#^d 2023-12-10
#^h Speaking of Which
Woke up yesterday thinking of an introduction I might write in
lieu of gathering links, a task I really don't have time for this
week. But I gathered a few links instead. So I'm barely going to
hint at an introduction here. Some of that is time, but there's
also an element of "fuck it!" too. As Molly Ivins was known to
say, "lie down with dogs, get up with fleas!" The government of
Israel is committing genocide in Gaza (and slower but no less
surely in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem),
and the government in Washington is fully committed to helping
and defending them (despite the occasional "tsk, tsk" -- surely
I don't need to quote Moshe Dayan again on what Israelis think
of American "opinions"?). Meanwhile, Washington is funding a
hopeless war in Ukraine just to marginalize and alienate Russia,
and, well, too many other things to list here.
And no matter how
careful we are at distinguishing between the specific groups of
people responsible for all this, we are all going to feel the
effects of a generalized backlash, because, well, that's just
how people operate. They may not be exacting at ferreting out
root causes, but they understand when they've been wronged, and
they can find the general direction those wrongs are coming
from. And, really, the political leaders in Jerusalem and in
Washington have no answer, since they're more guilty of such
gross generalizations than anyone.
Anyhow, basta per ora! I have some real work to get to. And
then, latkes and chopped liver on rye rolls for a midweek
Hannukah dinner.
Top story threads:
Israel:
Tony Karon/Daniel Levy: [12-08]
Israel is losing this war: "Despite the violence it has unleashed
on Palestinians, Israel is failing to achieve its political goals."
I listed this piece first, because everyone pretty much understands
the enormous human costs of the "Israel-Hamas War" -- the dividing
point isn't on the facts, but whether one cares. What's harder to
grasp is the possible political goals of the war: why Israel's
leaders insisted on waging it, why in this particular way, what
they think they might achieve, and why they think it's worth the
effort. That's the subject here, and something to think about. And
it really hits Israel's leaders where it hurts: complain about
their racism, their arrogance, their contempt, their savagery,
and they'll just puff out their chests; but call them losers,
and their minds explode. Once again, refer back to Richard Ben
Cramer's 2004 book, How Israel Lost.
Mondoweiss: Philip Weiss's website continues to do
heroic work:
Maha Abdallah/Aseil Abu-Baker/Lina Ali/Marya Farah: [12-10]
Are human rights really universal? Palestine and the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights 75 years later.
B'tselem: [12-07]
Humanitarian catastrophe as policy.
Allia Bukhari: [12-09]
Germany's Muslims fear rise in Islamophobia amidst war in Gaza:
We've already seen this in several examples of shootings in America.
Israel's propaganda war aims not just at tarring anyone who criticizes
Israel as anti-semitic, but at dehumanizing Palestinians, making it
easier to accept their deaths and destruction, and encouraging others
to join in the killing. Germany is perhaps more susceptible to this
propaganda war than most other nations (as is the US and UK).
Zah Cheney-Rice: [12-05]
Norman Finkelstein's long crusade: "A cantankerous Israel critic
takes a rare turn in the limelight." I've been citing Finkelstein's
Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom (2018, so you might be
thinking he'd seen nothing yet, but he saw plenty) since this war
began, but I read his two seminal books -- Image and Reality
of the Israel-Palestine Conflict (1995) and The Holocaust
Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering
(2000) -- while the second intifada was still going on, and Beyond
Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History
(2005) shortly after, and they are masterful dissections of the
stories Israelis tell themselves and others, a hard-nosed chronicle
of national mythmaking. I haven't followed his later book closely,
because he was effective enough at teaching how to see through the
hasbara, further instruction seemed unnecessary (e.g., his critiques
of books by Dennis Ross, Richard Goldstone, and Ari Shavit, or his
I Accuse! Herewith a Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt that ICC Chief
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda Whitewashed Israel; also two previous
books on Gaza, the first titled This Time We Went Too Far).
Marin Cogan: [12-06]
The Israel-Hamas war is tearing American cultural institutions apart.
Alexis Grenell: [12-08]
No, the Israel/Palestine conflict is not "simple". The complaints
are just window-dressing. The core of this piece is simple enough: it
is a brief for the annihilation of Hamas, mostly because they've said
some bad things, and done some desperate things. For the magazine's
left-leaning readers, this is all wrapped up in concern for the
innocents Hamas has taken advantage of and used as an excuse for
their evil deeds, but the word for that isn't "complexity": it's
obfuscation. But you don't want to know anyway.
Yoav Haifawi: [12-09]
'Democratic margins' get even thinner in '48 Palestine: "The war
on Gaza has provided an opportunity for the police, under ultra-right
minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, to launch an all-out repression campaign
against the Arab population, and any opposition to the slaughter of
Palestinians." Title is rather oblique. It refers to the so-called
"Arab Citizens of Israel" -- Palestinians who stayed put during the
Nakba, and were subsequently granted citizenship in 1950, in a law
that stripped Palestinian refugees of their property and any right
to return (a right the UN always supported). Their "citizenship"
was never equal, either de jure or de facto, but has increasingly
come under attack, especially under the current government.
Benjamin Hart: [12-07]
Why Israel won't forgive Benjamin Netanyahu: Interview with
Anshel Pfeffer, a Haaretz reporter and author of Bibi: The
Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Imad Abu Hawash: [12-08]
'It would've been better if they shot us': Palestinians recount
prison abuse: "Newly released inmates detail cases of humiliation,
torture, rape threats, and a prison beaten to death by Israeli forces
in the weeks since October 7."
Adam Johnson: [12-07]
The "Hunt for Hamas" narrative is obscuring Israel's real plans for
Gaza.
Eric Levitz: [12-04]
The price of Hamas's destruction is too high.
Gideon Levy: [12-07]
Israel is fostering the next generation of hatred against itself.
Mark Mazzetti/Ronen Bergman: [12-10]
'Buying quiet': Inside the Israeli plan that propped up Hamas.
Jay Michaelson: [12-06]
Elise Stefanik's calculated demagoguery on antisemitism and free
speech: Background for this week's SNL opener -- probably the
best they could do, since they're not really up to dealing with
genocide and Washington's complicity. Another take:
Tom Mutch: [12-02]
Top Israeli official reveals catastrophic plan for rest of Gaza.
Nicole Narea: [12-08]
Israel's wartime assault on the free press: Subheds: "Israel's
history of killing journalists"; "Israel is limiting press access
to Gaza, where it was already difficult to be a journalist";
"Journalists covering the conflict are being harassed, arrested,
and censored in Israel and the West Bank."
Jonathan Ofir: [12-08]
I used to think the term 'Judeo-Nazis' was excessive. I don't any
longer.
Kareena Pannu: [12-08]
Despite lack of evidence, allegations of Hamas 'mass rape' are fueling
Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Claire Parker/Jon Gerberg/Judith Sudilovsky/John Hudson: [12-08]
Israel wants civilians to arm up. Gun permit applications are
soaring.
Paul R Pillar: [12-08]
Evidence of ethnic cleansing growing in West Bank and Gaza.
Harriet Sherwood/Patrick Wintout: [02-08]
UN says Gaza near 'full-blown collapse' as US vetoes ceasefire
call: Thirteen countries voted in favor. The UK abstained.
Richard Silverstein:
Adam Taylor: [12-06]
Unexploded bombs, many U.S.-made, could make parts of Gaza
uninhabitable.
Philip Weiss: [12-03]
Weekly Briefing: Half of Americans under 35 see Hamas attack as
'justified by Palestinian grievances'. Well, it's not like
we didn't train youngsters to see "extremism in the defense of
liberty as no vice." (For you youngsters out there, that is a
Barry Goldwater quote. Later Republicans may be more explicit
about their weapons of choice.) On the other hand, old lefties
(like myself), brought up on the successes of Gandhi and MLK
tend to view violence as never justified, either on moral or
political grounds -- forgetting that both got murdered for
their troubles.
Li Zhou: [12-06]
The "apocalyptic" humanitarian situation in Gaza, captured by one
quote. Israel has repeatedly ordered Gazans to go to "safe
zones," but, as a Unicef spokesperson points out: "There are no
safe zones in Gaza. These are tiny patches of barren land. They
have no water, no facilities, no shelter from the cold, no
sanitation."
Mitchell Plitnick: [12-06]
Two dangerous bills in Congerss take aim at Palestinian solidarity.
The House passed a "bill equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism and
effectively laying the groundwork for other laws to be crafted that
could classify pro-Palestine protests and demonstrations as crimes."
A second bill would "establish the Commission to Study Acts of
Antisemitism in the United States," which given "the whereas clauses
(100% about October 7 & its aftermath)" is designed to "target
criticism of Israel & Zionism." Also on Congress in a time of
lobby-induced hysteria:
Michael Arria: [12-07]
The Shift: Congress embraces McCarthyism.
Ben Burgis: [12-08]
Congress is absolutely wrong to equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
Connors Echols: [12-07]
Dems call for more oversight of US weapons in Gaza. As it's
beginning to dawn on a few (but still not many) that possibly full
endorsement of genocide may not be the best look for America.
Chris Lehman: [12-05]
The House of Representatives rules that anti-Zionism is
antisemitism.
Jonathan Weisman: [12-10]
A fraught question for the moment: Is anti-Zionism always antisemitic?
This is historically ignorant. Before 1948, Zionism was an internal
debate among Jews, where many Jews (both religious and on the left)
opposed. After 1948, many diaspora Jews identified with and took a
measure of pride in Israel, without feeling any need or desire to
immigrate, and Israel took advantage of those feelings to equate
Jewish and Israeli identity, and later used that identity -- most
effectively among Western liberals -- to deflect criticism for its
illiberal policies. In recent years, the word "Zionist" has fallen
out of use among its adherents -- after the Russian immigration
of the 1980-90s all of the diaspora Jews who wanted to resettle in
Israel had done so, and the brief post-Zionist vogue among Israeli
liberals petered out -- but the word has been revived by people
in the west (mostly leftist, many Jewish) who wanted to distinguish
between right-wing Israelis and the broader Jewish population. In
other words, the current definition of "anti-Zionist" is someone
who is not antisemitic, and insists on being clear on that
point. So "always" is beyond ridiculous here.
A better question would be: is Zionism ever not antisemitic?
I can think of exceptions (Ahad Ha'am, Martin Buber) that tried to
cast Zionism as a positive cultural movement, as opposed to the
political drive for Jewish supremacy, but that's a side issue.
One may question whether "Zionism" is the best term to use today
for what is essentially Israel's nationalism cult, but one thing
its use has done is lead to a reexamination of the political and
cultural history of the Zionist movement, which turns out to be
deeply imbued with racism, imperialism, and the reactionary manias
of its time, such that today's policies seem to inexorably flow
from past principles.
Edward Wong: [12-09]
State Department bypasses Congress to approve Israel's order for
tank ammuinition.
Dave Zirin: [12-05]
How Zionism feeds antisemitism: This doesn't go much deeper than
HR 894, because Zionism has from its very inception depended on a
two-faced game of antisemitism: to the antisemites, it offered a way
to get rid of the Jews ("give us a homeland of our own"), and to the
Jews it offered a haven from antisemites -- on many occasions, they
even stirred the antisemites up (or sometimes just false-flagged
anti-Jewish terror) to usher Jews along to Israel.
Related tweets (h/t to
Means testing is divisive, wasteful and punitive for many of
these):
Ryan Grim [refers to image on right]:
Perfect distillation here: it might seem obvious but actually it's
complicated and unclear
Joshua Leifer:
Two months into the war, Israel still has no plan--not now, now for
the day afterward. Listening to interviews with former security
officials, it's clear the strategy is one of gruesome improvisation:
inflict maximum carnage, see what happens next. 1/
It's the old Israel mindset--it'll work out--but with an unimaginable
human toll. From their perspective, any number of scenarios might still
occur: Humanitarian catastrophe and refugee crisis that spills into
Egypt; loss of Hamas legitimacy that precipitates surrender 2/
But that means it is unlikely Israeli defense officials will set
a clearer goal other than the expressive "take down Hamas." 3/
The untold civilian casualties, the horrific images of detainees
stripped naked--these are intentional decisions by IDF, operating
under the logic that through enough force and suffering and
dehumanizing, Hamas will give up. 4/
In some interviews, officials boast about this operational
"flexibility," unlike the US operational culture where everything
gets a PowerPoint 5/
Doo B. Doo:
Evidence on the ground indicate policies of extermination &
forcible transfer. By making Gaza uninhabitable and imposing siege,
Israel creates a "fact on the ground" that will put maximum pressure
on int'l community to accommodate transfer. There is no shelter for
Gazans.
Yousef Munayyer [responding to Tony Blinken tweet celebrating
"75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights"]:
If I had to sit down and try to formulate a strategy for spreading
anti-Americanism around the globe, I don't think I could come up
with something more effective than what the Biden administration
has been doing for the last two months.
Jeff Melnick:
Probably unnecessary reminder: every college administrator issuing
a statement that centers concerns around antisemitism on their campus
is actively working to call your attention away from the genocide
happening right in front of our eyes.
Don't believe the hype--it's a sequel.
Nathan J Robinson:
Israel is operating on a quite simple theory. Make Gaza entirely
unlivable, and then the choice facing the international community
will be to either let Gazans all die or agree to "resettle" them
elsewhere. This is said openly among Israeli officials ("second
Nakba").
Tony Karon:
Israeli apartheid is rooted in the nationalist ideology of Zionism.
Most of the world is appalled by Zionist violence vs Palestinians.
To brand anti-Zionism anti-Semitism literally promotes anti-Semitism,
because it holds Jews collectively responsible for Israel's
outrages
Jeff Melnick:
If you want to understand the cooked-up "campus antisemitism" crisis,
it's really simple: the Zionist project simply cannot exist without
regular infusions of "antisemitism"--real or imagined. It is literally
the lifeblood of this political, cultural, and military formation.
There's also
this video of an Israeli soldier happily vandalizing a gift
shop "after destroying the area and killing or expelling residents."
Trump, and other Republicans:
Michelle Cottle: [12-07]
Was it worth it, Kevin McCarthy? A requiem for the "young
guns," who rose to power as fanatics, only to pass away for not
being fanatic enough.
Stephen F Eiseman: [12-08]
Vermin: The more they try to explain what he meant when he said
"vermin," the more fascist he/they sound.
David French: [12-07]
Why fundamentalists love Trump: Draws on Tim Alberta's book,
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals
in an Age of Extremism.
Sarah Jones: [12-07]
Nikki Haley's gender trap.
Robert Kagan: [12-07]
The Trump dictatorship: how to stop it. I noted (somewhat
derisively) Kagan's warning last week --
A
Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop
pretending. -- so figured I should mention the sequel. You
can do the scoffing this time: "The first step is to consolidate
all the anti-Trump forces in the Republican Party behind a single
candidate, right now." His candidate is Nikki Haley, "not because
she's pro-Ukraine," but because, well, she's the most dependable
warmonger in the crowd. Related:
Jonathan Martin: [12-08]
Where are all the anti-Trump Republicans? Cue
Louis Jordan.
Kelly McClure: [12-09]
Texas Supreme Court steps in the way of woman's fight for an emergency
abortion.
Tom Nichols:
A military loyal to Trump: Something he dearly craves, and rather
expects given his fascist fetish for force and military regalia, but
unlikely to happen, and not just because Democrats have been so generous
in their promotion of the military and its graft.
Heather Digby Parton:
Paul Pringle/Adam Elmahrek: [12-07]
Kevin McCarthy uses PAC to lavish cash on high-end resorts, private
jets and fine dining.
Adam Rawnsley/Asawin Suebsaeng: [12-08]
Inside Trump's plot to corrupt the 2024 election with 'garbage'
data.
Alex Skopic: [12-07]
The lessons of Vivek: "Some tips on how to bullshit your way through
life from upstart, attention-hungry, deeply annoying presidential
candidate Vivek Ramaswamy."
Kirk Swearingen: [12-10]
"Trump derangement syndrome" is real -- but it's not what they say it
is: "In an epic case of projection, followers of an infamous
deranged criminal accuse their foes of a mental disorder."
Tatyana Tandanpolie: [12-07]
Experts horrified by report revealing Trump's rumored "cabinet of
losers": I wouldn't put any stock in this parlor game. Cabinets
are never settled pre-election, but rather are the result of painful
negotiations between an incoming president's top staff and the real,
quasi-permanent powers in Washington (political powers and factotums,
big donors, lobbies, and entrenched bureaucrats). In 2016, Trump
left that tedium to Mike Pence and Reince Priebus, who saddled him
with a posse distinguished only by their greed, graft, and general
contempt for serving the public. However, since that early disaster,
Trump's been keeping a list of who's been naughty or nice to him,
and he can hardly wait to sit in judgment over them. Nor is that
information closely held, as it's hard to suck up to Trump without
being publicly exposed. Hence, these lists have less to do with
predicting the future than with warning us about the threat Trump
presents.
Andrew Prokop: [12-06]
3 winners and 1 loser from the fourth Republican presidential
debate: "Winner: The Haley-Christie alliance"; "Winner: Far-right
conspiracy theorists" (pic: Ramaswamy); Loser: "Small-government
conservatism" (pic: DeSantis); "Winner: Donald Trump."
Biden and/or the Democrats:
Legal matters and other crimes:
Climate and environment:
Economic matters:
Kevin T Dugan: [12-04]
Wall Street has decided it's time to get greedy again: Actually,
they never decided not, but are hoping you're not paying attention
this time.
Paul Krugman: [12-07]
The progressive case for Bidenomics: "Don't let the perfect get
in the way of the coulda been worse." Basically the same line he
used to convince me that Obamacare was the best we could do under
the circumstances. Maybe this will be the Democratic Party's 2024
slogan: "Aim for imperfect, but settle for 'coulda been worse.'"
Ukraine War:
Blaise Malley: [12-08]
Diplomacy Watch: New Ukraine aid not likely this year: "Biden
tried his hardest to make it a matter of war or peace this week."
Benjamin Hart: [12-04]
Why Russia could win the Ukraine War next November: Interview
with war guru John Nagl. Next November is, of course, when Americans
could decide to throw in the towel and return Donald Trump to office,
screwing Ukraine. He admits that even if Ukrainians "are killing ten
Russians for every one they lose," it's not decisive, or "even
particularly important." But he continues to look on the bright
side: "at some point, Putin is in fact going to die." After all,
he's only ten years younger than Biden.
Fred Kaplan: [12-08]
Republicans are on the verge of delivering Putin a big Christmas
gift.
Fredrick Kunkle/Serhii Korolchuk: [12-08]
Ukraine cracks down on draft-dodging as it struggles to find troops.
I thought that one of the lessons of Vietnam was that you can't fight
a modern war with slave labor (uh, drafted troops). Ukrainians fought
brilliantly for the first six months of this war: they were highly
motivated to defend their people, were relatively unencumbered by
problems of logistics and advanced weaponry, and faced an invading
army mostly composed of poorly motivated draftees. They even posted
some gains in late 2022, but nothing but death and drudgery since
then.
Anatol Lieven: [11-29]
Biden's role in Ukraine peace is clear now: "It's not enough for
Washington to urge talks from behind the scenes, while insisting in
public that only Kyiv can negotiate."
Branko Marcetic: [12-04]
Did the West deliberately prolong the Ukraine war?: "Mounting
evidence proves that we cannot believe anything our officials say
about the futility of negotiations."
Washington Post: [12-04]
Miscalculations, divisions marked offensive planning by U.S.,
Ukraine. Looking at the map here, I find myself thinking
that ending the war there wouldn't be such a bad idea. They're
still using the June 7 frontline because so little has changed
since then -- latest I heard was that the much touted Ukrainian
counteroffensive has netted minus-four square miles of territory,
at which rate the reconquista will take . . . well, much longer
than Ukraine, even if American support doesn't fade away, can
afford. Most of the territory was ethnically Russian before 2014,
and it's more so now. The rest of Ukraine would be free to join
Europe, and start to rebuild, with virtually no sympathy for
Russia. And Putin would still have to negotiate with the US and
Europe over sanctions, so there would be plenty of leverage left.
Around the world (and America's crumbling empire):
Other stories:
David Barnett: [12-10]
Groundbreaking graphic novel on Gaza rushed back into print 20 years
on: Joe Sacco's Palestine. You might also be interested
in Harvey Pekar's Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me (2012).
Rhoda Feng: [12-08]
The work of black life: A conversation with Christina Sharpe:
Author of the recent book, Ordinary Notes.
David Friedlander: [12-08]
Why does no one trust No Labels? "The group says it doesn't want
to elect Trump. The problem is everything else it says."
Masha Gessen: [12-09]
In the shadow of the Holocaust.
Melvin Goodman: [12-07]
The Washington Post gratuitously and wronglyh trashes Jimmy Carter:
In favor of Henry Kissinger? There are lots of things I didn't like
about Carter's foreign policy, but they were mostly Cold War stances
extending from Nixon-Kissinger to Reagan. It is interesting that while
Reagan slammed Carter for "giving away" the Panama Canal, he never made
the slightest effort to reverse Carter's treaty (nor did Bush, when he
actually invaded Panama for other reasons). One thing not mentioned
here is how Carter backed Israel down from intervening in Lebanon in
1978. Four years later, Reagan turned Israel loose, starting a war
that lasted 18 years (plus later flare-ups), which did more than
anything pre-9/11 to turn Arabs against the US.
David C Hendrickson: [12-05]
The morality of ending war short of 'total victory': "'Just
and Unjust Wars' author Michael Walzer seems to believe there is
a humane way to destroy Hamas in Gaza. That's not true." This may
be meant to be part of the Israel/Palestine debate, but I thought
we should give it a wide berth. Walzer is a philosopher who seeks
the high ground on morality but more often than not winds up
deeply complicit in mass murder. This is hard to read and parse
because at this point I really don't care what Walzer thinks
any more. What might help would be to realize, as many Israelis
do, that Hamas is inextricable from the Palestinian people; that
as long as Israel treats Palestinians as they do, some will be
driven to fight back, and they will ally in groups like Hamas.
As long as key Americans buy the notion that evil Hamas can be
surgically excised from ordinary Palestinians, they compliantly
support Israel's indiscriminate campaign, and as such as complicit
in Israel's genocide. Which is exactly what so many Israelis
wanted all along.
Nathan J Robinson: [11-26]
The rise and fall of crypto lunacy: Interview with Zeke Faux,
author of Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering
Fall.
Michael Slager: [12-07]
The trouble with evil.
Paul Starr: [12-08]
The life-and-death cost of conservative power: "New research shows
widening gaps between red and blue states in life expectancy." The
chart specifically contrasts Connecticut and Oklahoma.
Jeffrey St Clair: [12-08]
Roaming Charges: Leave it to the men in charge.
Peter Taylor: [11-20]
Brazil's Tropicália movement was the soundtrack to resistance to
the military. I'll just note that my one big disappointment
with Mark Kurlansky's 1968: The Year That Rocked the World
was the absence of a chapter on Brazil. This is why.