israeli ch 11 depicting Iranian supreme leader playing Gaza like a video game and then casting it aside when he’s done. pic.twitter.com/VhsrFQ7r10
— Jonathan Schanzer (@JSchanzer) November 7, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/07/2023 - 8:53am

In a conversation with @NorahODonnell, Secretary Hillary Clinton on those calling for a ceasefire:

“People who are calling for a ceasefire now do not understand Hamas, that is not possible. It would be such a gift to Hamas because they would spend whatever time there was a… pic.twitter.com/cCcL1JusCU
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) October 30, 2023

continuation:

ceasefire in effect rebuilding their armaments, creating stronger positions to be able to fend off an eventual assault by the Israelis.”

She also added that the Israeli government had a responsibility to limit civilian casualties.

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/07/2023 - 7:22pm

Strong report from @SecKermani - working under restrictions imposed by the IDF. His interactions with the Israeli officer show how the slaughter in Gaza is fuelled by choking rage and existential fear. Illuminating without being exculpatory. https://t.co/05bHq05Snr
— Gabriel Gatehouse (@ggatehouse) November 8, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/09/2023 - 1:33am

This is ahistorical. Zionism began in the 1890s backed by no imperial powers. The Brits did offer a homeland (not a country) during WW1 but then resisted Zionist goals, and fought Jewish insurgents, who even blew up the British HQ (King David Hotel) in 1946! They were not allies! https://t.co/EMKUIx2rrl
— Carl (@HistoryBoomer) November 9, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/09/2023 - 3:06pm

Facts trump newsreader nonsense every time. https://t.co/5qn1AqOXi2
— Grant Hayter-Menzies (@GrantHayter) November 9, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/09/2023 - 3:59pm

Ethically interesting choice by the colleagues from @nytimes to promote a "journalist" who is an active Hamas supporter. Hind Khoudary denounced a Palestinian peace activist for talking to Israeli peace activists 3 years ago. He was imprisoned by Hamas as a result of her actions.…
— Christine Kensche (@c_kensche) November 9, 2023

It's easy enough to research, especially since @welt and other international media have written about it. Hind Khoudary told us without batting an eyelid that anyone who wants peace is a traitor and that she wants a Jew-free Palestine/Israel. 2/2https://t.co/dSKCpqe76F
— Christine Kensche (@c_kensche) November 9, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/09/2023 - 5:50pm

Hillary Clinton is right about everything. pic.twitter.com/am5Ymz5yAt
— David Weissman (@davidmweissman) November 9, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/10/2023 - 1:49am

Half of British ppl want the pro-Palestinian march this weekend banned. Only 31% want Israel to ceasefire.

The majority in this country are not with the marchers. After more violence and mayhem that will be set to increase. Britain is not with them. pic.twitter.com/SOsVPDg7W6
— Heidi Bachram (@HeidiBachram) November 9, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/10/2023 - 3:11am

French march against antisemitism shakes up far right and far left

By Hugh Schofield, BBC News, Paris 12 hours ago

Something unprecedented is happening this weekend in Paris, brought about by the war between Israel and Hamas and its spill-over in Europe.

For the first time ever, a major demonstration attended by representatives of the major political parties will include the far right - but not the far left.

On Sunday afternoon thousands of people are expected to heed a call from the Speakers of the two houses of parliament to show their support for French "Republican" values and their rejection of antisemitism - this in the face of a steep rise in antisemitic actions since 7 October.

Among the first to announce their presence were Marine Le Pen, three-times presidential candidate for the National Rally (formerly the National Front), and the party's young president, Jordan Bardella.

Almost simultaneously came a rejoinder from their counterpart on the far left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, irascible leader of France Unbowed (LFI). His party would not be attending, he tweeted, because the march was a "rendezvous for unconditional supporters of the massacre [of Gazans]".

It is hard to overestimate the symbolic significance of this switch-over [....]

A few years ago, for a far-left party not to have been part of a march against antisemitism would have been unthinkable. For a far-right party to have been there instead would have been unconscionable.[....]

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/12/2023 - 9:03am

Carl has made up a useful test, free of charge, for those who would be king of the world

Thanksgiving is coming and you're facing the horror of idiot relatives commenting on the Middle East. Don't worry! I got you covered!
THANKSGIVING ISRAEL AND GAZA TEST
to be given to your argumentative uncles and obnoxious Gen-Z nieces who want to explain Israel while you'd… pic.twitter.com/QLobnuvmW5
— Carl (@HistoryBoomer) November 10, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/10/2023 - 12:40pm

Like why should I care who's the leader of Syria, Iran, whatever? What would it change?

Until Mickey Mouse rises anew, it's all "same as it ever was"

by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 11/10/2023 - 2:03pm

A very unusual aspect of Israel/Palestine is that a large number of people who don’t live there passionately advocate for an outcome, secular democratic binationalism, that neither of the main Palestinian political organizations have as their stated goal.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 9, 2023

EXACTLY! Reality! This is what I was saying early on. Arguing/debating giving Palestinians a state as part of a two-state solution is like arguing about how mahy angels fit on the head of a pin. If you were king of the world you could have a pony,too. What use is it to continually argue for something that they have offically declined over and over and over. So many have tried! I think many western leaders are just fed up with them. October 7 was the last straw! Gotta stand behind Israel cleaning up the situation as nasty as it might be. What else is there? Put your own boots on that ground? No way! They do have some responsibility for their own future, not continally wallowing in victimhood unless they can have it all, counting continually on subsidization by largesse of gulf state nut cases dreaming of kicking Jews out.

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/10/2023 - 2:20pm

p.s. Yglesias aptly uses the word "unusal". That's the Haiti, Sudan, Congo etc. thing. Much better chance of doing some good by puting energy one of those places. You can't help where nobody wants help unless you're willing to get rid of Israel.

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/10/2023 - 2:29pm

Well, Hamas is nasty, but Ariel Sharon didn't do fuckall to improve the situation, much less Bibi, so why act as if Israel tried? Yes, 3-4 years while Clinton was Prez, and Arafat had to play intifada while avoiding solving the goddamn thing. Remember a Jew killed Yitzhak Rabín to derail the Oslo Accords.

by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 11/10/2023 - 2:34pm

I repeat my earlier post > former Sec. of State Clinton under Obama explains it all so that even viewers of "The View" can understand:

Hillary Clinton is right about everything. pic.twitter.com/am5Ymz5yAt
— David Weissman (@davidmweissman) November 9, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/10/2023 - 5:42pm

^ especially after 5:20 when she describes what happened AFTER her husband's effort AND (hint hint) what kind of representives will be required (for example check out what happened with Egypt; check out what happened with Jordan) to accomplish anything AFTER Israel gets done totally erasing Hamas from the area. (Basically: If you're gonna show up later with another Yasser Arafat, fuggeaboudit, been there, done that)

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/10/2023 - 6:03pm

especially because at the end of the video, the guy sums it all up by saying: "I'm starting to think I cannot play this game!"

Wow watch. Accurate https://t.co/vQ5rFPvaoG
— Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) (@AdamKinzinger) November 11, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 6:11pm

Gaza is plagued by poverty, but Hamas has no shortage of cash. Where does it come from?

Hamas has an investment portfolio of real estate and other assets worth $500 million, say experts, and an annual military budget of as much as $350 million.

By Dan De Luce and Lisa Cavazuti @ NBCNews.com, Oct.25

The unemployment rate in Gaza is 47% and more than 80% of its population lives in poverty, according to the United Nations. Hamas, however, has funded an armed force of thousands equipped with rockets and drones and built a vast web of tunnels under Gaza. Estimates of its annual military budget range from $100 million to $350 million, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources.

As the U.S. House and Senate will be asking in separate hearings Wednesday and Thursday, where does all that cash come from?

Since coming to power in the Gaza Strip 17 years ago, Hamas has filled its coffers with hundreds of millions in international aid, overt and covert injections of cash from Iran and other ideological partners, as well as cryptocurrency, taxes, extortion and smuggling, according to current and former U.S. officials and regional experts.

Much of the money is public and legal, including large sums of financial aid from Qatar via the United Nations, an arrangement encouraged and approved by Israel. The Qatari aid covers the salaries of civil servants, buys fuel for the power grid and provides cash to needy families.

Some of it is less than legal, according to experts. In addition to levying taxes on Gaza’s businesses and residents, Hamas imposes unofficial fees on smuggled goods and other activity, for a combined income of up to $450 million per year. Hamas also has real estate and other investments around the globe, despite international restrictions, and uses cryptocurrency to mask some of its transactions.

Some of it may be fully illegal. A small portion of its budget seems to come from smuggling in South America, including drug smuggling.

Experts, enemies and Western governments have questioned whether Hamas mingles the money for its military operations with money meant for civilian use. Hamas could not be reached for comment. But Hamas representatives have said previously that the group strictly separates funding for the administration of Gaza from funding for its military wing, also known as the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

In the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,400 people, some former Treasury Department officials and experts argue that the United States and its European allies need to crack down on the group’s global financial network.

“There will need to be a policy review,” said Jonathan Schanzer, a former Treasury official now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.

The Iranian connection

The size of the Hamas budget and its sources have both morphed over time.

Iran has been a consistent financial and military patron of Hamas since the 1990s, long before the group achieved control of Gaza. The funding has gradually increased, and is now at about $100 million annually, according to the State Department.

Hamas leaders have publicly acknowledged Iran’s ongoing financial and military support.

In an interview this month that appeared on Russia Today TV, senior Hamas official Ali Baraka said that “First and foremost, it is Iran that is giving us money and weapons.” Last year, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told Al Jazeera that Iran paid $70 million to the group to support its defense plan.

In addition to Iran’s support, Hamas has long relied on funds from other ideological allies, including private donations and groups in Turkey, Kuwait and Malaysia, former U.S. counterterrorism officials said [....]

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 2:38am

Where's the Palestinians' Mandela?

And if a Palestinian Gandhi appeared, would the world demand he start throwing stones and shooting rockets?

Asking for a friend...

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 2:58am

The idea that Palestinian support for terrorism is largely if not entirely grounded in non-religious grievances is just plain wrong. Muslim hatred of Jews--especially the humiliation/anger felt over losing the land to the Jews' (who, according to the Quran/Hadith, are supposed to… https://t.co/V0dcyx54Aj
— Zach Goldberg (@ZachG932) November 11, 2023

are supposed to be a subordinate class) is no small part of it.

Put a different way, if ALL Palestinians were Christian, the conflict could have been resolved decades ago.
— Zach Goldberg (@ZachG932) November 11, 2023

They definitely wouldn't reject offers of statehood/semi-statehood over Al Aqsa so yea
— Jod (@Alf97489215) November 11, 2023

There is abundant literature by Jewish academics about how much more tolerant Muslim countries have historically been toward Jewish people.

During the Spanish Inquisition, the Ottoman sultan invited expelled Jews to his domain, for instance.
— Imperator Philippus Arabus (@PhilippusArabus) November 11, 2023

Comparatively speaking, it was better. But Jews were still a subordinate class that either had to pay jizya (special tax), convert, or die.
— Zach Goldberg (@ZachG932) November 11, 2023

Well, Hamas was born out of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was around a lot longer.

And yes, the 67 war was the death of secular pan-Arabism. The loss was interpreted as punishment for the Ummah's profanities and the straying from Allah, hence the rise of (pan-)Islamism and…
— Zach Goldberg (@ZachG932) November 11, 2023

Also there was a conscious exploration of Islam by Arab socialists, looking for inspo basically. Which they found, in abundance.
— Tabby Grey (@DanseurTabby) November 11, 2023

Muslim Brotherhood were jailed in Egypt and had no operational power anywhere during cold war, Arafat the gaylord had no religious agenda, neither did the biggest funders of 'Resistance' post 67 Muammar and Papa Assad, or even Saddam
— Humboldt F (@Slezkinite) November 11, 2023

83% of Palestinian Christians are worried about settler attacks and 62% believe the Israelis want to ethnically cleanse them. pic.twitter.com/uTphXO8Wdt
— History Speaks (@History__Speaks) November 11, 2023

Mindboggling that they're not blowing up buses or shooting up homes
— Zach Goldberg (@ZachG932) November 11, 2023

the discussion continues...

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 4:15am

#Gaza map update.

After increasingly intense clashes over the past 24 hours, the #IDF have continued to push into Gaza city from the North and South.

Heavy fighting is currently ongoing less that 500 metres West of the Al Shifa Hospital after #Israel advanced beyond the port. pic.twitter.com/ujEIeDN2v5
— War Mapper (@War_Mapper) November 11, 2023

BREAKING:

The Israeli Army is about to take control of the entire coastline of northern Gaza.

The IDF is now also just 500 metres away from the main Hamas HQ in the Al Shifa Hospital

Via @War_Mapper pic.twitter.com/52cKhjjXpJ
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 11, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 5:17am

And here's realism from the Palestinian side:

As a former Palestinian negotiator, I know Biden’s two-state solution is sheer delusion

Ahmad Samih Khalidi (Ahmad Samih Khalidi is a Palestinian writer) @ TheGuardian.com, Nov. 11

It is nigh-on impossible to meet both Israeli security demands and Palestinian requirements for minimal ‘sovereignty’...

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 5:37am

5m ago06.18 ESTI

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news site said Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, will propose that Muslim countries ban Israel from using their airspace and prevent the US from shipping weapons to Israel from their military bases in the region, Reuters reports.

Raisi is among dozens of leaders attending the joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh.

2h ago04.33 EST

Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, has arrived in Saudi Arabia for a summit on Gaza (see earlier post at 07.02), state-affiliated media has reported.

Middle East leaders have called for a ceasefire while warning the conflict risks drawing in other countries, a threat Raisi on Saturday blamed on Washington’s staunch support for Israel, AFP reports.

“The war machine in Gaza belongs to the US,” he said before departing for Riyadh. “The US has prevented the ceasefire in Gaza and is expanding the scope of the war.”

Footage aired on the Al-Ekhbariya channel showed Raisi, wearing a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, greeting Saudi officials at the airport after disembarking from his plane.

@ TheGuardian.com/Live

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 5:58am

This is not most Israelis’ view of the situation, but the fact is that religiously motivated settlers have been in the driver’s seat of policy for most of the last the past fifteen years.https://t.co/fzrGRzCpOx pic.twitter.com/1zKBMBPq4k
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 11, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 1:08pm

Israeli government spokesman:

The fact that Hamas HQ is located under Shifa has been Gaza’s biggest open secret for over a decade. It is a military target shielded by a medical unit. That is a war crime.

Bookmark this tweet for after the war. You’re going to look very silly. https://t.co/fEa1itTpXh
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 10, 2023

We do not accept that the hospital above Shifa Terror Compound could not have been evacuated in the last month.

Imagine if @who and @UNRWA had expressed outrage at Hamas HQ in basement and committed to move civilians to safety. Could have been done and they are complicit with…
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 11, 2023

Israel exists so you can't push Jews around anymore. https://t.co/oC5epGIGcN
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 11, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 2:05pm

He also says this and fwiw I just saw similar talking at length on the same topic on CNN:

Doctors at the Shifa Hospital (where Hamas HQ is in basement) have asked the @IDF to help evacuate the babies from the pediatric department.

The IDF will help them.

Reminder: Hamas still holds Israeli babies hostage. pic.twitter.com/1DNtz9hgAN
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 11, 2023

Then of course you have all the reports all day of the hospital being in chaotic bloody horror, lncluding supposed staff and Red Cross and UN, etc.

It's really hard to know who to believe even if you try your best; if you're honest what you'll do is say so! And wait until you can get a report about reality rather than arguing one story or another as 'true'.

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 6:02pm

Translated from Arabic by Google:

Dear Ali, the people of Bani Israel are mentioned in the Qur’an, which does not mention the word Palestine. But we were tired of religious texts, except for research on Babatha’s archive. The Jordan Basin was Jewish until the year 70, and throughout the history of this land, its people did not exercise sovereignty except during the time of the Jewish kingdoms. During the time of Islamic rule, Palestine was marginal provinces governed from Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, or Istanbul. Even when Saladin conquered Jerusalem, he did not make it his capital. Palestine as a state was created by the British, and half of the current people of Israel are descended from Jews who lived in Arab countries more than a millennium before Islam. However, history is not a title deed. What matters is the present. The Jews accepted partition, and the Arabs did not accept partition or the existence of Israel until this moment.

l Israel, whenever someone talks about its occupation of Palestine, they only say one word (This is our land that is written for our people in the Torah)!
Zain and the Golan are written for your people in the Torah, you thief?
And the Nubians come to you, the Arab Zionists are drumming after their words.

this exchange:

عزيزي علي، شعب بني اسرائيل مذكور بالقرآن الذي لا يذكر كلمة فلسطين. ولكن عيفنا من النصوص الدينية، سوي بحث حول ارشيف باباثا. حوض الاردن يهود حتى العام ٧٠، وفي كل تاريخ هذه الارض، لم يمارس اهلها السيادة الا في زمن الممالك اليهودية. في زمن الحكم الاسلامي، فلسطين كانت محافظات هامشية… https://t.co/IHZ7NWiM1u
— Hussain Abdul-Hussain (@hahussain) November 11, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 2:16pm

Personallyl I like this:

...However, history is not a title deed. What matters is the present...

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 2:19pm

A veteran approached Senator John Fetterman at the Capitol to ask him about pushing for a ceasefire.

He said, “I think you should be protesting Hamas. Why don’t you do that and do protesting until we get the hostages back.” pic.twitter.com/fzQnOfZDp5
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) November 11, 2023

The left will soon eat itself.

John Fetterman walks past a bunch of Antifa Pro-HAMAS supporters while they are being arrested, and waves an Israeli flag.

I don't care what side you're on about this war, that's funny right there!
pic.twitter.com/jfyjfhqUCW
— Justin Theory (@realJustATheory) November 11, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 3:23pm

this guy would know:

Nobody can dispute the horrific brutality shown by #Hamas on October 7, but the #ISIS label is illogical & unwise.

The 2 groups could not be more different -- global vs. local; apocalyptic vs. territorial; salafi-jihadi vs. political Islamist.

To #ISIS, #Hamas are apostates. https://t.co/PrdCeYrpMd
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) November 11, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 3:35pm

1/ Really the only time Gazans' support for terrorism against Israeli citizens fell (slightly) below 50% was when the IDF withdrew in 2005. Support among Gazans is consistently so high that it's not clear that IDF operations move the needle all that much. You do see some… pic.twitter.com/WHDbS31aKH
— Zach Goldberg (@ZachG932) November 11, 2023

occasional spikes, likely in response to those operations or other actions taken by the government, but, by these data, levels of support ultimately return to their equilibrium point (the 60–70% range).

2/2 By survey month/year if you prefer pic.twitter.com/EliRlWTmGm
— Zach Goldberg (@ZachG932) November 11, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/11/2023 - 7:49pm

ENOUGH ALREADY! ELEPHANT IN ROOM regarding

...those of us who are committed to opposing apartheid and promoting a solution grounded in justice and equality for all....

REALLY FOR ALL? WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE PALESTINIAN WOMEN?

REALLY WHERE ARE THEY? Locked up in the kitchen or what?

How come lefties just continually accept this without saying a word? IT'S DISGUSTING!!!! YOU DON'T SEE IT BECAUSE YOU'RE MALE OR WHAT? I am female, I see it, first thing!!! Always all the time!! Troglodyte culture that I don't want to support!!! No way:

Palestinians protest against Israel in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, October 18, 2023. (Flash90)

SORRY BUT AS A FEMALE I HAVE IMMEDIATE DISLIKE OF THAT CULTURE.

I'D HAVE IMMEDIATE PREJUDICE IN FAVOR OF THIS ONE INSTEAD:because THEY LET FEMALES OUT OF THE HOUSE!

Israelis hold photographs of abducted and missing family members during a protest outside the Knesset, Jerusalem, November 6, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

FUCK YOU LEFTIES SUPPORTING SUCH A BACKWARD CULTURE!!!

ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM, MR. MATAR: Fuck you, including your illustrations. Virtually all EVIDENCE IS PALESTINIANS PRACTICE APARTHEID TOWARDS FEMALES and you don't even say a word about them! As a female I'd go with Israelis anyday until that's mentioned every day.

This is a profoundly important essay by @Ha_Matar. I hope everyone who cares about the people of #Israel/#Palestine read it and digest it.
How October 7 has changed us all — and what it signals for our struggle https://t.co/gZUPNC7iV3 pic.twitter.com/QltHyNH0sh
— Fascists Making Deserts, Calling It Peace (@Shanfaraa) November 12, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/12/2023 - 12:05am

^ and the tweeter! Saying "cares about people' without acknowledging any irony!!! You mean "cares about males". Gives a shit about women, like it's 500 years ago!!!

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/12/2023 - 12:02am

This has gotten a little lost in the discourse shuffle, but American aid to Israel now seems fully stalled due to unrelated partisan controversies and that doesn’t seem to have a substantial impact on Israel’s ability to do whatever they want in Gaza.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 12, 2023

This is a deeper comment than it first appears - think about it for a minute.

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/12/2023 - 4:35pm

Al Arabi:

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Morrocco rejected the draft proposal for an oil ban and banning the US from using the Arabic airspace to deliver arms or bombs to other countries in the region. pic.twitter.com/VPa2mRFEZK
— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) November 11, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/12/2023 - 7:24pm

I hate to see Americans at each others’ throats over a situation that is not our fault, not within our ability to solve, and driven by various non-Americans’ sincerely held and deeply unreasonable preferences and priorities.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 12, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/12/2023 - 7:38pm

this guy really did do a thread of objective coverage of the protests in London Sunday; if you are interested but don't want to sort thru propaganda, check out his thread starting here

I spent my birthday yesterday traipsing about the streets of London recording the events of Remembrance Day and the Palestine March. I witnessed many proceedings first hand.
THREAD.
1. pic.twitter.com/nd5WNu6x5i
— FRANCIS AARON (@FrancisAaronUK) November 12, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/13/2023 - 2:56am

This is utterly bizarre.

This clearly shows a basement in a @WHO-run hospital was being used as a bomb shelter -- but the presence of toilets, showers, diapers & chairs becomes "evidence" of hostage storage.

The "hostage list" at the end is a calendar w. nothing but days/dates. https://t.co/1NFH0yYAwj
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) November 13, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/13/2023 - 7:39pm

Happening now. IDF Spokesperson provides slam dunk evidence of how Hamas has created one of its headquarters underneath Gaza's Rantisi Hospital for Curing Child Cancer, filled it with grenades, suicide vests, arms. In tunnel under hospital IDF found a motorcycle with which they…
— Hussain Abdul-Hussain (@hahussain) November 13, 2023

believed Hamas terrorists transported Israeli hostages from Israel into this tunnel location. IDF also shows how Hamas underground bunker is wired into Rantisi's electricity and other facilities.

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/13/2023 - 7:42pm

A MUST-READ at WaPo; Anderson Cooper just finished interviewing one of the reporters (Joby Warrick)

Breaking news: New evidence reveals that Hamas planners intended to strike a blow of historic proportions on Oct. 7 with the expectation that their actions would compel an overwhelming Israeli response. https://t.co/B3Ss0Q3LLq
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 12, 2023

Hamas envisioned deeper attacks, aiming to provoke an Israeli war

Evidence gleaned since Oct. 7 shows Hamas militants prepared for a ‘second phase’ of assaults amid hopes of inspiring violence in the West Bank and beyond

By Shira Rubin

and

Joby Warrick

Updated November 13, 2023 at 10:16 a.m. EST

TEL AVIV — The first clues came from the bodies of slain militants: maps, drawings, notes, and the weapons and gear they carried.

In Beeri, a kibbutz town overrun by Hamas on Oct. 7, one dead fighter had a notebook with hand-scrawled Quranic verses and orders that read, simply, “Kill as many people and take as many hostages as possible.” Others were equipped with gas canisters, handcuffs and thermobaric grenades designed to instantly turn houses into infernos.

Each was like a piece from a grisly puzzle, a snippet of fine detail from an operation that called for hundreds of discrete crimes in specific locations. Five weeks later, the reassembled fragments are beginning to reveal the contours of Hamas’s broader plan, one that analysts say was intended not just to kill and capture Israelis, but to spark a conflagration that would sweep the region and lead to a wider conflict.

The evidence, described by more than a dozen current and former intelligence and security officials from four Western and Middle Eastern countries, reveals an intention by Hamas planners to strike a blow of historic proportions, in the expectation that the group’s actions would compel an overwhelming Israeli response. Several officials who had not previously spoken about the matter said the intelligence about Hamas’s motivations has become stronger in recent days.

The findings also shed new light on the tactics and methods used by Hamas to deceive Israel’s vaunted intelligence establishment and thwart initial efforts by the Israel Defense Forces to stop the attack. After breaching the Israeli border in some 30 places, Hamas militants staged a mass slaughter of soldiers and civilians in at least 22 Israeli villages, towns and military outposts and then drew Israeli defenders into gun battles that continued for more than a day.

New evidence suggests that they were prepared to go even further. Some militants carried enough food, ammunition and equipment to last several days, officials said, and bore instructions to continue deeper into Israel if the first wave of attacks succeeded, potentially striking larger Israeli cities.

The assault teams managed to penetrate as far as Ofakim, an Israeli town about 15 miles from the Gaza Strip and about half the distance between the enclave and the West Bank. One unit carried reconnaissance information and maps suggesting an intention to continue the assault up to the border of the West Bank, according to two senior Middle Eastern intelligence officials and one former U.S. official with detailed knowledge of the evidence. Hamas had been increasing its outreach to West Bank militants in recent months, although the group says it did not notify its West Bank allies of its Oct. 7 plans in advance.

“If that had occurred, it would have been a huge propaganda win — a symbolic blow not only against Israel, but also against the Palestinian Authority,” the government that exercises partial control in the West Bank, said the former U.S. official who was briefed on evidence collected since the Oct. 7 attack. The former official, like several others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary intelligence findings.

As it happened, even Hamas was surprised by the sweeping nature of its incursion on Oct. 7, according to the group’s public statements as well as assessments shared privately with journalists. But Hamas leaders expected that their assault would yield more than just hostages, current and former intelligence officials said.

A Hamas official, Basem Naim, asserted in an interview Friday that the group planned in advance for a severe Israeli retaliation. He cited recent events, such as Jewish settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank and the storming of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque by settlers, as fueling Palestinian rage.

“We knew there was going to be a violent reaction,” Naim said. “But we didn’t choose this road while having other options. We have no options.”

Hamas meticulously planned and prepared for a massacre of Israeli civilians on a scale that was highly likely to provoke Israel’s government into sending troops into Gaza, analysts said. Indeed, Hamas leaders have publicly expressed a willingness to accept heavy losses — potentially including the deaths of many Gazan civilians living under Hamas rule.

“Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it,” Ghazi Hamad, a member of the Hamas politburo, told Beirut’s LCBI television in an interview aired on Oct. 24. “We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.”

Hamas was willing to accept such sacrifices as the price for kick-starting a new wave of violent Palestinian resistance in the region and scuttling efforts at normalizing relations between Israel and Arab states, according to current and former intelligence officials and counterterrorism experts.

[.....]

the above excerpt is less than half the article

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/13/2023 - 8:24pm

Do they say what the 2nd stage should've been & wat went wrong?

"We'll make a big attack, things will go sideways, and then we win part 2!!!"

"Uh, boss? Did we forget part 2?"

"Dammit, Helmsley - don't interrupt!"

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 11/14/2023 - 2:02am

Opinion by David Ignatius: Israel and Hamas close in on a deal to free dozens of hostages. The Qatari-mediated agreement could include a humanitarian pause in fighting and the release of some Palestinian women and young people from Israeli prisons. https://t.co/9JSRh3kU7u
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 14, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/13/2023 - 8:31pm

A conversation with @AmbDennisRoss, the chief U.S. negotiator in the 2000 peace talks, about why they fell apart, how Israelis came to believe that the Palestinian problem could be managed, and how Oct. 7 exploded that fiction.

New, from @juliaioffe.
— Puck (@PuckNews) October 26, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/13/2023 - 8:46pm

another intriguing related history tidbit:

“Who could contest the rights of the Jews in Palestine? My God, historically it is your country.”

—Yusuf Dia Pasha al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem and member of the Ottoman Parliament, writing to Theodor Herzl, March 1, 1899. pic.twitter.com/pQe2xHkekk
— Free Black Thought (@FreeBlckThought) November 14, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/14/2023 - 9:57pm

Exciting. So Ottomans who occupied Egypt, Levant, part of Arab peninsula and Balkans for 500-700 years get to decide in perpetuity who has land rights in those territories? Arabic people who lived in that Levant territory from say 200AD to 1947 were just unspoken caretakers until their colonizer cleared out and the proper owners returned? I mean, Slavs were late occupiers of the Balkans - shouldn't we be giving Sofia & Belgrade back to their rightful owners too?

I'm more persuaded that there are only 10m in Israel (70% Jewish), and 16m Jews worldwide (half in the US), so that with all the shitty treatment they've gotten, they should be allowed to live somewhere in peace. They migrated peacefully to a territory that's half the size of NYC, rather than invaded, and arguably made pretty good compromise offers to the other occupants, which were rejected by the locals and their religious proxy handlers, who responded with typical brute force that in this case continued to fail.

If I compare this to Russia grabbing Crimea, Sudanese warlords massively executing villagers, the Brits wiping out all aborigines in Tasmania with an armed cordon crossing the island, Genghis Khan sweeping away all the lands of the Silk Road or Franco repressing Catalonians for 40 years, empire games of chess under the Habsburgs for several centuries, and hundreds of other historical events, atrocities, injustices, migrations, and various travails, the microlens on Palestine with Israel seems quite bizarre. Celts occupied central Europe, then Galicia in NW Spain, then Ireland and Scotland. How many parallel situations happened during their journey from wherever they came from til now?

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 11/14/2023 - 10:56pm

Take Taj Mahal, that symbol of India

The Mughal Empire is conventionally said to have been founded in 1526 by Babur, a chieftain from what is today Uzbekistan, who employed aid from the neighboring Safavid and Ottoman Empires,[13] to defeat the Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi, in the First Battle of Panipat, and to sweep down the plains of North India. The Mughal imperial structure, however, is sometimes dated to 1600, to the rule of Babur's grandson, Akbar.[14] This imperial structure lasted until 1720, until shortly after the death of the last major emperor, Aurangzeb,[15][16] during whose reign the empire also achieved its maximum geographical extent. Reduced subsequently to the region in and around Old Delhi by 1760, the empire was formally dissolved by the British Raj after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Although the Mughal Empire was created and sustained by military warfare,[17][18][19] it did not vigorously suppress the cultures and peoples it came to rule; rather it equalized and placated them through new administrative practices,[20][21] and diverse ruling elites, leading to more efficient, centralised, and standardized rule.[22] The base of the empire's collective wealth was agricultural taxes, instituted by the third Mughal emperor, Akbar.[23][24] These taxes, which amounted to well over half the output of a peasant cultivator,[25] were paid in the well-regulated silver currency,[22] and caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets.[26]

The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India's economic expansion.[27] The burgeoning European presence in the Indian Ocean and an increasing demand for Indian raw and finished products generated much wealth for the Mughal court.[28] There was more conspicuous consumption among the Mughal elite,[29] resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture, especially during the reign of Shah Jahan.[30] Among the Mughal UNESCO World Heritage Sites in South Asia are: Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Red Fort, Humayun's Tomb, Lahore Fort, Shalamar Gardens, and the Taj Mahal, which is described as "the jewel of Muslim art in India, and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage."[31]

Yet India is mainly Hindu, Muslims are a minority, but have a Muslim majority country nexxlt door in Pakistan after millions of people died in giving up land for the transfer, and of course the British colonizer (long after the Dutch colonizer) tried to cut it all up properly on its exit after a few hundred years. Sure, they'll continue to fight over Punjab and Kashmir and 7km high mountain ridges - what can you do?

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 11/14/2023 - 11:09pm

ah the "two-state solution" of 1947. It went so swimmingly that wikipedia has an estimate of "Deaths: 200,000–2 million"; their entry goes on and on and on.There's still a lot of real loud haters on either side, and I hear here and there that P.M. Modi is certainly not a lot of help in that regard.The lesson? There's not always what one should really call a "solution", just some status quo is better than others?

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/15/2023 - 6:01am

Yep, I note the millions dead, which was obvious in th Gandhi movie, and yeah, Bibi & Modi seem to be cast from the same hate cloth, or maybe I'm being unfair to Bibi here, since Modi's Hi did atiinalism is perhaps even more unhinged and unfair, if that's possible.

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 11/15/2023 - 1:28pm

U.S. Says Hamas Operates Out of Gaza Hospitals, Endorsing Israel’s Allegations

John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said that intelligence from U.S.-generated sources supported Israel’s claim that Hamas has tunnels under Al-Shifa and other hospitals.

By Michael D. Shear @NYTimes.com, reporting from Washington.Updated Nov. 15, 2023, 5:55 a.m. ET

The United States has intelligence that shows that Hamas has been using hospitals in Gaza, including Al-Shifa, as command centers and ammunitions depots, a spokesman for the National Security Council said on Tuesday.

John Kirby, the spokesman, said that the intelligence, gathered from American-generated sources, supported Israel’s allegation that Hamas has been operating out of hospitals, which Mr. Kirby said amounted to a war crime.

Mr. Kirby declined to provide details about the U.S. intelligence, but he made clear that it goes beyond the information collected by the Israeli intelligence service. “It comes from a variety of intelligence methods — of our own, of our own,” he said, adding that the classification of the intelligence had been downgraded so that it could be shared publicly.

“I can confirm for you that we have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al-Shifa, and tunnels underneath them, to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages,” Mr. Kirby told reporters on Air Force One as President Biden headed to San Francisco for a summit with Asia-Pacific leaders.

“Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad — J.I.D. — members operate a command and control node from Al-Shifa in Gaza City,” he added. “They have stored weapons there, and they’re prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.”

The revelation of the U.S. intelligence comes as Israel is under harsh international criticism for attacks on and around hospitals as it conducts a war against Hamas in the wake of the armed group’s terrorist attacks on Israel on Oct. 7. Israel says more than 1,200 people were killed in the attacks and that 239 others remain hostages.

During Israel’s ensuing military campaign to eradicate Hamas, it has repeatedly said that its military seeks to avoid casualties among civilians, including patients and doctors at hospitals. But they have insisted that Hamas uses such people as human shields.

Mr. Kirby said that the United States does not support attacks from the air on hospitals, despite what he said was the confirmed use of the facilities by Hamas.

“We do not support striking a hospital from the air,” he said. “And we do not want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve, not to be caught in a crossfire. Hospitals and patients must be protected.”

He called that concern an “added burden” for Israel in its military campaign against Hamas.

Palestinian officials and doctors at Al-Shifa have denied that the hospital has been used by Hamas. But Mr. Kirby said that the newly revealed U.S. intelligence supported Israel’s arguments as its military closed in on the hospital.

“We have information that confirms that Hamas is using that particular hospital for a command and control node and probably storage of equipment weapons up underneath,” he said. “That is a war crime.”

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/15/2023 - 5:32am

^ so you don't have to believe the Israeli gummint on this; you either believe the Biden admin. or you don't

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/15/2023 - 5:35am

Biden remains the adult in the room, despite the "he's sleepy Joe" bullshit.

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 11/15/2023 - 5:41am

Highly complicated to then weed out Hamas without then harming civilians, while *not* taking care of Hamas this time is no longer an option, so it's gonna be sucky casualty-wise, PR-wise, et al.
"Hey, we just pulled a brutal inhumane sneak attack on you with civilian murders & kidnappings, but *THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!*"

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 11/15/2023 - 5:40am

It's pretty bad:

Following our statement this morning, the BBC broadcast an apology at 09:50. They were right to do so, but we will be following this up at the highest levels of the Corporation. This sort of misreporting is unacceptable from our national broadcaster. pic.twitter.com/is7kuEBiEM
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) November 15, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/15/2023 - 10:46am

We aren’t talking about Israel. We’re talking about a bunch of Americans falling for the propaganda of one of the most vile terrorists that ever existed.

And if you think all this shit is happening organically, you’re completely clueless about how any of this works. https://t.co/vyfJ4ovqQA
— Angry Staffer (@Angry_Staffer) November 16, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/16/2023 - 2:39pm

Interesting findings from a poll of Palestinian opinion. https://t.co/SFg8iZ0niK pic.twitter.com/EiP3zW4iud
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 16, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/17/2023 - 1:29am

As I was saying to someone, Palestinian Christians are not only significantly less likely to support terrorism against Israeli civilians, but they are also significantly more likely to support negotiations (over violence) and various peace arrangements. https://t.co/V0dcyx54Aj pic.twitter.com/9rq3orwneb
— Zach Goldberg (@ZachG932) November 16, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/17/2023 - 1:38am

Good to see Palestinians haven't lost their optimism ;-)

I suspect the Zionist movement gave Palestinians more of a unified feeling than uneventful life for centuries under the Caliph. Would they have been like the Greeks and fought for independence? Or were they just part of the Ottoman Empire, & that was it?

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 11/18/2023 - 6:20am

A century of conflict, tens of thousands killed, four failing states -- Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran -- and three economies in free fall. All of this is to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea and create an independent Palestine. The date of the creation of Palestine is…
— Hussain Abdul-Hussain (@hahussain) November 17, 2023

continuarion of the above:

unknown, the conflict is open-ended. Palestine is not a goal, it's a death cult.

Even if Palestine is created, nothing in all of the history of Palestinians suggests that they know how to create and manage a scouts club, let alone a state. Palestine will be another mess, like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq or Gaza.
Enough is enough! The Arabs and Iranians have paid a heavy price for a failing lifestyle called Palestine.

As Arab, I say that we MUST lose and surrender, soonest. Successful nations are the ones who know when to lose and when to win. Japan became closest allies with America that struck it with two atomic bombs. Japan hosts US military bases (occupation?) until today. So did Germany, Italy, and South Korea. People die to live in these countries that lost, surrendered, conceded, and became best friends with their past enemies.

Enough is enough! Hamas should surrender. The Palestinian Authority should be disbanded, all its leaders should retire. Erdogan should told that 30 years in power has gotten to his head, made him crazy. Qatar's insecurity of "look at me," promoting death and destruction, should come to its end. Iran mullahs should go back to mosques, lead the believers in prayers only, and let Iranians who know how to run governments take over and put an end to a regime that's delusional, messianic, and crazy.

Palestinians should settle for local councils of self government, at most, and enjoy having Israel offer them a great economy to benefit from and a good infrastructure. Gaza only lost electricity 40 days ago. Wealthy Baghdad spent its sweltering summer without electricity. Impoverished Lebanon produced 13 percent of its electricity need at best, and that's only thanks to Iraqi oil gifts.

Enough is enough! Enough with Palestine! Enough indigenous! Enough with imagined colonialism! Live and let live. Make immediate and unconditional peace with Israel now, and by now I mean yesterday.

This is my city Homs in the middle of Syria, and that’s what’s the Syrian government, Russia, and Iran did to it.
No rage no ceasefire no intifada for Homs… pic.twitter.com/CPcMofYTnD
— Asaad Sam Hanna (@AsaadHannaa) November 17, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/17/2023 - 6:56pm

Good reply to the first:in that it helps one stop buying into their framing:

If they surrender, they can have their damn ceasefire . Although, what happen to the martyrdom promotion ? No more buyers ?
— miha schwartzenberg (@miradulescu) November 17, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/17/2023 - 7:01pm

Peak Erdogan, telling German media in Berlin right next to Scholz that Turkey hasn’t partaken in holocaust and it isn’t indebted to Israel, so he could freely speak about the Gaza atrocities pic.twitter.com/MQ6O1LHbpq
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) November 17, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/17/2023 - 7:12pm

On rapes by Hamas on Oct. 7

pic.twitter.com/WOD2xM6nJg
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 17, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/17/2023 - 7:48pm

Retweeted by Bill Kristol:

The history of the conflict in 5 tweets.

The Jews said "yes" to every state they were ever offered. The Palestinians said "no" to every state they were offered because the Jews still would still have a state.

The result is that Israel exists, and Palestine does not.
— Adam Fisher (@AdamRFisher) November 17, 2023

Israel gave citizenship to every Jewish refugee from the Islamic, African and communist worlds. Arab states (ex Jordan) didn't give Palestinians citizenship.

The result is that great-grandchildren of Palestinian refugees are still "refugees", but not those of Jewish refugees.
— Adam Fisher (@AdamRFisher) November 17, 2023

Israel allied itself with Western democratic, free societies. Palestinians chose to ally with the closed, authoritarian societies like the Soviet Union and Iran.

The result is that Israel is a thriving, multi-cultural society, while Palestine is intolerant, poor and repressed.
— Adam Fisher (@AdamRFisher) November 17, 2023

Israel respects individual rights and protects its critics. Palestine does not allow for divergent views or opposition.

The result is that Israel is a boisterous society with its flaws exposed from within, while in Palestine the opposition is silenced and the crimes hidden.
— Adam Fisher (@AdamRFisher) November 17, 2023

Israel invests in defense & protects its citizens, while Palestine invests in victimhood & caters to world opinion.

The result is that although Israelis were victims on Oct 7, they refuse to stay victims, while Palestinians were perpetrators on Oct 7 yet insist they are victims.
— Adam Fisher (@AdamRFisher) November 17, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/17/2023 - 8:22pm

A.O.C.:

Today we are announcing an expanded coalition of 24 members of Congress pressing the Biden administration for a bilateral ceasefire in Gaza on the basis of grave violations of children’s rights.

Proud to co-lead with partners @BettyMcCollum04 and @RepMarkPocan. pic.twitter.com/dykqZuaNrW
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) November 15, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/17/2023 - 11:10pm

For the second time, Hamas transmits a video of one of their hostages, followed by images of their grisly death, as a form of psychological taunt.

This time a frail, old man who clearly required medical care. Imagine being his grandchild and seeing this. https://t.co/V0A1K753Mf
— Antonio García Martínez (agm.eth) (@antoniogm) November 17, 2023

The first time was a young solder, who looked like she'd been beaten to death.

Ceasefire, huh? Tearing down posters, yeah?https://t.co/RDuSiRl58U
— Antonio García Martínez (agm.eth) (@antoniogm) November 17, 2023

What's fascinating is that while the Communists and Nazis hid their barbarous crimes--the camps and gulags were studiously hidden and expunged from media--Islamic terror simply livestreams it all for marketing reasons.

And yet the Western left takes that side all the same.
— Antonio García Martínez (agm.eth) (@antoniogm) November 17, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/18/2023 - 1:07am

Are you ready to disrupt business as usual? No celebrating in peace while genocide takes place!

On Black Friday 11/24, people around the world will boycott, disrupt, & rally at commercial centers to #ShutItDown4Palestine

Register your action at… pic.twitter.com/eUIcO47EMw
— The People's Forum (@PeoplesForumNYC) November 18, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/18/2023 - 9:31am

Israelis want to form a broad regional front against Iran without making any political concessions on the Palestinian issue while persuading some international force tbd to somehow take over and run Gaza.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://t.co/K7IZ3gBDNj
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 18, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/18/2023 - 4:42pm

"...Israel is the state doing the indiscriminate killing.."; we "along with all peace-loving nations"?!!!

A Victimhood Oympics speech where she doesn't represent the elected Hamas (somebody forced that on them?) Who started this latest war again on Oct. 7?

Every minute of this epic @UN address from @Palestine_UN is worth watching. She dismantles Israel's lies and disinformation, sets out what Palestine stands for, and why it will succeed. Watch and Share!#Gaza_War #Gaza_Genocide pic.twitter.com/1DTPs8UFot
— Ousman Noor (@ousmannoor) November 18, 2023

BTW, if she were in Gaza, no way she'd have any power at all, much less reading a sassy speech, would have a head scarf covering that hair, and keep her eyes down where they belong

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/18/2023 - 11:29pm

great point

It’s unfortunate that colonial powers carved up Western Europe with arbitrary borders that don’t respect linguistic or cultural realities, saddling the continent with unworkable states like Belgium and intractable disputes in places like Tyrol.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 19, 2023

Matter of fact, heard tell, circa 1848-1920, a lot of people got fed up, gave up, some even left property behind,and immigrated to the U.S.

(I still haven't figured out where and what Ruthenia/Ruthenian was that my grandma told Ellis Island was her ethnicity. Especially since her later husband came from the same small town and was proudly Polish. Btw, she never learned English and spoke only Polish and neither was a country, they both were citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Who cares?)

by artappraiser on Sat, 11/18/2023 - 11:56pm

same here

You don't hear so much about Moabites anymore. pic.twitter.com/AvlTmEcNFs
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 18, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/19/2023 - 12:57am

Jordan’s reaction to the October 7 massacre and kidnapping of Israelis, Americans and foreigners has been completely unhinged. Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safad sounds like Khamenei; Queen Rania seems to forget that her father-in-law massacred Palestinians during Black…
— Mark Dubowitz (@mdubowitz) November 18, 2023

September in 1970 when they tried to bring down his kingdom. And King Abdullah II puts his father’s memory to shame with his lack of leadership and his incitement to violence.

They all need a reminder that their kingdom would have fallen many times without Israeli assistance. And that if Jordan were a democracy instead of an authoritarian regime, Jordan would be a Palestinian state.

Jordanian hypocrisy is almost at the level of Qatar’s.

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/19/2023 - 2:59am

TransJordan

by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 11/19/2023 - 6:28am

An Israeli police investigation has found that an IDF helicopter firing at Hamas fighters at the desert rave site also hit civilians, Haaretz reports. There is also a "growing assessment" that Hamas didn't know about the desert rave in advance: https://t.co/UyvWi1XJgG
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) November 18, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/19/2023 - 3:02am

Anarchists redecorated a Bank of America & a Chase Private Client (which caters to the rich) this week in Brooklyn in solidarity with movements to #FreePalestine & #StopCopCity. They also chained the doors, stuffed locks with putty, & glued card readers. [pics via a comrade] pic.twitter.com/Zb592M9W2a
— Ash J (@AshAgony) November 18, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/19/2023 - 3:15am

They overturned lattés in the market as Jesus would've done.

by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 11/19/2023 - 6:30am

Performative? One need not sanction Israel/Hamas War tactics to note absurdity of his claim: Syria: 150k civilians killed; Yemen: 150k killed; Afghanistan: 30k killed ; Ethiopia 150k; Congo: Many tens of thousands killed. defeat of ISIS at Mosul: At least 10k civilians killed https://t.co/IEcNdbjfjB
— Michael Powell (@powellAtlantic) November 20, 2023

This is an incredibly false statement by any account. I wish the Secretary General had been as vocal about Yemen, Ukraine, the treatment of Uyghurs in China, Sudan, etc. https://t.co/slTWYvkeIO
— Benjamin Haddad (@benjaminhaddad) November 20, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/20/2023 - 8:23pm

I largely agree, but in Mosul the alliance was painstaking over months in avoiding civilian deaths - would've gone a lot lot faster if they just hadn't cared and blasted city blocks.

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 11/20/2023 - 11:59pm

"Cardi B Turns Her Back On Biden Over Aid To Ukraine, Israel"

Cuz all wars cost the same. Ukraine support has been $78bill, Israeli may rise to $18bill including usual $4b annual. Iraq War cost in 2008 only was $780bill, which is $1.1trillion in 2023 dollars. Cleanup of ISIS damage and booby traps in Mosul was over $50bill - no estimate of the actual cost of the 9 month urban warfare operation.

But snowflakes never adjust costs with changes in reality. I bet Cardi spends $100m on yearly makeup alone. Acknowledgment of the near miracle that Ukraine has survived this onslaught for 20 months from nuclear/mega power Russia is not in her limited vocabulary.

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 11/21/2023 - 12:52am

Jeff Merkley calls for a ceasefire, by which he means Hamas releases hostages and surrenders at weapons at which point Israel will stop attacking.

[I think this is probably in line with an apolitical normie view of what “ceasefire” means] pic.twitter.com/kfYFERh5Q5
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 20, 2023

That's me, "apolitical normie", and it's true that I'd be happy with that if that's what "ceasefire' means. Because I'm also very pro-western and very very anti-Islamic terrorism, and I'd like to see Hamas publicly surrender,

or else NYC or similar will be next.

I don't think it's stressed enough what it means to terrorists everywhere if Hamas is seen to have a successful op on Oct.7 in any way, shape or form.

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/20/2023 - 8:38pm

Some thoughts after attending today's 47-minute screening of Hamas's atrocities on Oct 7 at the @UN, following a searing speech from @MosabHasanYOSEF - son of one of the co-founders of Hamas. pic.twitter.com/uTvFE39nbC
— Jonathan Harounoff (@JonathanHaroun1) November 21, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/21/2023 - 9:53am

Hamas documented genocide and ethnic cleansing can't be compared to the civilian causalities resulting from a lawful war in self-defense. Israel's war objective has not been to get even with Palestinians for committing and justifying ethnic cleansing against its southern border…
— Mosab Hassan Yousef (@MosabHasanYOSEF) November 21, 2023

communities. If it was "eye for an eye", Israel could have wiped Gaza off the map. Just like the U.S wiped out Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the Japanese savage attack on Pearl Harbor. When a society reaches a moral rock bottom validating savage ideologies, the use of lethal force becomes a necessity to restore order. Dropping dirty bombs in certain situations could be the only way to end the war.

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/21/2023 - 9:58am

It is estimated that the Soviets killed around 125,000 Berlin civilians and 95,000 Nazi soldiers, with 220,000 Nazi soldiers wounded, in order to take Berlin and win. This included those who died from the shelling and bombing of the city, as well as those who were killed by the… pic.twitter.com/ccbHNOxpLH
— SHELLY JACOBS (@SHELLYJACOBS) November 1, 2023

Soviet troops during the street fighting and the subsequent occupation. Some sources suggest that the number of civilian deaths may have been higher, ranging from 150,000 to 200,000.

Such deaths were the price the Germans paid in Berlin alone when the Soviets defeated them to remove them as a threat. 78 years later no different is the destruction of safe haven Gaza by the Israelis who do not wish to be killed by the terrorists nor the 17,500+ missiles & rockets that have been thus far fired upon Israel, same as the Soviets no longer wished to be killed by the Nazis.

BERLIN

That’s war. Most Americans haven’t had to live in a war zone and have unrealistic expectations. But war is a brutal and chaotic business. Sadly there will always be some civilian deaths as collateral damage.
— Petra Meyer (@petrameyerx) November 21, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/21/2023 - 10:03am

Israel is the first western democracy in history to have suffered a massive terror attack

and to have western media fighting on the side of the terrorists.

I am not sure how these journalists can sleep at night.
— David Collier (@mishtal) November 19, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/21/2023 - 10:57am

Cognitive dissonance because of narrative where Israel plays the evil bad guy oppressor and Hamas is the valiant good guy fighting for the victiimized Palestinian people:

While the replies to the tweets with the evidence of the tunnels are filled with deranged conspiracy theorists in denial, the people I follow who were laughing at the mere idea that Hamas was in the hospital sure seem to have gone quiet. Maybe they’re all busy with other things.
— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) November 22, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/22/2023 - 7:55pm

Cuba is the only country in the world where the President leads a march past the US embassy with thousands of people in solidarity with Palestine while shouting support for the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Cuba & Palestine are united in their courage to confront the empire! pic.twitter.com/CmpbijHsAv
— Manolo De Los Santos (@manolo_realengo) November 24, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/24/2023 - 5:10am

Palestinian refugees are returning to their homes in North Gaza. The Nazis failed to crush the Gaza ghetto uprising. They failed to liquidate the population in the Gaza death camp. Meanwhile, the Resistance has won the first battle for the liberation of Palestine. pic.twitter.com/CUxArNB0v7
— Seyed Mohammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) November 24, 2023

You feel helpless upset and don't know what to do about the genocide in Palestine, you are far away and have no power?
Here is what you can do from anywhere in the world .
Hit the Giants where it hurts and show real support . pic.twitter.com/CmtViLeaxz
— A.D (@medusaflower) November 24, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 11/24/2023 - 5:15am

Why they wanna hurt ol Willie Mays? A nice man...

by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 11/24/2023 - 10:15pm

It seems odd that there’s one UN agency for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and their descendants and another UN agency for all other refugees from all other conflicts.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 25, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/26/2023 - 3:11am

She makes one excellent point here, something that drives me nuts, the way a lot of anti-Israel protesters emphasize "occupation of Gaza" and few ever challenge what is a blatant falsehood!!! Really WTF is that all about? True that Israel enforces a blockade BUT THEY LEFT GAZA IN AUGUST 2005! Since then they do not 'occupy' Gaza, end of story!

If anyone is said to 'occupy' Gaza since then, it would be Hamas, no? (Not to mention that since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel and Gaza are at war! Occupation for the loser often does follow war, but the two terms don't mix at the same time.)

Some of these protests are so absurd, they're like made up of people went into a coma in 2000 and just woke up. It's almost Orwellian in a war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength kind of way. It's totally legit to protest this war. Utter nonsense to protest an occupation that doesn't exist!

Base of Manhattan Bridge, yelling at "comrades" blocking the roadway. Am I sorry for coming in all hot? Maybe a little. These folks, despite cockamamie factoids, were way nicer than PDX protesters, incl. a sweet girl who later told me why she feels what she's doing is important pic.twitter.com/z2ZMfsYdU2
— Nancy Rommelmann (@NancyRomm) November 26, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/26/2023 - 5:10pm

After Hamas got caught on tape instructing the hostages to "keep waving" yesterday, today's installment was released with no audio. https://t.co/UNdzPTSrrh
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) November 26, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/26/2023 - 5:20pm

Frustrations of Syrians, Lebanese and Iraqis that they express only behind closed doors:
1- Despite decades of supporting Palestinians, Palestinians always took the side of the dictators killing us (Saddam, Assad, Hezbollah). Throughout history, not a single Palestinian raised a… https://t.co/elV8KTvlac
— Hussain Abdul-Hussain (@hahussain) November 26, 2023

continuation:

Lebanese or other flag, expressed solidarity with these Arab victims. Palestinians expect other Arabs to show human solidarity with them, but they never reciprocate.
2- Even though the numbers of Palestinian victims and displaced in 75 years of conflict with Israel is a fraction of the victims and displaced in each of Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, the world has always focused on Palestinians. Hezbollah assassinated journalist Lokman Slim with a silencer. No one heard about him. Shireen AbuAkleh was killed in a battle zone between Israelis and Palestinians, her death became more famous than JFK’s murder.

and quoting:

I want my mother, I want to see her one last time.

The Syrian child, Ahmed, lost his mother and five siblings after a bombing by Assad’s forces and Russia targeted them after they were working in the olive harvest in the countryside of Idlib, Syria.

All my thoughts are with… pic.twitter.com/k9NRd4XWAO
— Fared Al Mahlool | فريد المحلول (@FARED_ALHOR) November 25, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 11/26/2023 - 5:28pm

Arab crickets over bonesawing a journalist.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactions_to_the_assassination_of_Jamal_...

Then Jared scored a cool $2bill from the Saudi murderer, not a peep from MAGA either.

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 11/27/2023 - 6:46am

I think a lot of mischief has been done by mixing up “anti-Zionism” as a position in pre-war Jewish diaspora politics and “anti-Zionism” meaning calls to eliminate the actually existing state of Israel in 2023. https://t.co/ofcKzFnizr
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 27, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/27/2023 - 5:55pm

AN IMPORTANT REMINDER: OF WHO STARTED THIS -

Wouldn’t a “permanent ceasefire” just be Hamas surrendering? pic.twitter.com/3H3bFPdxAO
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 28, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/28/2023 - 2:46pm

"What Was Hamas Thinking?"

By Tareq Baconi, the president of the board of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network and the author of Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance, NOVEMBER 22, 2023, 9:25 AM

The Oct. 7 attack was the culmination of a strategic shift to challenge the movement’s containment.
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) November 24, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/28/2023 - 4:48pm

^ btw, this is basically addressing the Bibi thing; excerpt:

....Since then, Israel has supported and enabled Hamas to exist as a governing authority while simultaneously demonizing the movement as a terrorist organization, a paradox that enabled the state to justify the collective punishment inherent in the blockade of the Gaza Strip. This was explicitly the chosen strategy of successive governments under Benjamin Netanyahu, who openly spoke about the benefits to Israel of pursuing a “separation policy” between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as a means of undermining prospects for Palestinian statehood.

In the absence of any real diplomatic prospects for Hamas, its choices were either slow strangulation as the governing authority of the Gaza Strip, while Israel became ingratiated with Arab regimes that had all but abandoned the Palestinian cause, or a decisive blow that could fundamentally disrupt the assumption that Palestinians were defeated and subservient and that Israel could maintain its apartheid regime cost-free.

That Hamas opted for the latter suggests that it is behaving strategically and remains committed to the belief that it is playing a long game. By this logic, even if Hamas’s military wing were entirely destroyed or expelled, the movement has already secured a victory in revealing the weakness and fragility of Israel’s military, which can be exploited in the future through a reconstituted Hamas or through another future military formation equally committed to armed resistance as a means of liberation. In other words, the disruption itself becomes a space for alternative possibilities to emerge, whereas, prior to that, there was only the calcified certainty of continued Palestinian oppression....

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/28/2023 - 9:47pm

Yeah, I caught that, good excerpt. Would be nice if boh Bibi & Hamás went awayy, but Ariel Sharon was no joy, Bibi's right wing coalition partner likely is worse, etc. No easy solutions

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 11/29/2023 - 10:28am

#IraniansStandWithIsrael trending, created by anti-ayatollah Iranians

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/28/2023 - 4:59pm

US sends first of three military planes with Gaza aid

Follow our live coverage: https://t.co/wLVAE4mO37
— Dawn.com (@dawn_com) November 28, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/28/2023 - 10:06pm

How should an Arab like me feel when watching people who can’t read a word of Arabic say what Hamas is or is not?
Other than feeling good and trendy, do these supporters of Islamism have any stakes in the Arab world? Have they lost their life savings because of the endless war… https://t.co/4UUSgc6C2B
— Hussain Abdul-Hussain (@hahussain) November 29, 2023

continuation:

to “liberate Palestine?” Were their friends killed by the likes of Hamas and Hezbollah after these friends were accused of treason only because they disagreed with these Islamist militias? Has any one of these people ever met someone from Hamas? Or they imagine Hamas is like them, fighting for women’s rights, correct gendering, LGBTQ rights and liberty? What kind of stupidity are we dealing with here?

quoting this:

Last night the Oakland City Council voted on a resolution to call for a ceasefire.

A city council member tried to insert language condemning Hamas.

This was the reaction… pic.twitter.com/r7aTb2mkrQ
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) November 28, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/29/2023 - 12:44am

Part of the insanity of social media is that if you say "neither Joe Biden nor Bibi Netanyahu are literally committing genocide in the Gaza Strip" that's now like an edgy pro-Israel take. If only my old enemies at AIPAC could see me now. pic.twitter.com/tWdrYC1jgu
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 28, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/29/2023 - 1:36am

One of the biggest and lesser known stories of Nov 29 is that the lands allocated to a Jewish state (two color map) were essentially those the Zionists reclaimed from malaria through land purchase, science and education (blue map).
Moreover, the sudden and extremely rapid… pic.twitter.com/BS8wbZ0Bdw
— Dr. Einat Wilf (@EinatWilf) November 29, 2023

continuation

increase of the Arab population in the 1920’s and 1930’s in this barely populated backwater region (this was the highest population increase rate in the world in 1931/2) was only in part due to immigration spurred by Zionist development of the land. The major share of the massive Arab population increase was thanks to Malaria eradication, which was the work of the Galician born famed microbiologist and ardent Zionist Dr. Israel Kligler (credit to the great historical work of Anton Alexander).
With this knowledge it remains even a greater tragedy that the now much more numerous Arabs of the land directed their efforts towards brutally fighting Zionism rather than choosing to live side by side with an emerging Jewish state.
In the shadow of the Oct 7 massacre we mark once more the Nov 29 moment when the Jews said yes to the UNGA plan of partition (having prioritized having a state, even if tiny and mostly desert and lands reclaimed from malaria and no Zion and no Judea) and the Arabs said no and proceeded to wage a brutal war to the present day (having prioritized - still - the goal of the Jews not having a state at all and of any size).

(Note on map titles: for twenty centuries, before a camoaign of denial was underway, it was well understood that the name “Palestine” merely denoted the geographic region where the Land of Israel was and was therefore deeply associated with Jews and the their continuous connection to the land. Hence the League of Nation in establishing the mandate recognized the “historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine" as the "grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country” and which is why the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra of Jewish musicians became the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra…)

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/29/2023 - 1:56am

Laura Rozen on the latest

New from me: U.S. seeks further extension of Gaza pause to get more hostages out https://t.co/juqqqMTlpm pic.twitter.com/BQ53OXet74
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) November 29, 2023

“If the Americans can help shape the Israeli calculus about what victory means, and make the release of hostages as being the primary success criterion, I think then there is hope,” @rmslim https://t.co/lcUTUMvJjm pic.twitter.com/YXbHxgc5rq
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) November 29, 2023

If the pause expires, & fighting resumes, “You cannot have the sort of scale of displacement that took place in the north replicated in the south,” senior US official. “It can't happen.” https://t.co/lcUTUMvJjm pic.twitter.com/bDs6FiZKCt
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) November 29, 2023

Moran Freibach, the agriculture manager of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, said his kibbutz had gotten 3 of its 5 hostages back, but he is still missing two more being held, including his neighbor and coffee buddy, Tsachi Idan.
“We have got to rebuild,” Freibach said. https://t.co/juqqqMTlpm pic.twitter.com/9CO8wxoT45
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) November 29, 2023

There are still at least eight Israeli children being held as hostages in Gaza, including a ten month old baby, Kfir Bibas, and his four year old brother, Ariel. https://t.co/STh5aB9dLX pic.twitter.com/aDE1aOk155
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) November 29, 2023

heard a colleague recently say after many years covering the white house and state, etc., he’d learned not to listen to the words, so much, sometimes, but other ways they answer.
wondered in this part here if the words hide the meaning. of course it’s leverage. https://t.co/BUyNMJq0K8
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) November 29, 2023

https://t.co/FUmcuWMhgL
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) November 29, 2023

10 months old. hostage for two months https://t.co/fNtaD43a7I
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) November 29, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/29/2023 - 2:59am

As I watch Hamas play cruel games with us — delaying the release of children, blaming their deaths on Israeli actions, breaking agreements, separating families, using hostages for propaganda purposes—I’m reminded of a different set of negotiations that the Jewish people were once…
— Izabella Tabarovsky (@IzaTabaro) November 29, 2023

continuation:

forced to conduct: negotiations with the Nazis over the release of German Jews as part of the Ha’avara agreement & later, negotiations over the rescue of Hungarian Jews.

Those tragic & painful events became fodder for anti-Jewish propaganda both on the extreme left & the extreme right. Soviet propaganda in particular took those stories of excruciating pain & turned them into the story of “Zionist collaboration with the Nazis.” The USSR sold this monstrous lie to the global left & the developing world as part of its campaign to demonize Israel & Zionism.

This lie remains very much alive today. On this platform alone, there are lots of people who have told & retold it to their followers to great applause. This lie forms the basis of Mahmoud Abbas’s Soviet dissertation. It is something that anti-Israel propagandists use all the time.

I’ve written before that what this lie dubbed “collaboration” was simply an effort by Jews to save as many of our people as we could from the genocidal Nazi maniacs who enjoyed every moment of control they had over the Jews & manipulated them cruelly for their own amusement. Soviet propaganda talked breathlessly about meetings between Zionists and Nazis as “proof” of this “collaboration,” as though it is possible to negotiate matters of life & death without talking to your enemy. Soviet propagandists condemned Zionists for breaking the boycott of German goods as though the lives of our people weren’t the most
important thing for us. They packaged the story of Rudolf Israel Kastner — at bottom a tragic story of forced negotiation & decision-making in the fog of war & genocide — to imply a massive & sinister conspiracy by Zionist institutions to destroy Hungarian Jews. Each of those negotiations & decisions was controversial within the Jewish community itself, but Soviet propaganda painted them as premeditated Zionist conspiracy & collaboration with the Nazis in the destruction of the Jewish people.

Today we are once again having to negotiate with Jew-haters for the lives of our loved ones. We are once again having to prioritize which of our people should be freed first, how many can be released & what the psychopaths will get in return — and then having to renegotiate again as they try to squeeze every drop of benefit they can out of us.

We are, of course, in an incomparably stronger position now than we were back then. We have a state. We have an army. We have allies. And yet we are once again having to talk with mass murderers who draw their inspiration from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

If you ever find yourself confused by the lie about “Zionist collaboration with the Nazis” or are tempted for one moment to believe it, all you need to do is think about this moment of us negotiating with Hamas for the release of our people and everything will immediately become clear to you.

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/29/2023 - 11:49pm

BREAKING: Two Israelis killed in attack in Jerusalem, three Palestinian attackers killed by security forces.
— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) November 30, 2023

US Ambassador to Israel Jacob J. Lew on the terror attack in Jerusalem. https://t.co/QEXrMTBh95
— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) November 30, 2023

BREAKING: #Shooting #Terror attack on #Israelis at entrance to #Jerusalem ; One 24 year old woman dead, 8 wounded- 5 seriously, 1 moderately and 2 with minor injuries according to MDA. #terrorattack #terrorists #Jerusalem #isreal #gaza #Israel #Gaza #WestBank pic.twitter.com/CE2Ny75jzA
— Vikas Bailwal (@VikasBailwal4) November 30, 2023

The moment #terroriste open fire in #Jerusalem, 7 injured. According to Magen David #Adom #emergency services: 2 are in critical condition, 5 in serious to mild condition #terrorattack #terrorists #Jerusalem #isreal #gaza #Israel #Gaza #WestBank pic.twitter.com/bZpKWgB3uj
— Vikas Bailwal (@VikasBailwal4) November 30, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/30/2023 - 1:10am

Uh-oh

Hamas has claimed responsibility for a shooting at a Jerusalem bus stop that left at least three people dead and 16 others injured Thursday morning.

Read more: https://t.co/wxrHuyDMZ3
— ABC News (@ABC) November 30, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/30/2023 - 11:54am

They were true terrorists (intent: terrorizing us all) and worse sadistically than any ISIS or Al Qaeda he's seen

I just witnessed ~45 minutes of footage of the October 7th terrorist attack at the @AtlanticCouncil courtesy of @IsraelinUSA along with colleagues from think tanks across the ideological spectrum. What I saw was worse than I’ve ever seen.

Pure evil.

***Trigger Warning***
— Alex Plitsas (@alexplitsas) November 30, 2023

Recommended.long thread. Note he is Tech Exec, @SOAAorg Board, @AtlanticCouncil | Fmr: Army, Pentagon, IC, Bridgewater, Northrop Grumman | Iraq & Afghanistan | American & Johns Hopkins | and that the clips are done by the terrorists, not by Israel.

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/01/2023 - 2:19am

More shocking news:
Water is wet and mountains are big. pic.twitter.com/hxu7wcdWzM
— Carl (@HistoryBoomer) December 1, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/01/2023 - 3:17pm

The price of integrating settler terrorists into the IDF:

Left: Doron Kastlemen, heroically neutralized two terrorists in Jerusalem attack.

Right: Aviad Farij, a settler terrorist Hilltop Youth, integrated into the IDF murdered Doron thinking he was Palestinian. >> pic.twitter.com/FcIkmJTRTU
— @benzi.bsky.social (@BenzionSanders) December 1, 2023

(ALWAYS more than good to work on getting rid of the bad apples!)

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/01/2023 - 3:51pm

Haaretz's Amos Harel reports that, behind the scenes, almost every Arab leader is urging Israel not to stop the war until Hamas is destroyed https://t.co/V4LHO2qpJZ pic.twitter.com/6FDbmvykyG
— Zach Goldberg (@ZachG932) December 1, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/01/2023 - 4:46pm

For the first time in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the head of an Arab party in Israel calls on all Palestinian factions to lay down their weapons and unite for an unarmed political struggle.

This is quite remarkable.
pic.twitter.com/6UyQZYMSOQ
— Etan Nechin (@Etanetan23) December 1, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/01/2023 - 11:33pm

The Scope of Hamas' Campaign of Rape Against Israeli Women Is Revealed, Testimony After Testimony

The aggregation of evidence collected by Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy and her Civil Commission presents a horrifying picture that leaves no room for doubt: On October 7, Hamas terrorists… pic.twitter.com/PgGupa4Qie
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) December 1, 2023

continuation:

systematically carried out acts of rape and sexual abuse.

She has discovered, however, that there is no rush to acknowledge this abroad.

Gift Link: https://haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-30/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/hamas-campaign-of-rape-against-israeli-women-is-revealed-testimony-after-testimony/0000018c-2144-da36-a1de-6767dac90000?gift=3e0129a5003a4d8999a5ab9bda0b02ed

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/01/2023 - 11:37pm

In 1978, a 28-year-old Israeli named Benjamin Nitay — now Benjamin Netanyahu — discussed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the West Bank, a Palestinian State, and human rights, on a local Boston tv show. pic.twitter.com/Co2bq8llka
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) December 2, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 12/02/2023 - 12:04am

Wow, that was a youngish Fouad Ajami representing the pro-Palestinian state side, decades before he supported the Iraq War that he thought would liberate the Arab world. pic.twitter.com/jANjDB5bVv
— Miss Information (@Ms_Informatian) December 2, 2023

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 12/02/2023 - 3:01am

Interesting, thank you for catching that!

by artappraiser on Sat, 12/02/2023 - 12:30pm

I wish the media would emphasize this level of clarity of the U.S. position:

Yes! Why don't you ask Hamas to do anything?
What is that? pic.twitter.com/9pjMTvNNlA
— Im Tirtzu (@IMTIzionism) November 29, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 12/02/2023 - 2:11pm

whether altered or not, or accurately presented, here's a useful reminder of who funds Al Jazeera:

A telling clip from Qatar-funded Al Jazeera. A reporter asks a resident of Gaza about the “massacres”; the local responds that God will punish Qatar & Turkey for their disastrous support of Hamas. The reporter immediately cuts him off…

h/t @kaisos1987

pic.twitter.com/9eVoIls07e
— Dror Poleg (@drorpoleg) December 2, 2023

A journalist from Al Jazeera asks a Gazan:

"What's happening in #Gaza?

The Gazan replies by cursing #Qatar

The journalist quickly stops him and pushes him away #Hamas_is_ISIS pic.twitter.com/wOWfVrCyT8
— Zechariah Shar'abi | זכריה | زكريا (@ZechariahSharab) December 2, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 12/02/2023 - 2:22pm

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 12/02/2023 - 4:07pm

Oakland settles the Zionist score

https://twitter.com/jayjay827/status/1729696122845687875/mediaViewer

And in Georgia...

Protesting the funeral of the former First Lady whose husband brokered a historic peace plan in the Middle East.

That's the level of ignorant, lowlife scum we're dealing with here. https://t.co/Frxp90G9uF
— the airing of grievances (@MissesDread) November 28, 2023

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 12/02/2023 - 4:08pm

Israeli-owned Ship Attacked by Missiles in Red Sea; Yemen's Houthis Claim Responsibility

"The two ships were targeted after rejecting warnings from the Yemeni naval forces.

The Yemeni armed forces continues to prevent Israeli ships from navigating in the Red and Arab Seas until… pic.twitter.com/Vqu3l7zdME
— Sean Campbell (@scampbellfilms) December 3, 2023

Continuation:

the Israeli aggression against our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip stops." says Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree

“We’re aware of reports regarding attacks on the USS Carney and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and will provide information as it becomes available,” the Pentagon told The Associated Press.

JUST NOW: In the Red Sea, there has been an attack targeting the USS Carney, an American warship, as well as several commercial ships.

This comes after more than 70 attacks on U.S. Troops and bases.

Our enemies smell weakness and they are responding. pic.twitter.com/6qPKwnsoou
— Wesley Hunt (@WesleyHuntTX) December 3, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 12/03/2023 - 1:58pm

In the News

Russia plays weak hand in Palestine
Russia plays weak hand in Palestine

submitted by PeraclesPlease 8 months ago

The intra-Palestinian meeting in Moscow has precedent

Russia's hosted such meetings in the past, most recently Feb 2019

Russia has long lamented the US' "monopolization" of the peace process & tried to carve out a niche for itself: mediating among the disunited Palestinians/2
— Hanna Notte (@HannaNotte) February 29, 2024

Read the article at https://twitter.com/HannaNotte/status/1763116222256701787

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Mother Jones is Reaching out to Alternative Party Voters
Mother Jones is Reaching out to Alternative Party Voters

submitted by HSG 9 months ago

Here's what I told them: https://halginsberg.com/vote-for-jill-stein-again/

Read the article at https://halginsberg.com/vote-for-jill-stein-again/

2 comments

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Controversial Brazil law curbing Indigenous rights comes...
Controversial Brazil law curbing Indigenous rights comes into force

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

Controversial Brazil law curbing Indigenous rights comes into force https://t.co/pCoDg05irX
— Gareth Harris (@garethharr) December 28, 2023

Read the article at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/28/brazil-law-indigenous-land-rights-claim-time-marker?CMP=share_btn_tw

1 comment

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Security Alert: U.S. Embassy Port-au-Prince, Haiti (...
Security Alert: U.S. Embassy Port-au-Prince, Haiti (December 25, 2023)

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

Location: U.S. Embassy and residential compounds

Events: Heavy gunfire is occuring around the area of the U.S. Embassy and residential compounds adjacent to the Trutier area of Tabarre. All Embassy personnel have been instructed to remain indoors and shelter-in-place until further notice. All others should avoid the area.

Actions to take:

Avoid the area;

Avoid demonstrations and any large gatherings of people;

Do not attempt to drive through roadblocks; and

If you encounter a roadblock, turn around and get to a safe area.

Read the article at https://ht.usembassy.gov/security-alert-u-s-embassy-port-au-prince-haiti-december-25-2023/

3 comments

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Pakistan Is Creating the World’s Next Refugee Crisis
Pakistan Is Creating the World’s Next Refugee Crisis

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

By The Editorial Board @ Bloomberg.com, December 8, 2023

A mass expulsion of Afghan migrants could destabilize the region and fuel radicalization. The West should pressure Islamabad to change course.

Read the article at https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-12-08/pakistan-s-expulsion-of-afghan-refugees-risks-another-crisis

6 comments

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Internet shut down in Chad
Internet shut down in Chad

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

All eyes on #Chad right now
Chad has two internet trunks coming into the country: One from the Red Sea via Sudan; the other from Cameroon. Not possible for the totality of the country's internet network to be shut unless done centrally. A lot of rumors swirling; few facts. https://t.co/N6bDJZ2ixO

Read the article at https://x.com/_hudsonc/status/1732891968709992511?s=20

2 comments

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[Economy] where Joe's success falls short
[Economy] where Joe's success falls short

submitted by PeraclesPlease 11 months ago

Read the article at

3 comments

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[CRIME News] 3 loss-prevention employees in Macy’s across...
[CRIME News] 3 loss-prevention employees in Macy’s across the street from Philadelphia City Hall stabbed

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

BREAKING: Three loss prevention employees in Macy’s across the street from Philadelphia City Hall stabbed, one of them has died from stab wounds, @PhillyPolice sources tell me. Police converged on the store as the three workers were rushed to Jefferson Hospital. pic.twitter.com/4U1eKycL4W

Read the article at https://x.com/KeeleyFox29/status/1731713272942940365?s=20

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Former U.S. Ambassador Arrested, Charged With Working As...
Former U.S. Ambassador Arrested, Charged With Working As Secret Agent For Cuba

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

Former US Ambassador Arrested, Charged With Working As Secret Agent For Cuba https://t.co/LDwo4ZJI1K
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) December 4, 2023

Read the article at https://www.huffpost.com/entry/manuel-rocha-ambassador-arrested-cuba_n_656d1e2ae4b028b0f3d07478

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[War in Israel, Chapter II] UNRWA under scrutiny
[War in Israel, Chapter II] UNRWA under scrutiny

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

[Chapter I news is HERE, Oct. 7 til today]

You don’t get it.
It’s not about an UNRWA teacher who held an Israeli kid hostage in his house.
It’s all about how for 75 years you have destroyed the future of generations of Palestinians, including my family.
My cousins in Arab countries are still not citizens - not even the… https://t.co/nv6anubGhc
— George Deek (@GeorgeDeek) December 2, 2023

Note 'Community Notes' attached to UNWRA's statement.

Read the article at https://x.com/GeorgeDeek/status/1731020551328579863?s=20

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Maduro, Under Pressure, Holds Vote to Annex Territory From...
Maduro, Under Pressure, Holds Vote to Annex Territory From a Neighbor

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

Imperialism for me but not for thee?

It's wild that Venezuela is now holding a vote on whether 2/3 of Guyana actually belongs to them! Analysts suggest that Modoru may want military action to pump up his sinking popularity.

Could we have a war in South America?!?

"The people who live in Essequibo are largely… pic.twitter.com/QvMEjkkgwy

Read the article at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/03/world/americas/maduro-vote-essequibo-guyana.html

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[Where is the GOP headed?] Divisions leave Florida’s House...
[Where is the GOP headed?] Divisions leave Florida’s House Republicans powerless

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

The lack of a cohesive delegation has allowed attention-seeking lawmakers to act on their own.

McCarthy: “You have [Rep. Matt] Gaetz, who belongs in jail…”

Gaetz: “Tough words from a guy who sucker punches people in the back. The only assault I committed was against Kevin’s fragile ego.”https://t.co/LctPuz6Pcf

Read the article at https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/29/divisions-leave-floridas-house-republicans-powerless-00129200

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‘She got so mad at me’: book on the ‘Squad’ details AOC-...
‘She got so mad at me’: book on the ‘Squad’ details AOC-Pelosi clashes

submitted by artappraiser 12 months ago

By Martinn Pengelly in Washington DC for TheGuardian.com, Nov. 30

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells Ryan Grim life in Congress ‘completely transformed’ after Democratic leader stepped down

Read the article at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/30/squad-book-aoc-nancy-pelosi?CMP=share_btn_tw

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US health insurers Humana, Cigna in talks to merge -source
US health insurers Humana, Cigna in talks to merge -source

submitted by artappraiser 12 months ago

@ Reuters, Nov. 29

Read the article at https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/us-health-insurers-humana-cigna-talks-merge-wsj-2023-11-29/

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Central Africa’s dinosaur regimes and the art of coup-...
Central Africa’s dinosaur regimes and the art of coup-proofing

submitted by artappraiser 12 months ago

"Both the AU and the intl community place more weight on whether elections are held than whether they are free and fair. Sanctions/expulsions occur when there is a coup but not necessarily when elections are rigged or if an “institutional coup” occurs." https://t.co/m9dNimJP0D
— Cameron Hudson (@_hudsonc) November 28, 2023

Read the article at https://africanarguments.org/2023/11/central-africas-dinosaur-regimes-and-the-art-of-coup-proofing/

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