It's about time for an overwhelming number of letters to the editors of the NYT and WaPo to demand coverage of Biden's around the clock negotiations as NEWS and not keep saying "some" or "it is thought" balloney. Now that we are seeng the results, all that is covered is the heartwrenching images of people hoping and waiting.
Their quest for maintaining impartiaity IS partiality by denying the public's right to know. We all know,as a commumnity that pays attention, all the real acomplishments of the Biden Administraion that only gets mentioned deep in the body of the papers, if at all.
I agree totally. A very on point article from the Columbia Journalism Review on the NYT and WaPo coverage of the midterms that quantifies the problem on editorial choices on coverage and bias.
Excellent piece...thank you! The major newspapers certainly do not hold a candle as in their years of Watergate. The team of Ben Bradlee and Katherine Graham took risks and those paid off in the biggest time ever. These editors we have now just squeak.
It seems 'The Guardian' is an island where there is credibility, but not unlimited funds. They, meaning the Guardian operation, try very hard to not nurture BS.
Me too. It is by no means perfect and its pundits are not the best but I love the way it arranges the news by category: Israeli/Hamas conflict, Ukraine, Climate change It never lets go of climate change. It often reports on stories WAPA and NYT don’t cover. They did an excellent piece on Zach Shrewsbury the other day. He’s the Dem candidate running for Senate in WVA. Unknown to lamestream media. Please check him out.
The NYT and WAPO reports on Ukraine are buried deep since the Israel /Hamas war. It’s vitally important to keep Ukraine front and center with our full support and win this war.
There are so many reasons to note the decline of both the NY Times and the Washington Post, even leaving out the slanted and misspelled headlines, typo's and repeated text in the Times and the very slim coverage of all but a few topics in each Post.
What I find especially irritating is the disappearance of coverage of the Ukraine war. For instance, did you know that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have secured a very long beachhead on the east side of the Dnipro River, critical to the advance this winter (yes, they plan to keep fighting through the winter) on the main coastal road, cutting off supplies from the Russian troops and giving easy drone access to all of Crimea? Or that Ukraine, with no navy to speak of, has driven the Russian Black Sea fleet out of the western half of the sea?
It's not as if these papers have limited space online.
The Guardian is the ONLY major international online newspaper that gives balanced factual coverage, and subsists solely on reader donations.
Please. The Guardian is just as much a war rag as the NYT/WaPo. I keep waiting, in vain, for the majority of the citizens of the western nations to grasp the fact that they are the most propagandized people on earth. Pathetic, especially, the liberal class, in its lack of awareness.
Listened to about half of this - also heard a little blurb from one guy just throwing in there that this was intimidation "like having to wear a mask" - have to add - lack of awareness isnt limited to liberals!
Never said that it was. The reference to the liberal class comes from its consideration that it stands in rarified air as the exemplars of enlightenment, as compared to the heathen hordes who question, say, the efficacy of masks.
Interesting that your one comment referencing the demise of the Guardian as a credible source boils down to a ‘little blurb from one guy’ response. Cute.
None. My suggestion is to follow writers/reporters you trust, especially those who could care less about 1) having government/corporate sources as a means of covering a story, and 2) having a ‘career’ in legacy media. If you want my current list of go-tos, lmk.
Yes, but not always. I see them wavering over to the defence of Hamas now and then. There is a large Muslim population in the UK. Not all of course support terrorism.
Excellent article and it articulated exactly what I’ve been thinking. The NYT’s front page article about Trump beating Biden in polls of 5 swing states is a perfect example. This ‘poll’ is completely irrelevant 1 year out from the election, but front page news at the Times. I would love to see more policy articles and how the two parties are fundamentally different.
I just logged in and tried to cancel my NY Times subscription, but, of course, it is not possible. I have to call a phone number during the work week.
I will do. Georgia, thanks for the article. I had the growing perception that the times had become more right wing, although, they have covered some issues with Israel that were "balanced".
But, after the article link you sent, I am done. Let them cater to the far right without my money.
As a subscriber, I am disappointed that coverage of national issues fail to adequately inform me of policy issues, economic realities of progress made to increase living wage jobs, combat inflation and bring critical manufacturing capability back within our borders
Instead we are offered clickbait headlines touting a former president’s latest attack on judges, prosecutors, and citizens on his vanity social media, as if this was normal. Your coverage IS normalizing it, which I find disturbingly dangerous to democracy
I find the Horse Race polling and lack of attention to informing us of real policy issue to being lacking in journalistic integrity
Please note the attached article and feel free to respond
Dave Dalton, this is good indeed. I will copy and send a version, as well. I won't drop my subscription because there is still good reporting there and I prefer to give them a chance to come around.
I may have quoted my mother more than once in the past on this topic. During the McCarthyism era Red Scare (https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/age-of-eisenhower/mcarthyism-red-scare) about communism taking over the world in the early 1950s, it was common to hear people proudly and defiantly, "I'd rather be dead than Red." My mother was an exception. She called that attitude stupid while pointing out that you can't make a difference when you are dead. It's the little things, isn't it, Dave? And ultimately, not so little. As Joyce Vance says, "We're in this together."
We have to get our news from somewhere, I am not sure that canceling a subscription is the way to go--that just means they will slide further right and towards 100% clickbait. t
hey probably get more money from advertisers, so writing to advertisers and members of the NYT corporate board may be more effective.
Right now I use feedly as a news aggregator but that doesn't get you the independent journalists or the people like Heather Cox Richardson. If anyone knows of a list of quality independent sources let me know!
The Media and Democracy Project has a directory searchable by state.
“We created this directory to help you find local journalism in your area worth supporting. By donating or subscribing to the newsrooms on our list you’ll be paying towards the advancement of quality, community-focused journalism and contributing to a better informed citizenry, the bedrock of a strong democracy.
We sought outlets that hold the powerful to account, report the perspectives of marginalized communities, and seeks to verify truth rather than push false objectivity.”
We subscribe. For me is the puzzles and the book review and some of the special sections during the week. I read NYT pieces online and very rarely read the WaPo. Hate Amazon and Bezos. I do like the Guardian and hopefully people will donate to them if possible. I read HCR first thing and many of the comments and that is enough for me. Then I look at the local Gannett rag mainly for obits and the Oregonian for other news of the area. We have a couple online sources of local news that aren't bad. A couple things struck me in the letter today: Biden's role in this, not Bibi's and the fact that many Hamas leaders live in Qatar away from the mess in Gaza. Sorta like a gated community or a private island. Once again we have nonsense in memes about the ancient area.
Georgia, the thing about Heather is that she is an historian who does an excellent job weaving what happened before and after the Civil War. Her tapestry always beings us to the present day and the shenanigans of the R party who used to be Dems. She has just turned out to be a damn good journalist in the interim!
Georgia Fisanick - "Right now I use feedly as a news aggregator but that doesn't get you the independent journalists or the people like Heather Cox Richardson. If anyone knows of a list of quality independent sources let me know!"
I very much enjoy your posts Mike S, but on this point I need to disagree gently. The NYT (in all its forms) has been my go to source for reporting on the Mideast Hamas-Israel fiasco.
I wrote “in all its forms” in the above paragraph because of the Times’ Audio app. From it, I listen to each Ezra Klein podcast. These provide the deepest and broadest reflections on all aspects of the crisis. He is incredibly thoughtful and his guests are experts in their fields of study. I strongly suggest people listen to these for historiography, for the tensions between Israelis and the Jewish diaspora, for spiritual thinking, and, yes, for American intervention to push Netanyahu.
As for the paper itself, the news is up to date and strenuous attempts are made to determine accuracy, using analytical tools to test claims on both sides. Their “Analysis” articles are helpful - the last one on how the deal came together has deep coverage of the American role.
Thomas Friedman’s Op-Eds have been as insightful and balanced as one would hope from a Mideast expert. They are long and detailed, and the NYT usually runs each one for 3 days.
This is beginning to sound like teenage cheerleading, so I will stop before I feel too embarrassed. I simply feel that the the NYT has become too easy a target for liberals to swing at - one can always gets warm by likes for a hearty smack and a cancelled subscription promise. I do not accuse you of that Mike S. I have read enough of your posts to see your genuine passion and thought. But overall, I am tired of the phenomenon and wish it might lessen. Criticism of the Times where earned is always appropriate, but in this terrible conflict I think they have stepped up nobly.
Oh those liberals! Must one be a liberal to unsubscribe to the Times? After started publishing writers who were apologists for Trump I unsubscribed and started reading and subscribing to Substack writers and The Guardian. Yes there are some writers worth reading in The Times but the headline writers often sensationalize in order to attract readers to an article!
Particularly revolting is the Times' Maureen Dowd giving over her column to her radical-right-wing brother. I won't say how many decades I've been reading Tom Friedman, who often provides actual news and informed insights you won't find elsewhere but is often biased and misleading.
I gave up o Maureen Dowd years ago when she started calling Pres. Obama, "Barry". I thought it was so disrespectful. Yes, she does defer to her right-wing brother but all in all, I would say I don't like the tone of her writing.
But isn’t the point to actually *read* the articles? We are surely all by now educated to the clickbait nature of headlines, and choose to read / not read in spite of the headline.
Thanks for writing about some Times Op Ed columnists. Reading the Columbia analysis of front page headlines made me wish they would also analyze those articles as I suspect those folks have significant influence on informing and shaping opinions of people who read beyond the front page and headlines.
Here is the rational thinking person’s assessment/analysis of Thomas Friedman. If you can’t make it through until the end, well, it just brings to mind the Jessup line about ‘handle the truth’.
If that interview is “rational” then spare me from it. It takes little wit to cherry-pick from 30 years of a writer’s work and hack it to pieces, accompanied by ceaseless faked cackling. Matt Taibbi, sadly, has gone off the rails.
Besides which, your point begs the question of the relevance of the NYT. Friedman was one name I included. The breadth of the Times and its repeated innovations are priceless. Their coverage is damned alike by Liberals and Conservatives. It strikes me that they are therefore none too far from the truth regularly.
And I’m not shilling for them particularly. There is epic reporting in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Guardian and other places. Time spent with the video you pushed supplemented by a misinformed comment about “. . . handle the truth” is time I wasted. Although the comment as a whole is memorable, sadly for all the wrong reasons.
So I’ll spare you from rational then, with or without the quotation marks.
I know exactly why you think Taibbi has ‘gone off the rails’. He doesn’t care who he skewers, especially since 2016, including your Team Blue heroes. As Friedman himself would so eloquently put it, suck on this. Got any more NYT names for me? Bring ‘em. All mouthpieces for government accepted propaganda. Breadth? That’s funny. Innovations? Name them.
And then, the they are damned by both sides, so they must be doing something right fallacy. Cute, in a lemmingly centrist fashion. Epic reporting? You go, Jeffrey Goldberg!
Each of the rags you adore has been as pro-war as publication can get. Your comment is frankly, sad, for all the usual cheerleading the status quo reasons
After I 'cut the cable' on Comcast, in my search for nightly news I rediscovered Al Jazeera ("The Island" in Arabic, I've been told) and have to admit that I've been astonished not only by the depth of their reporting but its impartiality as well. Worth checking out.
Canceling subscriptions to the NYT because you perceive a pro-Israel slant? There are many who cancel NYT subscriptions because they perceive a pro-Palestinian slant. The editors interpret your cancelations as that they are doing something RIGHT, offering balanced coverage of an extremely complex topic.
Please don’t try to kill The NY Times! As most small newspapers have gone under and the Chicago Tribune is owned by some conglomerate (or hedge fund as is mostly unreadable) and both the Times and WaPo still have some excellent writers, we need them.
I agree. I love Paul Krugman and Maggie Haberman is one of the best journalists anywhere. But we don't need to read about TFFG on page 1 every day. If putting TFFG stories on page 1 everyday and relegating the Biden administration just to sell papers then I'm out. There are many other sources that report on TFFG all day.
But, their editor(s) needs to understand that their loyal subscribers know the Biden administration is being slighted and one way we can let them know is to boycott their advertisers.
Hah.. looks like Taylor Swift and the "Swifterees" have the MAGAttts right by the arse and they don't know it..yet. Not the governor of some state, but a young lady from virtually nowhere who seems to have something to offer besides a boob-job, law-degree, bagload of conspiracy theories, and she's got pussy-power over trump. Yeah.., I hear ya. She's workin Argentina right now.
I hope that like vinyl recordings, some of the young out there will discover newspapers and get hooked. I know it's a small group, but everything would help.
I fear that George Soros may have slowed down due to advanced age and the constant attacks not just by anti-Semitic 'conservatives' (what do they actually conserve?) but by a steady onslaught of slander by the pro-Russian, anti-Jewish government of Hungary.
George Soros is being outspent by the greedy right wing billionaires who have benefitted from Reagan's trickle down economics for over 40 years. There are other Democrats that spend money on politics, but not enough.
Great article, Georgia. Thank you. It begs the question, if HCR ran the Times, how much would the content change? Her work is so incredibly informative and entertaining. Perhaps “engaging” is a better word. She paints a reality that is so much more hopeful than the clickbait and pedantic drivel printed by the Times.
Thank you for the link. I will be sharing it. We cannot forget the amount of disinformation and lies spread by Fox and subsidiaries. There is no comparison between them and NYT or Wapo.
Georgia, thank you for this article. I did wonder though, how the statement about news publications setting the agenda on social media. “...mainstream news organizations remain an important part of the media ecosystem—they’re widely read and watched; they help set the agenda, including on social networks.” For the editorial choices of the two papers, it seems to reflect the opposite: they followed the agenda of social media. PBS Frontline, years ago had a show on fashion that concluded there was really like an infinite mirror reflection. You know, where you set two mirrors facing each other and suddenly there are a billion reflection of whatever is put in front of the mirror. And it all had to do with following the money. I observe that is exactly happening in our “news” sphere. They are beholding to their shareholders first, and foremost. So emotional ideas like “crime is increasing!!!!!!” shows by the social media clicks (meaning $$$$ for content creators) stories, or story frames to run on the coveted Front Page. Until the business model changes, we have no hope of a helpful “News” ecosystem. We can shout at WAPO and NYT, but they are paying their contented shareholders with clickbait dollars.
Georgia Fisanick -- thank you very much for the link to the Columbia Journalism Review article. I'd never heard of them before and have been thinking of cancelling my long-held NYTimes subscription for quite a while. Haven't been reading it, and the precipitating cause is that as a subscriber living in Canada, I can no longer share the occasional important article that I do read with friends on social media because of Canada's prohibition to doing *_that._* What a puzzling world we live in, or continent we live on!
Thanks for sharing this article. Perhaps this could be put on the front page of every newspaper. The other curious question that arises in me is; what are the demographics of (not sure this is the right word) or maybe, Who is subscribing and reading the NYT and Post?
So, it wasn’t in my imagination! I can’t comment on WaPo as I don’t subscribe, though my parents did, in my youth. This study by Columbia Journalism Review confirms my observations about NYT in focusing on issues of interest to Republicans. NYT can’t report positive news about the economy without saying it might not last. Something or other . . .could mean trouble for Biden. Generally a pessimistic tone.
This Sunday I believe it was on Meet the Press that a journalist from the Washington Post, I forget his name, commented that the media was in error and not covering all of the hatred that was discussed in the 2016 elections and the 2020 elections that the media fell down on both counts. He heard urges, all professional journalists not to step back in fear, but to publish what they hear
Thank you Georgia for a most enlightening article. Frightening as well since most Americans simply don’t have the time to delve deep into articles and headlines to determine what is true and what is not or to get both sides of an issue to make the proper decisions.
Thank you, Georgia. I will attach this link to today's Letter, which I forward to several friends every day. Everyone needs to see this to understand that there are more subtle approaches than Fox, et. al's bludgeoning at work in political influencing.
I understand that President Biden is intentionally keeping a lower profile in negotiations because he knows he is involved with a powder keg, and Israel IS a sovereign Nation . The US has supported it but different Presidencies have had very different approaches to its policies. Evangelists and the lobbyists have loudly supported Zionist expansionism and Trump, Kuschner and Co. indulged them with typical one-sided political short-sightedness. President Biden is having to negotiate the resulting mess. (Trump’s one-sided ‘negotiations’ on withdrawal from Afghanistan backfired similarly, leaving President Biden with the mess there as well.) GOP/MAGA ‘diplomacy’ abroad is now reflected in the intractable style that is hamstringing our own Government, the House in particular. Authoritarians are terrible negotiators.
You are right Jenn casinos are money machines, at the end of the day the house always wins, it’s as predictable as the sun rising in the east, so how could the insipid malevolent POS run one in a way that forced it into bankruptcy? My guess is that it was greed, that would be an educated guess by the way, 4 years of watching him run the country into the ground, is more education than I would have ever wanted.
They are totally Trump's mouth piece, and either all of the people working for those publications are just very young, which I know they are not, or they are filled with self loathing about their age. The fact that that is the only thing they can report on, and the only thing they can find as a negative about Biden, shows them up to headed into Fox News territory. I think their sexism and racism shows through too because what they are really saying is Biden is old and Harris is not White or male.
The ageism directed towards Biden is a proxy for the general disregard and contempt that the public has for senior citizens. I include Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers - otherwise progressive comedic satirists- among the ranks of those who take cheap shots at Biden for his age that would elicit outrage if directed at any other social category.
SNL just did a skit that is ageist and distorts and diminishes Biden's accomplishments. Even though it brought up the threat of fascism, the depiction of Biden demeans the only person who can save us from it. It is not funny. It is infuriating and damaging.
I think they target Biden's age because he is so competent there is not much material otherwise, unlike the previous administration when the skits practically wrote themselves. Biden and Trump are in the same age group yet not much is made of the latter's age. I can imagine how things will go in a presidential debate with the two of them. We should see then who has a real grasp on the issues.
If Trump were to participate in a debate based on moderator control and participant respect for each other's response time, Biden would win decisively.
But Trump does not debate. He blusters. Trump doesn't respond to a question. He hyperventilates on an entirely different subject - and attacks based on nonsense and lies. Trump doesn't respect a moderators role. He takes all the oxygen out of the stage and bullies, bullies, bullies. That is not a debate. It's a cage fight.
IF (and it's becoming more of an IF every day) Trump is the nominee, Biden would be well served to say that he will not stand on a stage with an enemy of democracy who has declared that he can change the Constitution to his own needs. Biden could say he will not stand on the stage with a criminal who has been convicted of fraud (Trump U) and sexual assault. He will not stand anywhere near a man who has attempted the overthrow of our government and is under indictment for stealing national secrets.
Joe could tell Trump to debate George Santos - they have the same respect for the United States of America. "Battle of the Grifters!"
I agree Cameron. Whether by SNL or MSM or the wing nuts, the attack on Biden's age, something he has no control over, is all they have. Granted it is real and a concern for some, but I will take Biden and his incredible team of highly competent people, including VP Harris, any day. The stakes here are very high and that in and of itself, should be the narrative.
Remember please. Mandela took over as President of South Africa at 76. That was after serving 30 years in prison. Throw that every time some uneducated, incompetent brings up age.
Each publication has very good journalists. This is an editorial/ownership issue. Corporate media has shareholder ROI issues. The news and headline editors are defining reality by the words used and what is or is not published.
I have said this repeatedly. I have also looked at the ages of the owners of many media sources, and there are quite a few who are older than Biden, or even younger, but still old. The ageism masks the racism and sexism, but it doesn't because everyone knows that the worry about Biden's age is not about whether or not he will remain mentally fit, which could be a concern, although my grandmother was mentally fit until she was around 98, then she deteriorated in a way that we noticed. She also then went into a home. However, the subtext is a blatant if Biden dies we will have Harris for president, and honestly it is a double whammy of racism and sexism about her taking over. However, she has had 3 years at the side of a truly thoughtful president and she is capable, so there is that advantage. Did people worry about Lyndon B. Johnson stepping in for Kennedy? Probably they did not think of it and once Kennedy was killed Johnson was sworn in immediately, to not give the people time to think about it. What Trump has helped to illustrate/illuminate, is that there are a lot of racist and sexist people in this country, and they are his big supporters. Under him they do not have to strive to be better because he is saying being a racist, sexist person is just fine.
Vice Presidents rarely get any respect, to quote Rodney Dangerfield. I was a senior in college when JFK was assassinated. I can tell you that, after hearing the news, my roommate & 2 suite mates sat around & discussed the fact the Lyndon Johnson, who had often been portrayed in the media as a crude country yokel from Texas, would now be President. We were all appalled that he would be running the country.
But, until he got immersed in the Vietnam War, Johnson turned out to be a very important President, who passed incredibly significant legislation: Medicare & Medicaid, and important Civil Rights bills, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 & the Voting Rights Act in 1965., along with the Clean Air Act.
Kamala Harris is smart & capable. If something happens to Biden, she will surround herself with good people, as Joe Biden has done.
I always consider who 'the President' is surrounded by. Right down to the staffers and up from there. Meaning every person he/she might have a word with, in passing, during any busy day. A simple example would be the brief encounter with HCR (a relatively normal person from a few miles down the Coast of Maine). Should "Joe" bite the dust, VP Harris et al, will bring us to the next election. And, it IS the next election we should be looking to fill. Hakeem Jeffries? Not Liz Warren.., or Bernie.., please!
Exactly, it is the age when he turned it over to Loughlin who is 52, but his son is just picking up the mess from the far right election agenda and the battle with the election machine companies.
It seems that no matter what topic you pick, any topic, you need only to follow the money to figure out the point of view presented. Each and every time!!!
Jennifer Rubin, Catherine Rampell, Paul Krugman, Maggie Haberman, Dana Milbank and several others are definitely on the same page as the commenters here seem to be.
Of course, they can't say anything publicly but Mr. Milbank's mother-in-law is Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). He books however are politically slanted to the left.
Impartially is telling and defending the truth as best as it can be determined with perspicacious logic and confirmable evidence. That what we ask science to do; but evidence-based thinking isn't just for technical subject matter. Obviously courts are meant to rely on logic and evidence. Worthwhile history applies logic and evidence; as does worthwhile journalism. And the founders were aware of the need for worthwhile journalism, and also how much that can vary.
When earth-shaking events are afoot, no favor is rendered by withholding truths that might rock the boat; and those media sources who pussyfoot to avoid receiving recriminations from the incriminated wind up berated and slandered by them anyway, as well as distrusted by those whom they might gainfully inform.
“ Follow The Money “. As long as a news organizations’ Shareholders are more important than informed citizenry, we will have suspicious “news”. I would love to see research on the actual cost of “solid, informative, credible news”. For so long we have wanted our news “for free”, tolerating the ads and commercials. But then the amount of ads and commercials desired or needed to reach a Shareholders demand, put the balance out of whack. Trying to find “news” amid the sea of advertising carnival lights, and casino bells and whistles, is a sleuthing effort worthy of Sherlock Holmes. Are we as citizens prepared for the sticker shock of “actual, informative News”? I don’t think we are. Just like we are not prepared for the true cost of a livable planet.
Biden could walk on water and people would not give him credit. He could very likely go down as one of our greatest presidents. I could imagine that a possible Republican candidate might have a lot of support before voters realize how much Biden has accomplished, BUT trump? Besides some wealthy greedy Americans who only care about taxes and regulations, why would any decent American consider supporting a criminal who is headed to prison for the presidency? Because they need to believe all the lies from the RW media and trump's lying lips. Sad to think that there are that many Americans filled with so much hatred they are willing to support someone who echos Hilter. Who would have imagined we would come to this?
Really, the American MSM has never been impartial. In the past there was just agreement about what we were going to be partial about. If there is any benefit to the insane clown posse that is now called the right-wing media, it is that it has shown us some of our more ugly biases, and that those biases are often expressed through editorial boards/owners, not just reporters.
One thing I've noted about people who engage in racism, sexism, ageism, etc., is how easily manipulated they are using these issues. The media is the perfect tool to either address or exacerbate these biases. Unscrupulous politicians such as DT et al. have known and used this to their own benefit for centuries. We now have a chance to fetch ourselves up sharply, demand truthful, evidence-based journalism from a variety of view points that does not simply ask the same questions over and over in an attempt to entertain rather than inform.
Ransom Rideout, you are totally correct. Biden gets so little air time or print space on major news sources. How is this possible? Don't they understand the existential threat our democracy?
They are only beginning to understand that they are a big part of the threat. They have not decided which side to be on. They had no idea how effective they were. That was Murdoch's job. They are still running the numbers. ROI, not flawed poll #s.
Realizing the individuals or 'factions of influence', we get what "they" pay for..."they" being the Moron(s) & Grifters Alliance. The Big Business Coalition that is content with the chaos, extremists, and descension that makes up the R party.
Yes, Ransom, the "liberal press" that the right wing has howled about for years is a mere myth, including PBS's coverage, which insists that it's both-sides reporting is "just being fair." This approach has worked to the detriment of this entire country, and could lead to the death of our democracy.
I believe that the Biden administration to keep their plans very close to their chests. They do not announce to the world all of the things that are going on because it may disrupt their internal plans. Therefore the media gets very little of what’s actually happening until after the fact. I may be wrong and what I’m saying, but that’s what I believe is happening.
Unbelievable the pain and suffering on all sides with human bargaining chips...my heart breaks and my mind boggles...thank goodness for the cooler rational beings trying against hope to bring peace
I am uncertain that diverting Israel from the effort to destroy Hamas and focusing on returning the hostages Hamas is holding after the brutality of October 7 is the wisest course. We and the Israelis have taken this course and must make it work. Two days in, the Republicans have begun: Why haven't there been any Americans released?
We get this question, from leaders in the political party that, according to Jimmy Carter's NSC Iran expert Gary Sick and others, worked to persuade Iran that American prisoners would not be released until Ronald Reagan was President and definitely not before the election. We get this question, from the political party that, according to Nixon's Chief of Staff HR Haldeman, prevented Lyndon Johnson's peace talks from working by persuading South Vietnamese leaders not to agree to a deal before the election.
I am a little older than Joe Biden and remember these events. It did not take much googling to confirm my memory. I am sure Joe Biden remembers these events, too. I am sure that he remembers the political party that was willing to undermine a Democratic President's effort to achieve a peaceful resolution to an international crisis.
The Republicans are at it again. What haven't any American hostages been released, they ask? They apparently don't count the October 20 release of an American mother and daughter. That preceded the negotiations so that, for Republicans, it does not count. Republicans forgetting two hostages who were released is not the important part. The important part is Republican willingness, when there is a Democratic President, to interfere in the process of achieving peace, the process of making Americans and others safe.
That interference is what has characterized Republican leadership -- from Richard Nixon to the present.
Yes. Pointing out the facts that Republican politics worsen every attempt at solving any problem is seemingly beyond our U.S. news services. We all can understand why, so I won't bore you or myself with listing the reasons. Why do that when I have no solutions to offer? Even if we the people did work daily to solve the ongoing demise of print and broadcast, wouldn't Republican politics work daily to thwart that effort.
Yes, I only recently learned Reagan thwarted the release of the hostages under Carter. Had that not occurred, I would, along with many, voted for Carter.
BUT, I voted for Reagan and was amazed when suddenly the hostages were released.
Jimmy Carter is one of the best and finest human beings to ever be President of the United States. Rosalind is a close second in extraordinary humanity.
Mr Lubinsky, thank you for reminding us how far the Republicans will go to interfere with the “process of achieving peace and making Americans and others safe”
You are absolutely right in your comments here. Don’t ask us to do anything ask yourself even though you were older than Joe Biden to do something and it could be a call to the White House. It could be a call to the editor of the Washington Post or even your local newspaper. It’s up to each one of us to do what you can to affect the change that you see is needed.
Thank you for the encouragement. What I do is write a newsletter. I identify Democratic candidates who it makes sense to donate to. Check it out: Len's Political Notes. https://lenspoliticalnotes.com
Collective punishment is a war crime. Perhaps we should have tried to decimate Saudi Arabia after 9-11 since that is where those terrorists originated.
More credit to the Biden Administration, Blinken and Alston in particular. These folks are engaged on the world stage via the middle east while keeping an eye on Ukraine. And yes I did notice that Hamas hasn't released any Americans ? As far as a two state solution, that would be the best, but no further comment.
I had noticed that about the American hostages, although the very first released hostages were 2 American women who go to my friend's husband's temple. I understood the reasoning to be exactly as Prof Richardson has reported it. Biden is important to keeping the talks about what happens next on Netanyahu's agenda. Yesterday, the Northern German city I live in had 2 small rallies in support of the release of Palestinians which were peaceful. They competed with the home team's soccer game, which had many not at the stadium in bars watching it.
So true. Are you referring to Blinken and the rest of the US team? If I know Biden, he will shower praise on them when the situation resolved. Biden is the elected one, whose name is known to all.
None of us has the Moxie to do what is needed. None of us out here in the public have all the information which we’ve never had but can actually affect a change in how things should be done could be done. Few people in government right now, or what I would call diplomats I believe that Blinken is I believe that Biden has the heart of a diplomat but the head of a politician it might be a good combination. I don’t know only history will tell us. But I only encourage you to do what you believe you can do to affect the change that you want to see .
Writing about this story is quite hazardous and requires extra skepticism and empathy. I appreciate the existence and fairness of this post and would love to see more like it.
"Israel holds more than 6000 Palestinians on grounds they are a security threat; on the list of 300 prisoners Israel is willing to release, most are awaiting trial. Less than a quarter have been convicted of a crime.”
In Heather’s post tonight, this above piece of information revealed to me one of the little known activities of the Israeli government. Many years ago, in the 70’s, my father who was a staunch supporter of Israel visited some of the facilities where Palestinian prisoners were held by the Israelis. He described the conditions as “shocking.” He was part of a delegation from a human rights group. All prisoners have rights to be held in humane conditions and should have access to speedy trials. Israeli mistreatment of their Palestinian residents only feeds the resentment and discontent.
While in the USA Opioids and heart disease are leading causes of death; on Palestinian held lands, the leading cause of Palestinian death is just being Palestinian. It is easy to be shot by an Israeli "soldier" (which is likely just a West Bank Israeli settler with a US supplied rifle). Just going back to an olive grove to fetch a lost iPhone can get you shot (which happened and was reported on by NPR about a week ago).
Or worse, getting arrested and then spending 30 years in prison for trying to find your iPhone on your own land (which happens to be desired by the Israeli that imprisoned you).
A real mess it is over there.
But, hey, as long as the USA gives Israel huge money and huge weapons deliveries, our "elected" officials will get huge campaign contributions from wealthy folks related to Israel in the states.
Note that HCR is extremely careful in her use of language to not call this an exchange of hostages, but hostages AND prisoners.
While she also attempts to provide information on who and what the prisoners are and have been arrested for doing. The local paper here in Portland Maine headlines it as a hostage exchange thus promoting an equivalency between a democratically elected government following a set of laws and holding in jails threats to its existence of the people it represents to a organization that rapes, murders, and celebrates the death of any Jew no matter their age.
How many Palestinians are allowed to vote?! And, what is the ratio of people killed by the IDF to those by Hamas?! 15 to 1?
Hamas is a terrorist organization. Israel, under the openly racist Netanyahu version of Likud coalition leadership with the right wing parties is as well
Tracy Dodd, the lives of Arab citizens in Israel is not as cut and dry as your reply to Daniel Streeter, Jr. seems to imply. Citizenship, participation in the voting process and the position of Arab Israelis in Israel is a story with many facets and a good deal of disagreement in opinions about Israel's policies in this area.
'According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, the Arab-Israeli population in 2023 was 2.1 million representing 21 percent of the country's population.[1] The majority of these citizens identify themselves as Arab or Palestinian by nationality and as Israeli by citizenship.[11][12][13] Arab citizens of Israel mostly live in Arab-majority towns and cities, some of which are among the poorest in the country, and generally attend schools that are separated to some degree from those of Jewish Israelis.[14] Arab political parties traditionally did not join governing coalitions until the United Arab List became the first to do so in 2021.[15] Many Arabs have family ties to Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as well as to Palestinian refugees in the neighbouring states of Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.[16] 60 percent of Israel's Arab citizens have a positive view of the Israeli state;[17] the Druze as well as Bedouins in the Negev and the Galilee tend to identify more as Israelis than other Arab citizens of Israel.[18][19][20][21]'
'Under Israeli law, Arab residents of East Jerusalem and Druze residents of the Golan Heights (both Israeli-occupied territories) have the right to apply for Israeli citizenship, are entitled to municipal services, and have municipal voting rights; this status is upheld due to Israel's effective annexation of the former through the Jerusalem Law of 1980 and of the latter through the Golan Heights Law of 1981.[22] Both groups have largely foregone applying for Israeli citizenship, with the Palestinians of East Jerusalem and the Syrians of the Golan Heights mostly holding residency status.'
'Terminology'
'How to refer to the Arab citizenry of Israel is a highly politicized issue, and there are a number of self-identification labels used by members of this community.[23][24] Generally speaking, supporters of Israel tend to use Israeli Arab or Arab Israeli to refer to this population without mentioning Palestine, while critics of Israel (or supporters of Palestinians) tend to use Palestinian or Palestinian Arab without referencing Israel.[25] According to The New York Times, most preferred to identify themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel rather than as Israeli Arabs, as of 2012.[26] The New York Times uses both 'Palestinian Israelis'[27] and 'Israeli Arabs' to refer to the same population.'
'Common practice in contemporary academic literature is to identify this community as Palestinian as it is how the majority self-identify (See Self-Identification below for more).[28] Terms preferred by most Arab citizens to identify themselves include Palestinians, Palestinians in Israel, Israeli Palestinians, the Palestinians of 1948, Palestinian Arabs, Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel or Palestinian citizens of Israel.[11][23][24][29][30][31] There are, however, individuals from among the Arab citizenry who reject the term Palestinian altogether.[23] A minority of Israel's Arab citizens include "Israeli" in some way in their self-identifying label; the majority identify as Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship.[12][24]'
'The Israeli establishment prefers Israeli Arabs or Arabs in Israel, and also uses the terms the minorities, the Arab sector, Arabs of Israel and Arab citizens of Israel.[11][29][30][32][33] These labels have been criticized for denying this population a political or national identification, obscuring their Palestinian identity and connection to Palestine.[30][32][33] The term Israeli Arabs in particular is viewed as a construct of the Israeli authorities.[30][32][33][34] It is nonetheless used by a significant minority of the Arab population, "reflecting its dominance in Israeli social discourse."[24]'
'Politics'
'Arab political parties'
'There are three mainstream Arab parties in Israel: Hadash (a joint Arab-Jewish party with a large Arab presence), Balad, and the United Arab List, which is a coalition of several different political organizations including the Islamic Movement in Israel. In addition to these, there is Ta'al, which currently run with Hadash. All of these parties primarily represent Arab-Israeli and Palestinian interests, and the Islamic Movement is an Islamist organization with two factions: one that opposes Israel's existence, and another that opposes its existence as a Jewish state. Two Arab parties ran in Israel's first election in 1949, with one, the Democratic List of Nazareth, winning two seats. Until the 1960s all Arab parties in the Knesset were aligned with Mapai, the ruling party.'
'Arab-dominated parties typically do not join governing coalitions. However, historically these parties have formed alliances with dovish Israeli parties and promoted the formation of their governments by voting with them from the opposition. Arab parties are credited with keeping Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in power, and they have suggested they would do the same for a government led by Labor leader Isaac Herzog and peace negotiator Tzipi Livni.[196][197] A 2015 Haaretz poll found that a majority of Israeli Arabs would like their parties, then running on a joint list, to join the governing coalition.[198]'
'Legal and political status'
'Israel's Declaration of Independence called for the establishment of a Jewish state with equality of social and political rights, irrespective of religion, race, or sex.[241]'
'The rights of citizens are guaranteed by a set of basic laws (Israel does not have a written constitution).[242] Although this set of laws does not explicitly include the term "right to equality", the Israeli Supreme Court has consistently interpreted "Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty"[243] and "Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation (1994)"[244] as guaranteeing equal rights for all Israeli citizens.[245]'
'The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that "Arab Israelis are citizens of Israel with equal rights" and states that "The only legal distinction between Arab and Jewish citizens is not one of rights, but rather of civic duty. Since Israel's establishment, Arab citizens have been exempted from compulsory service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)."[246] Druze and Circassians are drafted into the Israeli army, while other Arabs may serve voluntarily; however, only a very small number of Arabs choose to volunteer for the Israeli army.[247]'
''Many Arab citizens feel that the state, as well as society at large, not only actively limits them to second-class citizenship, but treats them as enemies, affecting their perception of the de jure versus de facto quality of their citizenship.[248] The joint document The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, asserts: "Defining the Israeli State as a Jewish State and exploiting democracy in the service of its Jewishness excludes us, and creates tension between us and the nature and essence of the State." The document explains that by definition the "Jewish State" concept is based on ethnically preferential treatment towards Jews enshrined in immigration (the Law of Return) and land policy (the Jewish National Fund), and calls for the establishment of minority rights protections enforced by an independent anti-discrimination commission.[249]'
'Citizenship and Entry Law
On 31 July 2003, Israel enacted the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Provision), 5763–2003, a one-year amendment to Israel's Citizenship Law denying citizenship and Israeli residence to Palestinians who reside in the West Bank or Gaza Strip and who marry Israelis; the rule has been waived for any Palestinian "who identifies with the State of Israel and its goals, when he or a member of his family has taken concrete action to advance the security, economy or any other matter important to the State". Upon expiration the law was extended for six months in August 2004, and again for four months in February 2005.[263][better source needed] On 8 May 2005, the Israeli ministerial committee for issues of legislation once again amended the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, to restrict citizenship and residence in Israel only to Palestinian men over the age of 35, and Palestinian women over the age of 25.'
'Defenders of the Citizenship and Entry Law say it is aimed at preventing terrorist attacks and preserving the "Jewish character" of Israel by restricting Arab immigration.[264] The new bill was formulated in accordance with Shin Bet statistics showing that involvement in terror attacks declines with age. This newest amendment, in practice, removes restrictions from half of the Palestinian population requesting legal status through marriage in Israel. This law was upheld by a High Court decision in 2006.[264]'
'Although this law theoretically applies to all Israelis, it has disproportionately affected Arab citizens of Israel;[265] Arabs are far more likely to have Palestinian spouses than other Israelis.[266] Thus the law has been widely considered discriminatory[267] and the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has unanimously approved a resolution saying that the Israeli law violated an international human rights treaty against racism.[268]' (Wikipedia) See link below.' (Wikipedia) See link below.
As I indicated there are differences of opinion with reference to 'Arab citizens of
Israel' and many sources to refer to. This is just one of them.
Perhaps, Tracey, but their voting rights are administratively limited, and the national policy made law under Netanyahu openly states that Israel is for the Jewish people.
And the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza certainly do not have the right to vote.
Finally, I think the time has come when we should recognize that a Nation cannot be a democracy and serve as the Country of one religion or one people only.
This is why I think the "two state solution " is a chimera.
Israel should be one, secular, democratic nation for ALL its people, Jews, and Palestinians
The 2 state solution refers to somehow, by some miracle, getting a Palestinian State to form and be stable and to consist of the Gaza and West Bank territories. It does not mean splitting the present-day Israeli boundaries into two.
The in-Israel Arabs (Palestinians) have been coexisting peacefully with the in-Israel Jews, with some (a few) even electing to serve in the Israeli army. They have equal rights on paper, but their lives are not equal because more economic and infrastructure development occurs in urban areas with majority Jewish population. But they do vote, they do get state support, they make up a large portion of professional medical staff in hospitals and clinics, have joined the legal and white collar work forces, and are members of the Israeli Parliament. In other words, Israel's successes have been shared with them, though they are viewed with suspicion by some Jews and by Palestinians whose ancestors lost their homes in 1948 and are stuck in the West Bank or Gaza.
The roadblocks to that 2-state solution include, in my opinion, the West Bank settlements that require a large security operation by the IDF that constricts freedom of movement for the West Bank Palestinians. That security will sometimes include detention of Palestinians suspect of trying to undermine peace. I am livid with Isrsel's treatment of West Bank Palestinians, though I strongly support Israel's right to exist and protect itself. The other side of this story is that Hamas has been sabotaging peace efforts in the West Bank since the 1990's. They have also ruined Gaza residents' path to dignity and self determination since they took over there in 2006.
To summarize, a two state solution that would fulfill the original vision of the 1947 UN partition into independent Jewish and Arab states will not be achieved until Hamas is defanged, Netanyahu's in jail, and the right wing coalition is soundly defeated in elections. That won't happen until Israelis feel safe, and that requires enough international support for the Palestinians, so their resentments could be assuaged.
Yes, I am well aware that the 2 state solution is pre-1967 Israel and a Palestinian State in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Hamas defanged, Netanyahu in jail and the right wing coalition soundly defeated. I'm with you on all of those.
The problem however, besides the near Sisyphian task required to bring that all about, is that there is no foreseeable way to put the Israeli military goliath back in the bottle. (Pardon my mixing metaphors) Also, the Israeli settlers occupying Palestinian property on the West Bank, are eerily similar to our right wing theocrats, aren't going away soon, and won't relinquish their power. A significant part of the Palestinian historical resentment goes back to the founding of the State of Israel and the Nakba (catastrophe) they suffered at that time. While that cannot be fully assuaged, and it would be clearly unfair to four generations of Israeli citizens to go back to that time and start over, something should be done.
This is why I think the conventional 2 state solution is both impracticable and way too insufficient.
A joint Israeli/Palestinian State from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, including both Gaza and the West Bank, governed by a constitutional, secular and democratic arrangement is the only hope. After all, whether you worship Yahweh, Allah or Jesus, or any plethora of other deities or none at all, there are no chosen people, only people.
Hi Daniel. Than you for the good Thanksgiving wishes. I hope you had a good one, too. This year, our adult children were pulled elsewhere, so we had a smaller and roadies one this time. Quite fun, and at my age, I'll need a longer recovery.
The Israeli army may be a Goliath compared to Hamas' military capability, but it's filled with citizen soldiers. It will do what the citizens demand of it. This is the only thing I'm sure of. The rest of whati say is wishful thinking.
The reason I doubt a one state solution will work is the 76 years of resentments nurtured by Arabs after they lost the war to drive all the Jews out. I have less trust that as a group they will want to coexist peacefully AMONG Jews than eventually accept the status quo SEPARATED from Jews. I also believe that giving Arabs the right to return implies giving the decendents of the Jews expelled from surrounding Arab countries aright to return and be made whole. Those Jewish refugees outnumbered Arab refugees, though their birth rate has been lower since then.
And still, if we can somehow impose a one state solution, Hamas and other Islamist groups must be pacified on the Arab side, and the settlers and their hawkish supporters must be pacified on the Israeli side. I see that as less likely to be doable as opposed to separation.
Backt to Thanksgiving. I am thankful we have the freedom to debate this in safety. I'm also thankful that we can afford to give remaining leftovers to our spoiled dog. I don't know how we'll get here to ear her fancy kibble when leftovers are gone, but that is a relatively simple challenge to tackle.
I don't know either, but a pure military approach, and by Israel alone, will not work. We need an international coalition to help the Palestinians, and hopefully that's what Biden's working on.
You should try to learn more about the way all Palestinians, whodid indeed lose their land, have been treated by the IDF. Israel is currently managing to get Instagram to take down video of released hostages smiling and waving goodbye to Hamas guards. The threats against students demonstrating for Palestinian rights, denied free speech, is another example of Israel and its supporters trying to control information. Not one word about the Palestinians' loss of their homes and land was reported by western media from the beginning. And yes, I condemn Hamas.
Absolutely true.... and a point lost on many who buy into the Hamas narrative. Are you referring to the Portland Press Herald (my hometown paper when I was growing up in Portland)? I Googled recent headlines and a few stories from recent days in the PPH, and they all use the word "prisoners" for those being released by the Israelis.
Having used to write headlines for student & a small town paper many years ago, know that the editors often don't pay enough attention to the final headlines before paper goes to print.
She has been careful and I appreciate that. However, I would disagree with her line where she describes Hamas “who need hostages for their own bargaining power.” There is no “need” for hostages. Words are subtle and powerful.
I think HCR is referring to Hamas’ “need” to use the hostages as bargaining chips. From Hamas’ perspective it is a need, or perhaps a want. Having said that, we quibble far too much over the words used . . . sometimes it is better to focus on the overall statement . . . we’re not diplomats after all.
I encourage anyone who believes that Israel is a democracy that respects the rule of law to look up (i) their use of administrative detention, (ii) the Nation-State Basic Law passed in 2018, and (iii) arguments that Israel is committing apartheid.
Or listen with an open mind to anything by these historians/academics: Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappé, Norman Finkelstein, Rashid Khalidi. You can get a decent overview of the situation starting with the Balfour Declaration in 1917.
I did what you suggested, and while I agree that the practice of administrative detention or other practices that almost all nations use to suppress threats to their civil societies is very problematic to my sense of justice. Israel is certainly not alone in the use of the practice, which includes many states, I and many others believe to be democratic. This includes the US both currently and historically.
As a side note, there has been no coverage of the three MSF doctors killed in Gaza doing the most hazardous work imaginable. MSF needs our support for all they do around the globe to alleviate human suffering and save as many lives as possible with limited resources.
I am putting together our holiday donations list. We don't have much, but we select a few organizations at this time of year and do what we can. MSF is at the top of the list. World Central Kitchen and the Red Cross are next.
Yes. Those are number one, together. Before I retired, I was not at all satisfied with my work situation and applied for a logistics position with MSF. Unfortunately, all openings were in West Africa and speaking French was a requirement. They are a fantastic organization.
My fear is that negotiating with the terrorist group Hamas will lead to more hostage taking, Americans being more valuable apparently. However with Netanyahu’s government acting more and more like a terrorist organization, it’s hard to find a good guy to negotiate with. In fact, their response to the Hamas horror has itself been so horrible that Hamas is gaining supporters. One would like to think it’s the Palestinian people they care about, but it’s Hamas that is crowing and acting as stupid as Netanyahu, the people be damned. So far, seems that the perpetrator of this current slice of hell is winning the PR war. Hope Joe’s strategy to force a little humanity into the situation works, but power-brokers scraping over every square inch of land know little of humanity.
Remember now, Likud and Netanyahu needed and fostered Hamas to make sure there would be no "Two State Solution". All the while, rightwing ultra orthodox Israelis expanded settlements in the West Bank and destroyed hundreds of years of Palestinian agriculture and communities. As Heather mentioned, with all the normalizations going on between Israel and Arab states, Hamas caught Netanyahu asleep at the wheel and created the incident to remind all parties not to leave out the Palestinians.
I was not surprised. Hamas still doesn’t deserve hero status. I have been expecting that Netanyahu’s obvious and widespread land grabs would lead to a catastrophe of some sort. Had no idea that he was supporting the terrorists in his neighborhood. A dangerous game that blew up in his face. Taking innocents along for the ride. But I have to ask, who are the innocents. Did Hamas have majority support, did Netanyahu have majority support, does chump have majority support? It is possible that the “innocents” are a majority who have had their power usurped by greed and Machiavellian manipulation.
"All the while, rightwing ultra orthodox Israelis expanded settlements in the West Bank and destroyed hundreds of years of Palestinian agriculture and communities."
Supported by US arms shipments to the Israeli "settlers".
Shipments supported by payments to US representatives in Congress from Wealthy supporters of Israel in the US.
All in all, about as ugly and distasteful as it can be.
I have read elsewhere but as of yet not made the effort to entirely confirm that Likud aided the dominance of Hamas due to their rejection of a two-state solution. I have also read that the US aided Osama bin Laden as part of maneuvering against the Russians. The CIA finally acknowledged their role in overthrowing the secular, elected government of Iran. I have read that Castro first sought the aid of the US before falling in with the Soviets. It seems that a lot of this international "chess game" playing goes sideways. Real chess pieces have no agenda. People and nations do. It seems like a dangerous game. It seems as though our best defense "is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men (sic), in all lands, everywhere." and always was.
Prior administrations have subverted international law with vetoes against penalizing crimes against humanity and have subverted the international criminal court by pulling out of it. What's left should not be the conditions under which Joe Biden or any other president should be constrained to working to restore humanity. We can either have a civilization governed by laws that apply to all nations, or we can be at the mercy of aspirations of power brokers, warlords, and arms manufacturers.
I remember the craziness in our government after 911, justifying the use of torture and encouraging us to give up rights to allow the government to pursue terrorists. It is embarrassing that the US does not participate in the international criminal court. The previous administration's efforts to weaken NATO and withdraw from the Paris accords were also horrifying.
"In fact, their response to the Hamas horror has itself been so horrible that Hamas is gaining supporters."
One of the side effects of the Hamas invasion is many have been reading and trying to learn about the historical background.
For me, the eye opener history was the existence and actions of the "Balfour Declaration" by some rich Brit named, of course, Balfour, in the British Government in 1917. That declaration started this whole mess as Britain, apparently as part of an anti-Semitic campaign to rid Britain of Jewish folks, moved large numbers of the Jews in Great Britain to Palestinian occupied land.
I was, of course, not shocked to find Britain at the origin story of such a big mess. Anytime the Brits are involved in anything of a serious nature, in my own personal experience, it turns into a complete, utter disaster.
And so it has become a disaster: The Balfour Declaration.
Another example of British mess making was the occupation of India. A beautiful, clean country filled with beautiful people, primordial jungles, exotic animals and nature.
Destroyed by the Brits to make tea to profit the "empire".
I watched one old video of some British woman sitting on top of a platform with a gun, every once in a while shooting something.
Then, the camera pans to the right and a 20 ft tall pile of dead Bengal tigers appear in the camera lens. For what? Money in some Brit pocket.
Did not know about that. I remember Vanessa Redgrave being such a strong activist for the Palestinians years ago. Bet she knew. I just thought that Yasser Arafat was as evil as they come. Oh, if only we could go back and undo the mistakes of the past, but the best we can do, is try to minimize the damage. Not much success at that either. Or in even agreeing on what the mistakes of the past were…
NC and TX. The Gablers were influential in dumbing down Texas textbooks, which influenced history books nationwide. Hope they are enjoying a toasty hell. The best resting place for pretend Christians. Oops, hope I don’t get banned from here too.
Please go read even a second rate history text book before you start disseminating misinformation. About the origins of Palestine ( a Roman Empire province ), the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire,Lord Balfour and Theodore Hertzel and others from a very active Zionist movement in Britain, the history of Britain’s colonial policy in Palestine , the Zionist resistance in Palestine to protest the British government and finally the post colonial period where you might very well bring up the Partition in India and the current history of Hindu and Muslim religious tensions, the sorry state of the former African colonies and the break up of the Soviet Union. Rich Brits and tea just does not cut it.
And let’s not forget East Africa which England and Germany felt entitled to divide between themselves, drawing the boundaries so that they each got a mountain. The arrogance of white man continues unabated.
Thanks, later I will listen to Beau. I need a break before I get into learning more horrible truths.
For the sake of my health, I usually restrict my attention to a number of upsetting ugly information. This is so that I can get out of bed in the morning.
This talk by the outstanding Dr. Angela Liu to the security council of the UN in 2016 is also important.
I am ill since October 8. As a person who reveres life and who abhors and fears abuse, brutality and violence of every kind, a physician and one who has volunteered and worked overseas. I am sickened by the abuse , cruelty and the appalling murder of thousands of babies and children. I abhor all bombings ,bomb makers and all poisonous chemicals. I am sickened by what has just happened , sickened. Usually I spend a lot of time in meditation and prayer and I will try again. However since October 8 I have difficulty as when I begin to meditate and pray , I hear the cries of the injured women and children. I think of all the murdered doctors , nurses and physios and I cry and I cry.
I keep playing videos of Canadian and other physicians I admire.
Dr. Joanne Liu is an outstanding human being with impeccable moral and spiritual intelligence. I find her calm , caring and thoughtful speach very elevating although she speaks of unbelievably awful topics.
In this Dr Liu remind me of Professor Richardson. We need to learn from compassionate, nurturing human beings who have really reviewed very terrifying events and then share a helpful and hopeful response.
I continue to pray for sanity and speed to release all hostages on both sides.
Thank you Heather, Professor Richardson, for your steadfast reporting of all that you know, as soon as you know it. You are at least offering all who read a chance to quietly consider how this man-made war has evolved and is being fought with seemingly no consideration for the thousands of human beings caught in the crossfire.
In 1953 I visited Palestine refugees in Gaza, then under Egyptian control. They were housed in tents, since Egypt did not want them as immigrants.
Seventy years later the Israeli/Palestinian situation is the worst ever. After the horrendous Hamas massacre of October 7th, Netanyahu promised ‘revenge,’ the Israeli Defense Force started launching thousands of air strikes against the 2,000,000 Gaza Palestinian residents, and then a tanks/artillery/ ground forces attack commenced—with the announced target the Hamas terrorists.
The shaky hostage-release ‘pause’ seems temporary with an uncertain ‘next phase.’ Already at least 15,000 Gaza civilians have been killed, perhaps 40% of the buildings in northern Gaza destroyed or damaged, and there seems no ‘safe area’ in Gaza for Palestinian civilians.
President Biden and a number of global and regional leaders seek some sort of ‘cease fire.’ Reports from Israel and from IDF spokesmen indicate an intention of renewing a massive military initiative in Gaza once the hostage ‘pause’ ends.
I sense a strong desire by Netanyahu and others in Israel’s current government to make much of Gaza uninhabitable in a sustained assault to destroy Hamas. Some military experts opine that Hamas, as a military force, might be momentarily damaged, but, as a ‘movement,’ it could remain and even recruit a new generation of ‘terrorists.’
I have great difficulty envisaging an ameliorating ‘end game’ to Israel’s military strategy, which has included denying food, water, fuel, and safety to 2,000,000 Palestinians huddled in a tiny space.
1) Do they intend to ravage Gaza, occupy the area, and maintain draconian governance?
2) Does anyone have an alternative governance plan whereby some other other group—UN, Arab, or yet-to-be-identified moderate Palestinian leader— would assume responsibility for managing Gaza?
3) Who would initiate and fund a massive ‘Marshall-Fund-type effort’ to provide the countless billions of dollars required to rebuild a much destroyed Gaza?
Personally I am flummoxed when I try to consider a positive conclusion to this horrendous Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
I am also deeply concerned that the United States, despite President Biden’s well-intentioned efforts to moderate Netanyahu’s ‘revenge,’ will seem indifferent to massive Palestinian civilian deaths by much of the world’s population.
Time for USA to condition aid to Israel on freezing settlements and efforts to heal decades of moral and physical injury our enabling is bring manipulated by the minority far right coalition.
Well said, Keith. There is no vision for an end game. A "two state" solution is bandied about with no definition of what territory would be involved, what entity would rule whatever "Palestine " would be. Gaza plus two thirds of the West Bank (700,000 "settlers" aren't going anywhere)? Who would govern? Walls around each area? Occasional rockets exchanged forever?
A smart first step for Palestinians would be to toss out Hamas who offer nothing but vicious revenge and a commitment to more murders and worse.
I wish I was a magic man in the sky and I could go back in time. I would set out the welcome mat in Israel/Palestine for Jews who have been persecuted like no other entity I can think of. But the "Palestinians" would still be on their ancestral lands and they would join with Jews to create a non-sectarian nation where all faiths and ethnicities would be welcome and safe. Where all could thrive. In the lens of long term history, Jews and Arabs are cousins.
I'll wake up from my fantasy now. I look back for some parallel where endless horrors were finally halted. I think of Ireland - which is struggling anew (thank you, Brexit boneheads). But back in the day, two things seemed to lead to a pivot for peace. Women finally had enough. And the sides agreed to negotiation that was guided by a very patient and talented man - George Mitchell.
The hatred and cycle of vengeance was no less intense in Ireland - not as large a stage - but still, it seemed hopeless. And many were only committed to retaliation - no vision of peace.
Maybe it is up to the women in Gaza and Israel to call a halt. The men have no imagination or creativity left in them - just brutal behavior.
Bill I was thinking of the House as a circus freak show in which Junk Fish Johnson could be displayed as the tattooed, bearded lady—with apologies to real ladies.
I am trying to organize a small event in my new community in Logy Bay, Nl, Canada to honour and support the work of Vivian Silver. Fifty four years ago my family and I threw ourselves into supporting the women's ecumenical peace movement founded by the late Betty Williams and by Mairead Corrigan. The US Media even then ignored the mundane day to day community level work of non violence and peace -building and of course certain women are essential.I use the word certain women because I lived through Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's reign of terror. Like Queen Elizabeth I loved a ' good" war.
in total contrast HRH Queen Elizabeth II was an outstanding partnership focused leader.
Its all very depressing. I of course never heard about Vivian Silver and her wonderful work until after new of her abduction on Oct.7 surfaced in Canada . Very sadly we learned last week she was murdered in. the sadistic Hamas attack.
Bless your warm heart. Please share with others who may enjoy this. I am posting twice daily on people and ideas that are either inspirational , enlightening or funny.
I suspect your questions will be a long time being answered. That there is no entity capable of fielding a trained, trustworthy Arab peace-keeping force is telling, especially with the African Union (barely) able to do so fairly near-by.
I would prefer if the two parties would sign an agreement to hand to a panel of arbitrators, with the further agreement that the arbitrator‘s decision could be finally decided by the world court.
All the parties would have access to the same AI program in formulating their proposals, and the court would have access and use of the same.
William Let’s try this out first with Putin and the Ukraine. In Asia, international organizations has ruled that China was illegally claiming/taking territory, but China ignores this. There also have been past rulings. About Israel/Palestine that have been ignored.
Keith, I gave real thought on Thanksgiving to what I am grateful for. This letter and the forum of reader/commenters is high on the list. While all those who comment add value, there are some people who I've come to "know" and I seek out their posts, and I wanted to send a word of thanks. (Knowing I'd miss some, I did post a general thank you. ) I have learned quite a bit from people like you, who expand upon and elaborate the information that HCR gives us.
So, to you a personal thank you! I appreciate your wisdom and experience!
So, what happens when (if) all Israeli hostages are returned? Does Israel continue destroying lives, buildings and land in Gaza? Does Israel get serious about a two state solution? If so, with whom does Israel negotiate? And, most important of all, will Biden, or Trump if he’s elected, have the sense and grace to hold Israel’s feet close enough to the fire to leave Palestine with adequate territory to build a real state? I’m not holding my breath. The US hasn’t been too successful solving problems like this. I offer our continuing failure to end gun violence as evidence of our inability to negotiate solutions when stakes are high and all sides are adamant they are right.
Where will the State of Palestine be? The West Bank is the largest territory with very established settlements of half a million Jews and nearly that number of IDF soldiers determined to intimidate, kill or drive every Palestinian out.
When will you realize that Hamas runs Gaza, is not interested in a two-state solution and never has been. The surrounding Arab countries are not interested in helping. Gaza’s goal is the extinction of Israel. There is no outcry about the thousands of Muslims killed in Syria. There are no protests about them. But Israel is not allowed to win a war. I think that’s called anti-semitism.
Not only is Hamas not interested in a two state solution. It’s also not interested in the wellbeing of the people who live in Gaza. It has repeatedly and continuously diverted humanitarian and construction resources meant to aid Palestinians to their own projects. How else do you think 300 miles of tunnels got built, and rockets continued to fly into Israel while hospitals complained they were running out of fuel? Hamas is a terror factory whose owners safely live on well guarded villas in Qatar.
"There are no protests about them. But Israel is not allowed to win a war. I think that’s called anti-semitism."
Perhaps.
But, in fact, there have been protests. Hillary Clinton lost the election in 2016, in part, because of her role in sponsoring the (bloodthirsty) "rebels" and STARTING the war in Syria.
It was NOT just because of her emails.
Many Democrats remembered the origin story of the Syrian mess and did not vote. I mean, it did not help that Bill would be back in the White House with Dementia chasing teenagers around again either.
But, I was screaming to the heavens when I found out WE, the USA, we starting the Syrian war on Hillary's account.
Obama has since said: "The arming of rebels in Syria was the worst decision I made as President".
I personally opposed what Hillary was doing as soon as I learned about it. Many people did. But, what can we do?
Israel has “won” the war already because it has killed 13 or 14 times more civilians than Hamas, while flattening the historical homeland of one million Palestinians. So, don’t imply that Israel or the Biden administration really wants a two state solution either. Check out last Friday’s “Democracy Now” broadcast (democracynow.org) for a different view of what’s going on. Ta-Nehisi Coates went to Gaza after the “war” started and opened his comments during a presentation at the Union Theological Seminary noting that people told him to stay away from the controversy because it would hurt his career and because the whole Israeli-Palestine issue was complicated. He went on the say that what he saw wasn’t complicated at all. It was similar to what he and his ancestors experienced in this country - colonial expansion and domination for the profit of others. Israel just took over from the British. He didn’t deny Israel’s right to exist - just that it needed to kill so many Palestinians over the last 70+ years to do so. I’ll close with my usual - I’m an 81 year old cultural Jew who knows anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.
I just want the Jews to survive Hamas and all the other terrorist organizations. Get rid of Netanyahu and be left alone. Simplistic maybe but very important. With European countries turning fascist, I have to say Never Again.
Agreed on Jewish survival. As for Hamas and other terrorist organizations, it’s nice to be a nation and be able to kill who you want without being called a “terrorist organization”.
Barry AWWWRK! And there is the special category of Israeli military hostages, which has been a humongous issue in the past. So far President Biden does not seem to have significant influence in dealing with Netanyahu’s government and the Israeli Defense Forces.
I note that Hamas, during the ‘hostage pause,’ so far has only released little more than a dozen foreigners—Thais and a Filipino. Biden is hoping that Americans will soon be included.
"Once again, he emphasized that 'this cycle of violence in the Middle East' must end. And, once again, he called for 'a two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians can one day live side by side…with equal measure of freedom and dignity.' He told reporters, 'There’s overwhelming interest—and I think most Arab nations know it—in coordinating with one another to change the dynamic in their region for a longer-term peace.' He noted that he was 'working very closely with the Saudis and others…to bring peace to the region by having recognition of Israel and Israel’s right to exist...'”
It strikes me that as often as I have heard the terms "two-state solution" and "Israel's right to exist," I have never once heard of the second state's name mentioned together with its "right to exist." Doesn't that seem really odd to anyone else? Doesn't having a two-state solution require open commitment to two states' right to exist?
Unless nations can regain a respect for the necessity for international law and an effective international criminal court, the worst elements are left to resolve their conflicted ambitions by violence. If we did not value the rule of law and access to courts, why shouldn't we expect to see vigilantes and gangs of thugs doing the same at smaller scales across our own neighborhoods?
Ed, in 1948 the UN voted that there be two states in the region, one for Arabs and one for Jews. Maps were drawn defining which group went where. Neither state was named. The Jewish leaders in the area, led by Ben Gurion, proclaimed the Jewish state would be named Israel. That day five Arab countries surrounding them declared war, promising to “push them to the sea”. A case can be made that that war has never ended.
A compiled history of the path through which we arrived here is detailed in a decade old volume by Max Blumenthal with the title Goliath.... One should read that because the book is well annotated with sources and evidence, even though there are reasons one may not like the author. It was a NYT best-seller, but the NYT to date has refused to allow publication of a book review. Such is the kind of censorship that we have against open discussion of what we are now drawn into dealing with.
I continue to hope. Hope that Biden and his team have a very tight rope around Netanyahu and his crazy generals in the IDF and the Likud Party. Joe has given Bibi many warnings about his response towards Hamas. Hamas is abhorred by some of the Arab nations but not by Iran nor Lebanon. They are definitely a terrorist organization which gained weaponry, intelligence, and training from members of ISIS. They have proven that they are tunnel rats with sophisticated means. On top of that, they are murderers and rapists. They now are dangling carrots, the people they kidnapped, and if Israel doesn’t do what they demand, then those citizens are left in peril.
Over 14,000 Palestinians have been killed. We simply cannot forget about them. Leadership on all sides must change, like yesterday! Joe is the only one everybody listens to. He is the ONLY ONE. It’s our duty to hold him up.
Marlene President Biden so far has demonstrated scant influence over Netanyahu and the Israeli Defense Forces. In his ‘humanitarian’ initiatives he would want a ‘cease fire’ rather than a ‘hostage pause.’ We’ll soon see how Israel responds to the broad opposition to massive killing of countless civilians and the destruction of much of Gaza.
Meanwhile, Biden should ‘slow walk’ any offensive materials [bombs, artillery shells] destined for Israel.
I agree with you, Keith. Biden chooses his words carefully. Netanyahu has proven his ineptness time and time again. His generals are as crazed as he is. He was a criminal before, but now Bibi is a war criminal.
Surely there has been a problem this vexing in the history of warring sides. But one centered in such a small area of land? And one this far from our home that has brought out so much overt irrational hatred? It’s all so hard to fathom.
In the sense that any religion makes sense. Back in 1948, a good deal of Florida was open and available, and it was already pretty much a Jewish State. The "Holy Land" could have been left under U.N. mandate to be sacred for all religions with a history there.
This is encouraging news. However , I still feel that not all the hostages will be released. Netanyahu is a authoritarian who will only negotiate so far with President Biden. I pray 🙏 for the Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. This war is far from over.
Now, let us not be dismissive or judgemental. As a lifetime atheist I do understand the needs of others who need some such meditation to maintain their own sanity in the face of the horrors of reality.
Me thinks that god washed his/her hands of this mess long ago. Twitter God once said “I never would have made you this smart if I knew you were going to be this stupid.” My sentiments exactly.
You are spot on. I followed “God” on old Twitter. I have a bunch of quotes that I love. “Everything happens for a reason you make up afterward.” I’ll dig up a few more. Glad somebody else appreciates the humor. Has kept me sort of sane…
I never did Twitter. I have enough info. from the numerous sites I pay for. I would appreciate any other goodies "God" said about his/her/it's badly designed human product.
When some of the people I hold dear and consider intelligent went to the dark side (MAGA) it has been the frequent commenters on here that have been a lifeline.
It's about time for an overwhelming number of letters to the editors of the NYT and WaPo to demand coverage of Biden's around the clock negotiations as NEWS and not keep saying "some" or "it is thought" balloney. Now that we are seeng the results, all that is covered is the heartwrenching images of people hoping and waiting.
Their quest for maintaining impartiaity IS partiality by denying the public's right to know. We all know,as a commumnity that pays attention, all the real acomplishments of the Biden Administraion that only gets mentioned deep in the body of the papers, if at all.
I agree totally. A very on point article from the Columbia Journalism Review on the NYT and WaPo coverage of the midterms that quantifies the problem on editorial choices on coverage and bias.
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/election-politics-front-pages.php
Writing to the corporate boards of those media companies is also an option.
Excellent piece...thank you! The major newspapers certainly do not hold a candle as in their years of Watergate. The team of Ben Bradlee and Katherine Graham took risks and those paid off in the biggest time ever. These editors we have now just squeak.
It seems 'The Guardian' is an island where there is credibility, but not unlimited funds. They, meaning the Guardian operation, try very hard to not nurture BS.
I actually gave them some money. I read the Guardian right after Heather’s letter every morning!
Husband is a Brit and we get the Guardian Weekly printed on thin paper for the Brit news and crossword puzzles, have done for forty years.
Our online Guardian is pitched to us American readers, but international content is there, in sections if not the “front page.”
Me too. It is by no means perfect and its pundits are not the best but I love the way it arranges the news by category: Israeli/Hamas conflict, Ukraine, Climate change It never lets go of climate change. It often reports on stories WAPA and NYT don’t cover. They did an excellent piece on Zach Shrewsbury the other day. He’s the Dem candidate running for Senate in WVA. Unknown to lamestream media. Please check him out.
The NYT and WAPO reports on Ukraine are buried deep since the Israel /Hamas war. It’s vitally important to keep Ukraine front and center with our full support and win this war.
There are so many reasons to note the decline of both the NY Times and the Washington Post, even leaving out the slanted and misspelled headlines, typo's and repeated text in the Times and the very slim coverage of all but a few topics in each Post.
What I find especially irritating is the disappearance of coverage of the Ukraine war. For instance, did you know that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have secured a very long beachhead on the east side of the Dnipro River, critical to the advance this winter (yes, they plan to keep fighting through the winter) on the main coastal road, cutting off supplies from the Russian troops and giving easy drone access to all of Crimea? Or that Ukraine, with no navy to speak of, has driven the Russian Black Sea fleet out of the western half of the sea?
It's not as if these papers have limited space online.
The Guardian is the ONLY major international online newspaper that gives balanced factual coverage, and subsists solely on reader donations.
Theres actually IS a Dem running in WVA??
Are the Dems actually helping his campaign???
Zach is a young Bernie. Fiest and not afraid to speak truth to power. He is a very long longshot, but I am supporting him nonetheless.
It wouldn’t be the first time
Done & donated.
And. . .there are no ads interrupting an article.
Please. The Guardian is just as much a war rag as the NYT/WaPo. I keep waiting, in vain, for the majority of the citizens of the western nations to grasp the fact that they are the most propagandized people on earth. Pathetic, especially, the liberal class, in its lack of awareness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dcl5PgwVYv4
Listened to about half of this - also heard a little blurb from one guy just throwing in there that this was intimidation "like having to wear a mask" - have to add - lack of awareness isnt limited to liberals!
You were brave. Tom has a trove of YouTube videos to make his points. Apparently they are more trustworthy than any other sources.
Never said that it was. The reference to the liberal class comes from its consideration that it stands in rarified air as the exemplars of enlightenment, as compared to the heathen hordes who question, say, the efficacy of masks.
Interesting that your one comment referencing the demise of the Guardian as a credible source boils down to a ‘little blurb from one guy’ response. Cute.
What publication do you suggest currently for truth in journalism?
None. My suggestion is to follow writers/reporters you trust, especially those who could care less about 1) having government/corporate sources as a means of covering a story, and 2) having a ‘career’ in legacy media. If you want my current list of go-tos, lmk.
I sub to the Guardian and have for a few years. The only way I can get news that isn't sanitized.
Thank you for referral of The Guardian. We realize that NYT and WP are not adequate to learn about the key issues of the world.
Yes, but not always. I see them wavering over to the defence of Hamas now and then. There is a large Muslim population in the UK. Not all of course support terrorism.
They are a very reliable source, I agree MadRussian.
Excellent article and it articulated exactly what I’ve been thinking. The NYT’s front page article about Trump beating Biden in polls of 5 swing states is a perfect example. This ‘poll’ is completely irrelevant 1 year out from the election, but front page news at the Times. I would love to see more policy articles and how the two parties are fundamentally different.
And when we write to them, we should remind them of that, shouldn’t we?
I hope your sentiments are inaccurate, but it’s up to the public who read those papers to either comment editorialize or stop purchasing them
Thanks!
I just logged in and tried to cancel my NY Times subscription, but, of course, it is not possible. I have to call a phone number during the work week.
I will do. Georgia, thanks for the article. I had the growing perception that the times had become more right wing, although, they have covered some issues with Israel that were "balanced".
But, after the article link you sent, I am done. Let them cater to the far right without my money.
Mike
I subscribe to Wapo. Here’s letter to them
Hello,
As a subscriber, I am disappointed that coverage of national issues fail to adequately inform me of policy issues, economic realities of progress made to increase living wage jobs, combat inflation and bring critical manufacturing capability back within our borders
Instead we are offered clickbait headlines touting a former president’s latest attack on judges, prosecutors, and citizens on his vanity social media, as if this was normal. Your coverage IS normalizing it, which I find disturbingly dangerous to democracy
I find the Horse Race polling and lack of attention to informing us of real policy issue to being lacking in journalistic integrity
Please note the attached article and feel free to respond
AP20273438792058-800x431.jpg
Warped Front Pages
cjr.org
I desire a newspaper, not a tabloid designed for grocery store checkout aisles
Thank you
Dave Dalton
Subscriber
Sent from my iPhone
Thank you so much, Dave. Terrific and on-point comment!
Dave Dalton, this is good indeed. I will copy and send a version, as well. I won't drop my subscription because there is still good reporting there and I prefer to give them a chance to come around.
I’m not dropping my WAPO either. My voice is only important if I pay
I may have quoted my mother more than once in the past on this topic. During the McCarthyism era Red Scare (https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/age-of-eisenhower/mcarthyism-red-scare) about communism taking over the world in the early 1950s, it was common to hear people proudly and defiantly, "I'd rather be dead than Red." My mother was an exception. She called that attitude stupid while pointing out that you can't make a difference when you are dead. It's the little things, isn't it, Dave? And ultimately, not so little. As Joyce Vance says, "We're in this together."
great letter
Thank you
We have to get our news from somewhere, I am not sure that canceling a subscription is the way to go--that just means they will slide further right and towards 100% clickbait. t
hey probably get more money from advertisers, so writing to advertisers and members of the NYT corporate board may be more effective.
Right now I use feedly as a news aggregator but that doesn't get you the independent journalists or the people like Heather Cox Richardson. If anyone knows of a list of quality independent sources let me know!
The Media and Democracy Project has a directory searchable by state.
“We created this directory to help you find local journalism in your area worth supporting. By donating or subscribing to the newsrooms on our list you’ll be paying towards the advancement of quality, community-focused journalism and contributing to a better informed citizenry, the bedrock of a strong democracy.
We sought outlets that hold the powerful to account, report the perspectives of marginalized communities, and seeks to verify truth rather than push false objectivity.”
https://www.mediaanddemocracyproject.org/journalism-directory
Kathy, thank you for this, I was not aware of all the publications out there. I’ve already signed up for one, and there will be more!
If you arent aware of this site - He does really great investigative reporting.
https://popular.info/p/americas-most-unhinged-unelected?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=b9ign&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Thanks for this link! I’m pleased that the “UpNorthNews” in Wisconsin got listed in there & I just signed up for the Menomonie listing.
Thanks for the link. I shared the NH state list and shared it to my local FB groups.
We subscribe. For me is the puzzles and the book review and some of the special sections during the week. I read NYT pieces online and very rarely read the WaPo. Hate Amazon and Bezos. I do like the Guardian and hopefully people will donate to them if possible. I read HCR first thing and many of the comments and that is enough for me. Then I look at the local Gannett rag mainly for obits and the Oregonian for other news of the area. We have a couple online sources of local news that aren't bad. A couple things struck me in the letter today: Biden's role in this, not Bibi's and the fact that many Hamas leaders live in Qatar away from the mess in Gaza. Sorta like a gated community or a private island. Once again we have nonsense in memes about the ancient area.
I listen to a lot of National Public Radio. They are a source I feel has served me well. Would you agree they do a good job of remaining unbiased?
Georgia, the thing about Heather is that she is an historian who does an excellent job weaving what happened before and after the Civil War. Her tapestry always beings us to the present day and the shenanigans of the R party who used to be Dems. She has just turned out to be a damn good journalist in the interim!
Georgia Fisanick - "Right now I use feedly as a news aggregator but that doesn't get you the independent journalists or the people like Heather Cox Richardson. If anyone knows of a list of quality independent sources let me know!"
Here is another aggregator to consider.
"𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 44% 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘥, 𝘉𝘪𝘢𝘴𝘭𝘺’𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵. 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘪𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘮 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮."
https://www.biasly.com/
Thank you for the link. I am looking at it now.
I very much enjoy your posts Mike S, but on this point I need to disagree gently. The NYT (in all its forms) has been my go to source for reporting on the Mideast Hamas-Israel fiasco.
I wrote “in all its forms” in the above paragraph because of the Times’ Audio app. From it, I listen to each Ezra Klein podcast. These provide the deepest and broadest reflections on all aspects of the crisis. He is incredibly thoughtful and his guests are experts in their fields of study. I strongly suggest people listen to these for historiography, for the tensions between Israelis and the Jewish diaspora, for spiritual thinking, and, yes, for American intervention to push Netanyahu.
As for the paper itself, the news is up to date and strenuous attempts are made to determine accuracy, using analytical tools to test claims on both sides. Their “Analysis” articles are helpful - the last one on how the deal came together has deep coverage of the American role.
Thomas Friedman’s Op-Eds have been as insightful and balanced as one would hope from a Mideast expert. They are long and detailed, and the NYT usually runs each one for 3 days.
This is beginning to sound like teenage cheerleading, so I will stop before I feel too embarrassed. I simply feel that the the NYT has become too easy a target for liberals to swing at - one can always gets warm by likes for a hearty smack and a cancelled subscription promise. I do not accuse you of that Mike S. I have read enough of your posts to see your genuine passion and thought. But overall, I am tired of the phenomenon and wish it might lessen. Criticism of the Times where earned is always appropriate, but in this terrible conflict I think they have stepped up nobly.
Oh those liberals! Must one be a liberal to unsubscribe to the Times? After started publishing writers who were apologists for Trump I unsubscribed and started reading and subscribing to Substack writers and The Guardian. Yes there are some writers worth reading in The Times but the headline writers often sensationalize in order to attract readers to an article!
Particularly revolting is the Times' Maureen Dowd giving over her column to her radical-right-wing brother. I won't say how many decades I've been reading Tom Friedman, who often provides actual news and informed insights you won't find elsewhere but is often biased and misleading.
I gave up o Maureen Dowd years ago when she started calling Pres. Obama, "Barry". I thought it was so disrespectful. Yes, she does defer to her right-wing brother but all in all, I would say I don't like the tone of her writing.
But isn’t the point to actually *read* the articles? We are surely all by now educated to the clickbait nature of headlines, and choose to read / not read in spite of the headline.
Thanks for writing about some Times Op Ed columnists. Reading the Columbia analysis of front page headlines made me wish they would also analyze those articles as I suspect those folks have significant influence on informing and shaping opinions of people who read beyond the front page and headlines.
Here is the rational thinking person’s assessment/analysis of Thomas Friedman. If you can’t make it through until the end, well, it just brings to mind the Jessup line about ‘handle the truth’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LNUapxMlRE
If that interview is “rational” then spare me from it. It takes little wit to cherry-pick from 30 years of a writer’s work and hack it to pieces, accompanied by ceaseless faked cackling. Matt Taibbi, sadly, has gone off the rails.
Besides which, your point begs the question of the relevance of the NYT. Friedman was one name I included. The breadth of the Times and its repeated innovations are priceless. Their coverage is damned alike by Liberals and Conservatives. It strikes me that they are therefore none too far from the truth regularly.
And I’m not shilling for them particularly. There is epic reporting in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Guardian and other places. Time spent with the video you pushed supplemented by a misinformed comment about “. . . handle the truth” is time I wasted. Although the comment as a whole is memorable, sadly for all the wrong reasons.
So I’ll spare you from rational then, with or without the quotation marks.
I know exactly why you think Taibbi has ‘gone off the rails’. He doesn’t care who he skewers, especially since 2016, including your Team Blue heroes. As Friedman himself would so eloquently put it, suck on this. Got any more NYT names for me? Bring ‘em. All mouthpieces for government accepted propaganda. Breadth? That’s funny. Innovations? Name them.
And then, the they are damned by both sides, so they must be doing something right fallacy. Cute, in a lemmingly centrist fashion. Epic reporting? You go, Jeffrey Goldberg!
Each of the rags you adore has been as pro-war as publication can get. Your comment is frankly, sad, for all the usual cheerleading the status quo reasons
Al Jazeera as a good news source? In the past it had a good reputation.
After I 'cut the cable' on Comcast, in my search for nightly news I rediscovered Al Jazeera ("The Island" in Arabic, I've been told) and have to admit that I've been astonished not only by the depth of their reporting but its impartiality as well. Worth checking out.
Thank you. That is the way I remember Al Jazeera.
Yes, I think they are reliable and are the only ones reporting on the reunions of released Palestinian prisoners with their relatives.
Canceling subscriptions to the NYT because you perceive a pro-Israel slant? There are many who cancel NYT subscriptions because they perceive a pro-Palestinian slant. The editors interpret your cancelations as that they are doing something RIGHT, offering balanced coverage of an extremely complex topic.
I was able to cancel mine...
Hi Mike S -- I've just done the roundabout trying to cancel. They do have weekend hours as well, for your info. Good luck, to both of us.
Moi aussi. I’m done with the NYT
It may be of some benefit to write to the major advertisers of the WAPO, NYT and a few other publications.
Recently we have seen stories https://www.reuters.com/technology/x-may-lose-up-75-mln-by-year-end-advertiser-exodus-nyt-2023-11-24/ about the loss of advertisers in the Times.
Perhaps the WAPO and Times could "benefit" from similar pullback from their advertisers.
Please don’t try to kill The NY Times! As most small newspapers have gone under and the Chicago Tribune is owned by some conglomerate (or hedge fund as is mostly unreadable) and both the Times and WaPo still have some excellent writers, we need them.
I agree. I love Paul Krugman and Maggie Haberman is one of the best journalists anywhere. But we don't need to read about TFFG on page 1 every day. If putting TFFG stories on page 1 everyday and relegating the Biden administration just to sell papers then I'm out. There are many other sources that report on TFFG all day.
But, their editor(s) needs to understand that their loyal subscribers know the Biden administration is being slighted and one way we can let them know is to boycott their advertisers.
I agree and I get the NYT special newsletter on areas of the world that I have chosen. Also get the same from the BBC.
Hah.. looks like Taylor Swift and the "Swifterees" have the MAGAttts right by the arse and they don't know it..yet. Not the governor of some state, but a young lady from virtually nowhere who seems to have something to offer besides a boob-job, law-degree, bagload of conspiracy theories, and she's got pussy-power over trump. Yeah.., I hear ya. She's workin Argentina right now.
As imperfect as newspapers are, I dread their demise. Who will ride to their rescue? Where is George Soros when we need him...
I hope that like vinyl recordings, some of the young out there will discover newspapers and get hooked. I know it's a small group, but everything would help.
I fear that George Soros may have slowed down due to advanced age and the constant attacks not just by anti-Semitic 'conservatives' (what do they actually conserve?) but by a steady onslaught of slander by the pro-Russian, anti-Jewish government of Hungary.
George Soros is being outspent by the greedy right wing billionaires who have benefitted from Reagan's trickle down economics for over 40 years. There are other Democrats that spend money on politics, but not enough.
Great article, Georgia. Thank you. It begs the question, if HCR ran the Times, how much would the content change? Her work is so incredibly informative and entertaining. Perhaps “engaging” is a better word. She paints a reality that is so much more hopeful than the clickbait and pedantic drivel printed by the Times.
Thank you for the link. I will be sharing it. We cannot forget the amount of disinformation and lies spread by Fox and subsidiaries. There is no comparison between them and NYT or Wapo.
Georgia, thank you for this article. I did wonder though, how the statement about news publications setting the agenda on social media. “...mainstream news organizations remain an important part of the media ecosystem—they’re widely read and watched; they help set the agenda, including on social networks.” For the editorial choices of the two papers, it seems to reflect the opposite: they followed the agenda of social media. PBS Frontline, years ago had a show on fashion that concluded there was really like an infinite mirror reflection. You know, where you set two mirrors facing each other and suddenly there are a billion reflection of whatever is put in front of the mirror. And it all had to do with following the money. I observe that is exactly happening in our “news” sphere. They are beholding to their shareholders first, and foremost. So emotional ideas like “crime is increasing!!!!!!” shows by the social media clicks (meaning $$$$ for content creators) stories, or story frames to run on the coveted Front Page. Until the business model changes, we have no hope of a helpful “News” ecosystem. We can shout at WAPO and NYT, but they are paying their contented shareholders with clickbait dollars.
Georgia Fisanick -- thank you very much for the link to the Columbia Journalism Review article. I'd never heard of them before and have been thinking of cancelling my long-held NYTimes subscription for quite a while. Haven't been reading it, and the precipitating cause is that as a subscriber living in Canada, I can no longer share the occasional important article that I do read with friends on social media because of Canada's prohibition to doing *_that._* What a puzzling world we live in, or continent we live on!
Thanks for sharing this article. Perhaps this could be put on the front page of every newspaper. The other curious question that arises in me is; what are the demographics of (not sure this is the right word) or maybe, Who is subscribing and reading the NYT and Post?
Thank you for sharing this link. Excellent.
So, it wasn’t in my imagination! I can’t comment on WaPo as I don’t subscribe, though my parents did, in my youth. This study by Columbia Journalism Review confirms my observations about NYT in focusing on issues of interest to Republicans. NYT can’t report positive news about the economy without saying it might not last. Something or other . . .could mean trouble for Biden. Generally a pessimistic tone.
This Sunday I believe it was on Meet the Press that a journalist from the Washington Post, I forget his name, commented that the media was in error and not covering all of the hatred that was discussed in the 2016 elections and the 2020 elections that the media fell down on both counts. He heard urges, all professional journalists not to step back in fear, but to publish what they hear
Thank you for the link. I learn that NYT and WP are not good enough to learn what is going on around us.
Thank you for sharing the link to this important article.
Thank you Georgia for a most enlightening article. Frightening as well since most Americans simply don’t have the time to delve deep into articles and headlines to determine what is true and what is not or to get both sides of an issue to make the proper decisions.
Thank you, Georgia. I will attach this link to today's Letter, which I forward to several friends every day. Everyone needs to see this to understand that there are more subtle approaches than Fox, et. al's bludgeoning at work in political influencing.
Thank you, Georgia. Excellent piece and reminder to read a wide variety of sources.
Thanks for the clarifying research link. Certainly confirms long held suspicions.
I understand that President Biden is intentionally keeping a lower profile in negotiations because he knows he is involved with a powder keg, and Israel IS a sovereign Nation . The US has supported it but different Presidencies have had very different approaches to its policies. Evangelists and the lobbyists have loudly supported Zionist expansionism and Trump, Kuschner and Co. indulged them with typical one-sided political short-sightedness. President Biden is having to negotiate the resulting mess. (Trump’s one-sided ‘negotiations’ on withdrawal from Afghanistan backfired similarly, leaving President Biden with the mess there as well.) GOP/MAGA ‘diplomacy’ abroad is now reflected in the intractable style that is hamstringing our own Government, the House in particular. Authoritarians are terrible negotiators.
tRump was always an incompetent negotiator. Read any bio about him. He bankrupted casinos, for gosh sake!
You are right Jenn casinos are money machines, at the end of the day the house always wins, it’s as predictable as the sun rising in the east, so how could the insipid malevolent POS run one in a way that forced it into bankruptcy? My guess is that it was greed, that would be an educated guess by the way, 4 years of watching him run the country into the ground, is more education than I would have ever wanted.
Yet another example of the GOP "f-ing" things up, and Dems coming in to mop the mess.
Exactly right Heather Elowe. Thank you
They are totally Trump's mouth piece, and either all of the people working for those publications are just very young, which I know they are not, or they are filled with self loathing about their age. The fact that that is the only thing they can report on, and the only thing they can find as a negative about Biden, shows them up to headed into Fox News territory. I think their sexism and racism shows through too because what they are really saying is Biden is old and Harris is not White or male.
The ageism directed towards Biden is a proxy for the general disregard and contempt that the public has for senior citizens. I include Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers - otherwise progressive comedic satirists- among the ranks of those who take cheap shots at Biden for his age that would elicit outrage if directed at any other social category.
SNL just did a skit that is ageist and distorts and diminishes Biden's accomplishments. Even though it brought up the threat of fascism, the depiction of Biden demeans the only person who can save us from it. It is not funny. It is infuriating and damaging.
Look at the 'dollar-source' for SNL. The satire that comes out of SNL seems pretty off-the-cuff, but there are some big cuff-links in the room.
Audience hunger, I'm afraid, and i'm not sure what is coming first in this chicken and the egg situation.
I think they target Biden's age because he is so competent there is not much material otherwise, unlike the previous administration when the skits practically wrote themselves. Biden and Trump are in the same age group yet not much is made of the latter's age. I can imagine how things will go in a presidential debate with the two of them. We should see then who has a real grasp on the issues.
If Trump were to participate in a debate based on moderator control and participant respect for each other's response time, Biden would win decisively.
But Trump does not debate. He blusters. Trump doesn't respond to a question. He hyperventilates on an entirely different subject - and attacks based on nonsense and lies. Trump doesn't respect a moderators role. He takes all the oxygen out of the stage and bullies, bullies, bullies. That is not a debate. It's a cage fight.
IF (and it's becoming more of an IF every day) Trump is the nominee, Biden would be well served to say that he will not stand on a stage with an enemy of democracy who has declared that he can change the Constitution to his own needs. Biden could say he will not stand on the stage with a criminal who has been convicted of fraud (Trump U) and sexual assault. He will not stand anywhere near a man who has attempted the overthrow of our government and is under indictment for stealing national secrets.
Joe could tell Trump to debate George Santos - they have the same respect for the United States of America. "Battle of the Grifters!"
Well done, Bill Alstrom, and thank you.
Thank you Bill.
Facts are facts. President Biden is too educated and too practiced in dealing with actual grown up people.
Why would anyone be on a stage with a clown? Not a talented clown, just an immature clown.
I agree Cameron. Whether by SNL or MSM or the wing nuts, the attack on Biden's age, something he has no control over, is all they have. Granted it is real and a concern for some, but I will take Biden and his incredible team of highly competent people, including VP Harris, any day. The stakes here are very high and that in and of itself, should be the narrative.
...or a real grasp on reality.
Remember please. Mandela took over as President of South Africa at 76. That was after serving 30 years in prison. Throw that every time some uneducated, incompetent brings up age.
Yes. I agree on that.
Each publication has very good journalists. This is an editorial/ownership issue. Corporate media has shareholder ROI issues. The news and headline editors are defining reality by the words used and what is or is not published.
I have said this repeatedly. I have also looked at the ages of the owners of many media sources, and there are quite a few who are older than Biden, or even younger, but still old. The ageism masks the racism and sexism, but it doesn't because everyone knows that the worry about Biden's age is not about whether or not he will remain mentally fit, which could be a concern, although my grandmother was mentally fit until she was around 98, then she deteriorated in a way that we noticed. She also then went into a home. However, the subtext is a blatant if Biden dies we will have Harris for president, and honestly it is a double whammy of racism and sexism about her taking over. However, she has had 3 years at the side of a truly thoughtful president and she is capable, so there is that advantage. Did people worry about Lyndon B. Johnson stepping in for Kennedy? Probably they did not think of it and once Kennedy was killed Johnson was sworn in immediately, to not give the people time to think about it. What Trump has helped to illustrate/illuminate, is that there are a lot of racist and sexist people in this country, and they are his big supporters. Under him they do not have to strive to be better because he is saying being a racist, sexist person is just fine.
Vice Presidents rarely get any respect, to quote Rodney Dangerfield. I was a senior in college when JFK was assassinated. I can tell you that, after hearing the news, my roommate & 2 suite mates sat around & discussed the fact the Lyndon Johnson, who had often been portrayed in the media as a crude country yokel from Texas, would now be President. We were all appalled that he would be running the country.
But, until he got immersed in the Vietnam War, Johnson turned out to be a very important President, who passed incredibly significant legislation: Medicare & Medicaid, and important Civil Rights bills, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 & the Voting Rights Act in 1965., along with the Clean Air Act.
Kamala Harris is smart & capable. If something happens to Biden, she will surround herself with good people, as Joe Biden has done.
I always consider who 'the President' is surrounded by. Right down to the staffers and up from there. Meaning every person he/she might have a word with, in passing, during any busy day. A simple example would be the brief encounter with HCR (a relatively normal person from a few miles down the Coast of Maine). Should "Joe" bite the dust, VP Harris et al, will bring us to the next election. And, it IS the next election we should be looking to fill. Hakeem Jeffries? Not Liz Warren.., or Bernie.., please!
'fraid so... of course GOP ecosystem pounds away at the "other guy" relentlessly. They have aced this kind of political "discourse".
Let's talk about Rupert Murdoch's age! NINETY TWO!
Exactly, it is the age when he turned it over to Loughlin who is 52, but his son is just picking up the mess from the far right election agenda and the battle with the election machine companies.
It seems that no matter what topic you pick, any topic, you need only to follow the money to figure out the point of view presented. Each and every time!!!
Are we talking about Capitalism, anybody? Just kidding. That is quite true. It should be the starting point of any investigation.
Yes. Truth is being buried in greed
Jennifer Rubin, Catherine Rampell, Paul Krugman, Maggie Haberman, Dana Milbank and several others are definitely on the same page as the commenters here seem to be.
Of course, they can't say anything publicly but Mr. Milbank's mother-in-law is Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). He books however are politically slanted to the left.
Absolutely agree!
Linda can you say what you really mean directly rather than implying controversy?
Impartially is telling and defending the truth as best as it can be determined with perspicacious logic and confirmable evidence. That what we ask science to do; but evidence-based thinking isn't just for technical subject matter. Obviously courts are meant to rely on logic and evidence. Worthwhile history applies logic and evidence; as does worthwhile journalism. And the founders were aware of the need for worthwhile journalism, and also how much that can vary.
When earth-shaking events are afoot, no favor is rendered by withholding truths that might rock the boat; and those media sources who pussyfoot to avoid receiving recriminations from the incriminated wind up berated and slandered by them anyway, as well as distrusted by those whom they might gainfully inform.
Perhaps "impartiality" makes the point. Sorry. Left out the quotation marks.
I imagined the quotation marks being there. It's the matter of the media failing to deliver a product our society needs.
enjoy your thoughtful essay here, JL.
“ Follow The Money “. As long as a news organizations’ Shareholders are more important than informed citizenry, we will have suspicious “news”. I would love to see research on the actual cost of “solid, informative, credible news”. For so long we have wanted our news “for free”, tolerating the ads and commercials. But then the amount of ads and commercials desired or needed to reach a Shareholders demand, put the balance out of whack. Trying to find “news” amid the sea of advertising carnival lights, and casino bells and whistles, is a sleuthing effort worthy of Sherlock Holmes. Are we as citizens prepared for the sticker shock of “actual, informative News”? I don’t think we are. Just like we are not prepared for the true cost of a livable planet.
Biden could walk on water and people would not give him credit. He could very likely go down as one of our greatest presidents. I could imagine that a possible Republican candidate might have a lot of support before voters realize how much Biden has accomplished, BUT trump? Besides some wealthy greedy Americans who only care about taxes and regulations, why would any decent American consider supporting a criminal who is headed to prison for the presidency? Because they need to believe all the lies from the RW media and trump's lying lips. Sad to think that there are that many Americans filled with so much hatred they are willing to support someone who echos Hilter. Who would have imagined we would come to this?
Really, the American MSM has never been impartial. In the past there was just agreement about what we were going to be partial about. If there is any benefit to the insane clown posse that is now called the right-wing media, it is that it has shown us some of our more ugly biases, and that those biases are often expressed through editorial boards/owners, not just reporters.
One thing I've noted about people who engage in racism, sexism, ageism, etc., is how easily manipulated they are using these issues. The media is the perfect tool to either address or exacerbate these biases. Unscrupulous politicians such as DT et al. have known and used this to their own benefit for centuries. We now have a chance to fetch ourselves up sharply, demand truthful, evidence-based journalism from a variety of view points that does not simply ask the same questions over and over in an attempt to entertain rather than inform.
I agree. It's time to share Biden's skill and knowledge and his critical involvement in the negotiations. Bibi Netanyahu is not interested in peace.
Never was.
Ransom Rideout, you are totally correct. Biden gets so little air time or print space on major news sources. How is this possible? Don't they understand the existential threat our democracy?
They are only beginning to understand that they are a big part of the threat. They have not decided which side to be on. They had no idea how effective they were. That was Murdoch's job. They are still running the numbers. ROI, not flawed poll #s.
Realizing the individuals or 'factions of influence', we get what "they" pay for..."they" being the Moron(s) & Grifters Alliance. The Big Business Coalition that is content with the chaos, extremists, and descension that makes up the R party.
Yes, Ransom, the "liberal press" that the right wing has howled about for years is a mere myth, including PBS's coverage, which insists that it's both-sides reporting is "just being fair." This approach has worked to the detriment of this entire country, and could lead to the death of our democracy.
The result of 24 hour broadcasting, I say.
I would like to see President Biden challenge tfg to a polar plunge.
I believe that the Biden administration to keep their plans very close to their chests. They do not announce to the world all of the things that are going on because it may disrupt their internal plans. Therefore the media gets very little of what’s actually happening until after the fact. I may be wrong and what I’m saying, but that’s what I believe is happening.
I agree!
Unbelievable the pain and suffering on all sides with human bargaining chips...my heart breaks and my mind boggles...thank goodness for the cooler rational beings trying against hope to bring peace
I am uncertain that diverting Israel from the effort to destroy Hamas and focusing on returning the hostages Hamas is holding after the brutality of October 7 is the wisest course. We and the Israelis have taken this course and must make it work. Two days in, the Republicans have begun: Why haven't there been any Americans released?
We get this question, from leaders in the political party that, according to Jimmy Carter's NSC Iran expert Gary Sick and others, worked to persuade Iran that American prisoners would not be released until Ronald Reagan was President and definitely not before the election. We get this question, from the political party that, according to Nixon's Chief of Staff HR Haldeman, prevented Lyndon Johnson's peace talks from working by persuading South Vietnamese leaders not to agree to a deal before the election.
I am a little older than Joe Biden and remember these events. It did not take much googling to confirm my memory. I am sure Joe Biden remembers these events, too. I am sure that he remembers the political party that was willing to undermine a Democratic President's effort to achieve a peaceful resolution to an international crisis.
The Republicans are at it again. What haven't any American hostages been released, they ask? They apparently don't count the October 20 release of an American mother and daughter. That preceded the negotiations so that, for Republicans, it does not count. Republicans forgetting two hostages who were released is not the important part. The important part is Republican willingness, when there is a Democratic President, to interfere in the process of achieving peace, the process of making Americans and others safe.
That interference is what has characterized Republican leadership -- from Richard Nixon to the present.
Yes. Pointing out the facts that Republican politics worsen every attempt at solving any problem is seemingly beyond our U.S. news services. We all can understand why, so I won't bore you or myself with listing the reasons. Why do that when I have no solutions to offer? Even if we the people did work daily to solve the ongoing demise of print and broadcast, wouldn't Republican politics work daily to thwart that effort.
They do work daily...via Fox “news”
Yes, I only recently learned Reagan thwarted the release of the hostages under Carter. Had that not occurred, I would, along with many, voted for Carter.
BUT, I voted for Reagan and was amazed when suddenly the hostages were released.
Pubs could be doing it again. Working with Hamas.
Jimmy Carter is one of the best and finest human beings to ever be President of the United States. Rosalind is a close second in extraordinary humanity.
Mr Lubinsky, thank you for reminding us how far the Republicans will go to interfere with the “process of achieving peace and making Americans and others safe”
Thank you. Mr. Lubinsky
You are absolutely right in your comments here. Don’t ask us to do anything ask yourself even though you were older than Joe Biden to do something and it could be a call to the White House. It could be a call to the editor of the Washington Post or even your local newspaper. It’s up to each one of us to do what you can to affect the change that you see is needed.
Thank you for the encouragement. What I do is write a newsletter. I identify Democratic candidates who it makes sense to donate to. Check it out: Len's Political Notes. https://lenspoliticalnotes.com
Collective punishment is a war crime. Perhaps we should have tried to decimate Saudi Arabia after 9-11 since that is where those terrorists originated.
More credit to the Biden Administration, Blinken and Alston in particular. These folks are engaged on the world stage via the middle east while keeping an eye on Ukraine. And yes I did notice that Hamas hasn't released any Americans ? As far as a two state solution, that would be the best, but no further comment.
I had noticed that about the American hostages, although the very first released hostages were 2 American women who go to my friend's husband's temple. I understood the reasoning to be exactly as Prof Richardson has reported it. Biden is important to keeping the talks about what happens next on Netanyahu's agenda. Yesterday, the Northern German city I live in had 2 small rallies in support of the release of Palestinians which were peaceful. They competed with the home team's soccer game, which had many not at the stadium in bars watching it.
That is interesting.
Biden was not the only person involved in the talks!
So true. Are you referring to Blinken and the rest of the US team? If I know Biden, he will shower praise on them when the situation resolved. Biden is the elected one, whose name is known to all.
I am writing about the Qatari's, Egypt and Jordan.
Yes, negotiations require many participants. These countries want to prevent further disaster.
None of us has the Moxie to do what is needed. None of us out here in the public have all the information which we’ve never had but can actually affect a change in how things should be done could be done. Few people in government right now, or what I would call diplomats I believe that Blinken is I believe that Biden has the heart of a diplomat but the head of a politician it might be a good combination. I don’t know only history will tell us. But I only encourage you to do what you believe you can do to affect the change that you want to see .
Writing about this story is quite hazardous and requires extra skepticism and empathy. I appreciate the existence and fairness of this post and would love to see more like it.
"Israel holds more than 6000 Palestinians on grounds they are a security threat; on the list of 300 prisoners Israel is willing to release, most are awaiting trial. Less than a quarter have been convicted of a crime.”
In Heather’s post tonight, this above piece of information revealed to me one of the little known activities of the Israeli government. Many years ago, in the 70’s, my father who was a staunch supporter of Israel visited some of the facilities where Palestinian prisoners were held by the Israelis. He described the conditions as “shocking.” He was part of a delegation from a human rights group. All prisoners have rights to be held in humane conditions and should have access to speedy trials. Israeli mistreatment of their Palestinian residents only feeds the resentment and discontent.
Marc,
Definitely, you or I would not want to live as a "Palestinian" in Gaza or the West Bank.
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/23/1207933378/palestinian-deaths-in-the-occupied-west-bank-are-escalating
While in the USA Opioids and heart disease are leading causes of death; on Palestinian held lands, the leading cause of Palestinian death is just being Palestinian. It is easy to be shot by an Israeli "soldier" (which is likely just a West Bank Israeli settler with a US supplied rifle). Just going back to an olive grove to fetch a lost iPhone can get you shot (which happened and was reported on by NPR about a week ago).
Or worse, getting arrested and then spending 30 years in prison for trying to find your iPhone on your own land (which happens to be desired by the Israeli that imprisoned you).
A real mess it is over there.
But, hey, as long as the USA gives Israel huge money and huge weapons deliveries, our "elected" officials will get huge campaign contributions from wealthy folks related to Israel in the states.
And on and on the merry go round goes.
You could add intelligence and empathy. Knowing the history is the primary criterion.
Aren’t you lucky to live in a democracy!
Note that HCR is extremely careful in her use of language to not call this an exchange of hostages, but hostages AND prisoners.
While she also attempts to provide information on who and what the prisoners are and have been arrested for doing. The local paper here in Portland Maine headlines it as a hostage exchange thus promoting an equivalency between a democratically elected government following a set of laws and holding in jails threats to its existence of the people it represents to a organization that rapes, murders, and celebrates the death of any Jew no matter their age.
Democratically elected government?!?
How many Palestinians are allowed to vote?! And, what is the ratio of people killed by the IDF to those by Hamas?! 15 to 1?
Hamas is a terrorist organization. Israel, under the openly racist Netanyahu version of Likud coalition leadership with the right wing parties is as well
There Are 2 million Israeli Arabs who live and work in Israel and yes, they vote. They also serve in the Knesset and have from the very first
Tracy Dodd, the lives of Arab citizens in Israel is not as cut and dry as your reply to Daniel Streeter, Jr. seems to imply. Citizenship, participation in the voting process and the position of Arab Israelis in Israel is a story with many facets and a good deal of disagreement in opinions about Israel's policies in this area.
'According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, the Arab-Israeli population in 2023 was 2.1 million representing 21 percent of the country's population.[1] The majority of these citizens identify themselves as Arab or Palestinian by nationality and as Israeli by citizenship.[11][12][13] Arab citizens of Israel mostly live in Arab-majority towns and cities, some of which are among the poorest in the country, and generally attend schools that are separated to some degree from those of Jewish Israelis.[14] Arab political parties traditionally did not join governing coalitions until the United Arab List became the first to do so in 2021.[15] Many Arabs have family ties to Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as well as to Palestinian refugees in the neighbouring states of Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.[16] 60 percent of Israel's Arab citizens have a positive view of the Israeli state;[17] the Druze as well as Bedouins in the Negev and the Galilee tend to identify more as Israelis than other Arab citizens of Israel.[18][19][20][21]'
'Under Israeli law, Arab residents of East Jerusalem and Druze residents of the Golan Heights (both Israeli-occupied territories) have the right to apply for Israeli citizenship, are entitled to municipal services, and have municipal voting rights; this status is upheld due to Israel's effective annexation of the former through the Jerusalem Law of 1980 and of the latter through the Golan Heights Law of 1981.[22] Both groups have largely foregone applying for Israeli citizenship, with the Palestinians of East Jerusalem and the Syrians of the Golan Heights mostly holding residency status.'
'Terminology'
'How to refer to the Arab citizenry of Israel is a highly politicized issue, and there are a number of self-identification labels used by members of this community.[23][24] Generally speaking, supporters of Israel tend to use Israeli Arab or Arab Israeli to refer to this population without mentioning Palestine, while critics of Israel (or supporters of Palestinians) tend to use Palestinian or Palestinian Arab without referencing Israel.[25] According to The New York Times, most preferred to identify themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel rather than as Israeli Arabs, as of 2012.[26] The New York Times uses both 'Palestinian Israelis'[27] and 'Israeli Arabs' to refer to the same population.'
'Common practice in contemporary academic literature is to identify this community as Palestinian as it is how the majority self-identify (See Self-Identification below for more).[28] Terms preferred by most Arab citizens to identify themselves include Palestinians, Palestinians in Israel, Israeli Palestinians, the Palestinians of 1948, Palestinian Arabs, Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel or Palestinian citizens of Israel.[11][23][24][29][30][31] There are, however, individuals from among the Arab citizenry who reject the term Palestinian altogether.[23] A minority of Israel's Arab citizens include "Israeli" in some way in their self-identifying label; the majority identify as Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship.[12][24]'
'The Israeli establishment prefers Israeli Arabs or Arabs in Israel, and also uses the terms the minorities, the Arab sector, Arabs of Israel and Arab citizens of Israel.[11][29][30][32][33] These labels have been criticized for denying this population a political or national identification, obscuring their Palestinian identity and connection to Palestine.[30][32][33] The term Israeli Arabs in particular is viewed as a construct of the Israeli authorities.[30][32][33][34] It is nonetheless used by a significant minority of the Arab population, "reflecting its dominance in Israeli social discourse."[24]'
'Politics'
'Arab political parties'
'There are three mainstream Arab parties in Israel: Hadash (a joint Arab-Jewish party with a large Arab presence), Balad, and the United Arab List, which is a coalition of several different political organizations including the Islamic Movement in Israel. In addition to these, there is Ta'al, which currently run with Hadash. All of these parties primarily represent Arab-Israeli and Palestinian interests, and the Islamic Movement is an Islamist organization with two factions: one that opposes Israel's existence, and another that opposes its existence as a Jewish state. Two Arab parties ran in Israel's first election in 1949, with one, the Democratic List of Nazareth, winning two seats. Until the 1960s all Arab parties in the Knesset were aligned with Mapai, the ruling party.'
'Arab-dominated parties typically do not join governing coalitions. However, historically these parties have formed alliances with dovish Israeli parties and promoted the formation of their governments by voting with them from the opposition. Arab parties are credited with keeping Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in power, and they have suggested they would do the same for a government led by Labor leader Isaac Herzog and peace negotiator Tzipi Livni.[196][197] A 2015 Haaretz poll found that a majority of Israeli Arabs would like their parties, then running on a joint list, to join the governing coalition.[198]'
'Legal and political status'
'Israel's Declaration of Independence called for the establishment of a Jewish state with equality of social and political rights, irrespective of religion, race, or sex.[241]'
'The rights of citizens are guaranteed by a set of basic laws (Israel does not have a written constitution).[242] Although this set of laws does not explicitly include the term "right to equality", the Israeli Supreme Court has consistently interpreted "Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty"[243] and "Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation (1994)"[244] as guaranteeing equal rights for all Israeli citizens.[245]'
'The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that "Arab Israelis are citizens of Israel with equal rights" and states that "The only legal distinction between Arab and Jewish citizens is not one of rights, but rather of civic duty. Since Israel's establishment, Arab citizens have been exempted from compulsory service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)."[246] Druze and Circassians are drafted into the Israeli army, while other Arabs may serve voluntarily; however, only a very small number of Arabs choose to volunteer for the Israeli army.[247]'
''Many Arab citizens feel that the state, as well as society at large, not only actively limits them to second-class citizenship, but treats them as enemies, affecting their perception of the de jure versus de facto quality of their citizenship.[248] The joint document The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, asserts: "Defining the Israeli State as a Jewish State and exploiting democracy in the service of its Jewishness excludes us, and creates tension between us and the nature and essence of the State." The document explains that by definition the "Jewish State" concept is based on ethnically preferential treatment towards Jews enshrined in immigration (the Law of Return) and land policy (the Jewish National Fund), and calls for the establishment of minority rights protections enforced by an independent anti-discrimination commission.[249]'
'Citizenship and Entry Law
On 31 July 2003, Israel enacted the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Provision), 5763–2003, a one-year amendment to Israel's Citizenship Law denying citizenship and Israeli residence to Palestinians who reside in the West Bank or Gaza Strip and who marry Israelis; the rule has been waived for any Palestinian "who identifies with the State of Israel and its goals, when he or a member of his family has taken concrete action to advance the security, economy or any other matter important to the State". Upon expiration the law was extended for six months in August 2004, and again for four months in February 2005.[263][better source needed] On 8 May 2005, the Israeli ministerial committee for issues of legislation once again amended the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, to restrict citizenship and residence in Israel only to Palestinian men over the age of 35, and Palestinian women over the age of 25.'
'Defenders of the Citizenship and Entry Law say it is aimed at preventing terrorist attacks and preserving the "Jewish character" of Israel by restricting Arab immigration.[264] The new bill was formulated in accordance with Shin Bet statistics showing that involvement in terror attacks declines with age. This newest amendment, in practice, removes restrictions from half of the Palestinian population requesting legal status through marriage in Israel. This law was upheld by a High Court decision in 2006.[264]'
'Although this law theoretically applies to all Israelis, it has disproportionately affected Arab citizens of Israel;[265] Arabs are far more likely to have Palestinian spouses than other Israelis.[266] Thus the law has been widely considered discriminatory[267] and the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has unanimously approved a resolution saying that the Israeli law violated an international human rights treaty against racism.[268]' (Wikipedia) See link below.' (Wikipedia) See link below.
As I indicated there are differences of opinion with reference to 'Arab citizens of
Israel' and many sources to refer to. This is just one of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_citizens_of_Israel#:~:text=Arabs%20who%20held%20Israeli%20citizenship,office%20since%20the%20First%20Knesset.
Perhaps, Tracey, but their voting rights are administratively limited, and the national policy made law under Netanyahu openly states that Israel is for the Jewish people.
And the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza certainly do not have the right to vote.
Finally, I think the time has come when we should recognize that a Nation cannot be a democracy and serve as the Country of one religion or one people only.
This is why I think the "two state solution " is a chimera.
Israel should be one, secular, democratic nation for ALL its people, Jews, and Palestinians
The 2 state solution refers to somehow, by some miracle, getting a Palestinian State to form and be stable and to consist of the Gaza and West Bank territories. It does not mean splitting the present-day Israeli boundaries into two.
The in-Israel Arabs (Palestinians) have been coexisting peacefully with the in-Israel Jews, with some (a few) even electing to serve in the Israeli army. They have equal rights on paper, but their lives are not equal because more economic and infrastructure development occurs in urban areas with majority Jewish population. But they do vote, they do get state support, they make up a large portion of professional medical staff in hospitals and clinics, have joined the legal and white collar work forces, and are members of the Israeli Parliament. In other words, Israel's successes have been shared with them, though they are viewed with suspicion by some Jews and by Palestinians whose ancestors lost their homes in 1948 and are stuck in the West Bank or Gaza.
The roadblocks to that 2-state solution include, in my opinion, the West Bank settlements that require a large security operation by the IDF that constricts freedom of movement for the West Bank Palestinians. That security will sometimes include detention of Palestinians suspect of trying to undermine peace. I am livid with Isrsel's treatment of West Bank Palestinians, though I strongly support Israel's right to exist and protect itself. The other side of this story is that Hamas has been sabotaging peace efforts in the West Bank since the 1990's. They have also ruined Gaza residents' path to dignity and self determination since they took over there in 2006.
To summarize, a two state solution that would fulfill the original vision of the 1947 UN partition into independent Jewish and Arab states will not be achieved until Hamas is defanged, Netanyahu's in jail, and the right wing coalition is soundly defeated in elections. That won't happen until Israelis feel safe, and that requires enough international support for the Palestinians, so their resentments could be assuaged.
Hi Jerry, and I hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
Yes, I am well aware that the 2 state solution is pre-1967 Israel and a Palestinian State in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Hamas defanged, Netanyahu in jail and the right wing coalition soundly defeated. I'm with you on all of those.
The problem however, besides the near Sisyphian task required to bring that all about, is that there is no foreseeable way to put the Israeli military goliath back in the bottle. (Pardon my mixing metaphors) Also, the Israeli settlers occupying Palestinian property on the West Bank, are eerily similar to our right wing theocrats, aren't going away soon, and won't relinquish their power. A significant part of the Palestinian historical resentment goes back to the founding of the State of Israel and the Nakba (catastrophe) they suffered at that time. While that cannot be fully assuaged, and it would be clearly unfair to four generations of Israeli citizens to go back to that time and start over, something should be done.
This is why I think the conventional 2 state solution is both impracticable and way too insufficient.
A joint Israeli/Palestinian State from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, including both Gaza and the West Bank, governed by a constitutional, secular and democratic arrangement is the only hope. After all, whether you worship Yahweh, Allah or Jesus, or any plethora of other deities or none at all, there are no chosen people, only people.
Hi Daniel. Than you for the good Thanksgiving wishes. I hope you had a good one, too. This year, our adult children were pulled elsewhere, so we had a smaller and roadies one this time. Quite fun, and at my age, I'll need a longer recovery.
The Israeli army may be a Goliath compared to Hamas' military capability, but it's filled with citizen soldiers. It will do what the citizens demand of it. This is the only thing I'm sure of. The rest of whati say is wishful thinking.
The reason I doubt a one state solution will work is the 76 years of resentments nurtured by Arabs after they lost the war to drive all the Jews out. I have less trust that as a group they will want to coexist peacefully AMONG Jews than eventually accept the status quo SEPARATED from Jews. I also believe that giving Arabs the right to return implies giving the decendents of the Jews expelled from surrounding Arab countries aright to return and be made whole. Those Jewish refugees outnumbered Arab refugees, though their birth rate has been lower since then.
And still, if we can somehow impose a one state solution, Hamas and other Islamist groups must be pacified on the Arab side, and the settlers and their hawkish supporters must be pacified on the Israeli side. I see that as less likely to be doable as opposed to separation.
Backt to Thanksgiving. I am thankful we have the freedom to debate this in safety. I'm also thankful that we can afford to give remaining leftovers to our spoiled dog. I don't know how we'll get here to ear her fancy kibble when leftovers are gone, but that is a relatively simple challenge to tackle.
Excellent Jerry.
I don’t know how HAMAS can be defanged. They would like all Israelis exterminated.
I don't know either, but a pure military approach, and by Israel alone, will not work. We need an international coalition to help the Palestinians, and hopefully that's what Biden's working on.
This is information which should be national news! Although, I still detest the right winger Netanyahu, the “trump of Israel “
Of course she is careful in her use of language. Would expect nothing less
You should try to learn more about the way all Palestinians, whodid indeed lose their land, have been treated by the IDF. Israel is currently managing to get Instagram to take down video of released hostages smiling and waving goodbye to Hamas guards. The threats against students demonstrating for Palestinian rights, denied free speech, is another example of Israel and its supporters trying to control information. Not one word about the Palestinians' loss of their homes and land was reported by western media from the beginning. And yes, I condemn Hamas.
Absolutely true.... and a point lost on many who buy into the Hamas narrative. Are you referring to the Portland Press Herald (my hometown paper when I was growing up in Portland)? I Googled recent headlines and a few stories from recent days in the PPH, and they all use the word "prisoners" for those being released by the Israelis.
Yes the PPH, noticed the use in a headline either yesterday or the day before, the actual article (AP wire) did use the word 'prisoners'.
Having used to write headlines for student & a small town paper many years ago, know that the editors often don't pay enough attention to the final headlines before paper goes to print.
She has been careful and I appreciate that. However, I would disagree with her line where she describes Hamas “who need hostages for their own bargaining power.” There is no “need” for hostages. Words are subtle and powerful.
If hostages provide bargaining power is the clue to how powerful that agency is, and they feel it.
I think HCR is referring to Hamas’ “need” to use the hostages as bargaining chips. From Hamas’ perspective it is a need, or perhaps a want. Having said that, we quibble far too much over the words used . . . sometimes it is better to focus on the overall statement . . . we’re not diplomats after all.
I encourage anyone who believes that Israel is a democracy that respects the rule of law to look up (i) their use of administrative detention, (ii) the Nation-State Basic Law passed in 2018, and (iii) arguments that Israel is committing apartheid.
Or listen with an open mind to anything by these historians/academics: Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappé, Norman Finkelstein, Rashid Khalidi. You can get a decent overview of the situation starting with the Balfour Declaration in 1917.
I did what you suggested, and while I agree that the practice of administrative detention or other practices that almost all nations use to suppress threats to their civil societies is very problematic to my sense of justice. Israel is certainly not alone in the use of the practice, which includes many states, I and many others believe to be democratic. This includes the US both currently and historically.
What is considered today to be anti-democratic, yesterday was considered necessary for the protection of peaceful society.
As a side note, there has been no coverage of the three MSF doctors killed in Gaza doing the most hazardous work imaginable. MSF needs our support for all they do around the globe to alleviate human suffering and save as many lives as possible with limited resources.
I am putting together our holiday donations list. We don't have much, but we select a few organizations at this time of year and do what we can. MSF is at the top of the list. World Central Kitchen and the Red Cross are next.
Yes. Those are number one, together. Before I retired, I was not at all satisfied with my work situation and applied for a logistics position with MSF. Unfortunately, all openings were in West Africa and speaking French was a requirement. They are a fantastic organization.
What is the MSF?
I think it’s Médecins Sans Frontières, the French Doctors w/o Borders. That’s my guess anyway.
How's the weather up there in one of my faorite parts of the world?
Doctors Without Borders is international. DWB is another acronym.
Doctors without boarders in French
My fear is that negotiating with the terrorist group Hamas will lead to more hostage taking, Americans being more valuable apparently. However with Netanyahu’s government acting more and more like a terrorist organization, it’s hard to find a good guy to negotiate with. In fact, their response to the Hamas horror has itself been so horrible that Hamas is gaining supporters. One would like to think it’s the Palestinian people they care about, but it’s Hamas that is crowing and acting as stupid as Netanyahu, the people be damned. So far, seems that the perpetrator of this current slice of hell is winning the PR war. Hope Joe’s strategy to force a little humanity into the situation works, but power-brokers scraping over every square inch of land know little of humanity.
Remember now, Likud and Netanyahu needed and fostered Hamas to make sure there would be no "Two State Solution". All the while, rightwing ultra orthodox Israelis expanded settlements in the West Bank and destroyed hundreds of years of Palestinian agriculture and communities. As Heather mentioned, with all the normalizations going on between Israel and Arab states, Hamas caught Netanyahu asleep at the wheel and created the incident to remind all parties not to leave out the Palestinians.
I was not surprised. Hamas still doesn’t deserve hero status. I have been expecting that Netanyahu’s obvious and widespread land grabs would lead to a catastrophe of some sort. Had no idea that he was supporting the terrorists in his neighborhood. A dangerous game that blew up in his face. Taking innocents along for the ride. But I have to ask, who are the innocents. Did Hamas have majority support, did Netanyahu have majority support, does chump have majority support? It is possible that the “innocents” are a majority who have had their power usurped by greed and Machiavellian manipulation.
This is a long dig. I see no hero status for Hamas other than their own zealotry and self agrandizement.
"All the while, rightwing ultra orthodox Israelis expanded settlements in the West Bank and destroyed hundreds of years of Palestinian agriculture and communities."
Supported by US arms shipments to the Israeli "settlers".
Shipments supported by payments to US representatives in Congress from Wealthy supporters of Israel in the US.
All in all, about as ugly and distasteful as it can be.
AIPAC anyone? They are funding all the primaries against all of our best progressive congress critters, as Heather calls them. The Likud lobby.
Spot on.
I have read elsewhere but as of yet not made the effort to entirely confirm that Likud aided the dominance of Hamas due to their rejection of a two-state solution. I have also read that the US aided Osama bin Laden as part of maneuvering against the Russians. The CIA finally acknowledged their role in overthrowing the secular, elected government of Iran. I have read that Castro first sought the aid of the US before falling in with the Soviets. It seems that a lot of this international "chess game" playing goes sideways. Real chess pieces have no agenda. People and nations do. It seems like a dangerous game. It seems as though our best defense "is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men (sic), in all lands, everywhere." and always was.
Prior administrations have subverted international law with vetoes against penalizing crimes against humanity and have subverted the international criminal court by pulling out of it. What's left should not be the conditions under which Joe Biden or any other president should be constrained to working to restore humanity. We can either have a civilization governed by laws that apply to all nations, or we can be at the mercy of aspirations of power brokers, warlords, and arms manufacturers.
I remember the craziness in our government after 911, justifying the use of torture and encouraging us to give up rights to allow the government to pursue terrorists. It is embarrassing that the US does not participate in the international criminal court. The previous administration's efforts to weaken NATO and withdraw from the Paris accords were also horrifying.
So true, seems the latter is gaining
"In fact, their response to the Hamas horror has itself been so horrible that Hamas is gaining supporters."
One of the side effects of the Hamas invasion is many have been reading and trying to learn about the historical background.
For me, the eye opener history was the existence and actions of the "Balfour Declaration" by some rich Brit named, of course, Balfour, in the British Government in 1917. That declaration started this whole mess as Britain, apparently as part of an anti-Semitic campaign to rid Britain of Jewish folks, moved large numbers of the Jews in Great Britain to Palestinian occupied land.
I was, of course, not shocked to find Britain at the origin story of such a big mess. Anytime the Brits are involved in anything of a serious nature, in my own personal experience, it turns into a complete, utter disaster.
And so it has become a disaster: The Balfour Declaration.
Another example of British mess making was the occupation of India. A beautiful, clean country filled with beautiful people, primordial jungles, exotic animals and nature.
Destroyed by the Brits to make tea to profit the "empire".
I watched one old video of some British woman sitting on top of a platform with a gun, every once in a while shooting something.
Then, the camera pans to the right and a 20 ft tall pile of dead Bengal tigers appear in the camera lens. For what? Money in some Brit pocket.
EVIL. That is what the Brits are.
Did not know about that. I remember Vanessa Redgrave being such a strong activist for the Palestinians years ago. Bet she knew. I just thought that Yasser Arafat was as evil as they come. Oh, if only we could go back and undo the mistakes of the past, but the best we can do, is try to minimize the damage. Not much success at that either. Or in even agreeing on what the mistakes of the past were…
Jeri, I had no idea either. I think we both went to school in Texas and definitely, history was sparse in school.
NC and TX. The Gablers were influential in dumbing down Texas textbooks, which influenced history books nationwide. Hope they are enjoying a toasty hell. The best resting place for pretend Christians. Oops, hope I don’t get banned from here too.
Please go read even a second rate history text book before you start disseminating misinformation. About the origins of Palestine ( a Roman Empire province ), the Crusades, the Ottoman Empire,Lord Balfour and Theodore Hertzel and others from a very active Zionist movement in Britain, the history of Britain’s colonial policy in Palestine , the Zionist resistance in Palestine to protest the British government and finally the post colonial period where you might very well bring up the Partition in India and the current history of Hindu and Muslim religious tensions, the sorry state of the former African colonies and the break up of the Soviet Union. Rich Brits and tea just does not cut it.
And let’s not forget East Africa which England and Germany felt entitled to divide between themselves, drawing the boundaries so that they each got a mountain. The arrogance of white man continues unabated.
Beau is quite passionate about this topic, and he gave some great thoughts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7VLQGG7nks
Thanks, later I will listen to Beau. I need a break before I get into learning more horrible truths.
For the sake of my health, I usually restrict my attention to a number of upsetting ugly information. This is so that I can get out of bed in the morning.
This talk by the outstanding Dr. Angela Liu to the security council of the UN in 2016 is also important.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Dr.+Angela+Liu+speaks+to+the+UN+security+council&oq=Dr.+angela+liu+speaks+to+the+Un+security+council&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBggAEEUYOzIGCAAQRRg70gEJMTgzMzRqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:3bb4567f,vid:niehJb220nY,st:0
I am ill since October 8. As a person who reveres life and who abhors and fears abuse, brutality and violence of every kind, a physician and one who has volunteered and worked overseas. I am sickened by the abuse , cruelty and the appalling murder of thousands of babies and children. I abhor all bombings ,bomb makers and all poisonous chemicals. I am sickened by what has just happened , sickened. Usually I spend a lot of time in meditation and prayer and I will try again. However since October 8 I have difficulty as when I begin to meditate and pray , I hear the cries of the injured women and children. I think of all the murdered doctors , nurses and physios and I cry and I cry.
I keep playing videos of Canadian and other physicians I admire.
Dr. Joanne Liu is an outstanding human being with impeccable moral and spiritual intelligence. I find her calm , caring and thoughtful speach very elevating although she speaks of unbelievably awful topics.
In this Dr Liu remind me of Professor Richardson. We need to learn from compassionate, nurturing human beings who have really reviewed very terrifying events and then share a helpful and hopeful response.
https://youtu.be/niehJb220nY
https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/secure/psearch-monthly-tabbed?ms=ADD2310U1U89&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=BRAND.DWB_CKMSF-BRAND.DWB-GS-GS-ALL-DWBBrand.E-BO-ALL-RSA-RSARefresh.1-ONETIME&gclid=CjwKCAiA9ourBhAVEiwA3L5RFhCL6SmUKm0vMYjitd8AtxpPUPFzlEdrO6I4J5YKYcraYySg0UvtJBoCF6cQAvD_BwE
Thank you MaryPat.
I continue to pray for sanity and speed to release all hostages on both sides.
Thank you Heather, Professor Richardson, for your steadfast reporting of all that you know, as soon as you know it. You are at least offering all who read a chance to quietly consider how this man-made war has evolved and is being fought with seemingly no consideration for the thousands of human beings caught in the crossfire.
“…this man-made war…”
There’s another kind?
The aliens haven’t attacked us yet. Ha
In 1953 I visited Palestine refugees in Gaza, then under Egyptian control. They were housed in tents, since Egypt did not want them as immigrants.
Seventy years later the Israeli/Palestinian situation is the worst ever. After the horrendous Hamas massacre of October 7th, Netanyahu promised ‘revenge,’ the Israeli Defense Force started launching thousands of air strikes against the 2,000,000 Gaza Palestinian residents, and then a tanks/artillery/ ground forces attack commenced—with the announced target the Hamas terrorists.
The shaky hostage-release ‘pause’ seems temporary with an uncertain ‘next phase.’ Already at least 15,000 Gaza civilians have been killed, perhaps 40% of the buildings in northern Gaza destroyed or damaged, and there seems no ‘safe area’ in Gaza for Palestinian civilians.
President Biden and a number of global and regional leaders seek some sort of ‘cease fire.’ Reports from Israel and from IDF spokesmen indicate an intention of renewing a massive military initiative in Gaza once the hostage ‘pause’ ends.
I sense a strong desire by Netanyahu and others in Israel’s current government to make much of Gaza uninhabitable in a sustained assault to destroy Hamas. Some military experts opine that Hamas, as a military force, might be momentarily damaged, but, as a ‘movement,’ it could remain and even recruit a new generation of ‘terrorists.’
I have great difficulty envisaging an ameliorating ‘end game’ to Israel’s military strategy, which has included denying food, water, fuel, and safety to 2,000,000 Palestinians huddled in a tiny space.
1) Do they intend to ravage Gaza, occupy the area, and maintain draconian governance?
2) Does anyone have an alternative governance plan whereby some other other group—UN, Arab, or yet-to-be-identified moderate Palestinian leader— would assume responsibility for managing Gaza?
3) Who would initiate and fund a massive ‘Marshall-Fund-type effort’ to provide the countless billions of dollars required to rebuild a much destroyed Gaza?
Personally I am flummoxed when I try to consider a positive conclusion to this horrendous Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
I am also deeply concerned that the United States, despite President Biden’s well-intentioned efforts to moderate Netanyahu’s ‘revenge,’ will seem indifferent to massive Palestinian civilian deaths by much of the world’s population.
Time for USA to condition aid to Israel on freezing settlements and efforts to heal decades of moral and physical injury our enabling is bring manipulated by the minority far right coalition.
Well said, Keith. There is no vision for an end game. A "two state" solution is bandied about with no definition of what territory would be involved, what entity would rule whatever "Palestine " would be. Gaza plus two thirds of the West Bank (700,000 "settlers" aren't going anywhere)? Who would govern? Walls around each area? Occasional rockets exchanged forever?
A smart first step for Palestinians would be to toss out Hamas who offer nothing but vicious revenge and a commitment to more murders and worse.
I wish I was a magic man in the sky and I could go back in time. I would set out the welcome mat in Israel/Palestine for Jews who have been persecuted like no other entity I can think of. But the "Palestinians" would still be on their ancestral lands and they would join with Jews to create a non-sectarian nation where all faiths and ethnicities would be welcome and safe. Where all could thrive. In the lens of long term history, Jews and Arabs are cousins.
I'll wake up from my fantasy now. I look back for some parallel where endless horrors were finally halted. I think of Ireland - which is struggling anew (thank you, Brexit boneheads). But back in the day, two things seemed to lead to a pivot for peace. Women finally had enough. And the sides agreed to negotiation that was guided by a very patient and talented man - George Mitchell.
The hatred and cycle of vengeance was no less intense in Ireland - not as large a stage - but still, it seemed hopeless. And many were only committed to retaliation - no vision of peace.
Maybe it is up to the women in Gaza and Israel to call a halt. The men have no imagination or creativity left in them - just brutal behavior.
Bill A great read for a fractured world. How about applying your fantasy thoughts to the Republican House?
The House of Clowns? My fantasy would be to turn Mike Johnson into a real Christian like Magic Johnson. Poof! Make it so.
Bill I was thinking of the House as a circus freak show in which Junk Fish Johnson could be displayed as the tattooed, bearded lady—with apologies to real ladies.
Bill The British offered Jews a ‘homeland’ in East Africa early in the 20th century, which Theodore Hertzel flatly rejected.
I am trying to organize a small event in my new community in Logy Bay, Nl, Canada to honour and support the work of Vivian Silver. Fifty four years ago my family and I threw ourselves into supporting the women's ecumenical peace movement founded by the late Betty Williams and by Mairead Corrigan. The US Media even then ignored the mundane day to day community level work of non violence and peace -building and of course certain women are essential.I use the word certain women because I lived through Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's reign of terror. Like Queen Elizabeth I loved a ' good" war.
in total contrast HRH Queen Elizabeth II was an outstanding partnership focused leader.
Its all very depressing. I of course never heard about Vivian Silver and her wonderful work until after new of her abduction on Oct.7 surfaced in Canada . Very sadly we learned last week she was murdered in. the sadistic Hamas attack.
https://youtu.be/2jRhB4_TVEU
I watched it. I am in tears.
Bless your warm heart. Please share with others who may enjoy this. I am posting twice daily on people and ideas that are either inspirational , enlightening or funny.
I suspect your questions will be a long time being answered. That there is no entity capable of fielding a trained, trustworthy Arab peace-keeping force is telling, especially with the African Union (barely) able to do so fairly near-by.
Steve And in Haiti a UN contingent failed and now a 1,200 man Kenyan police force is supposed to go in. Oh yeah!
I would prefer if the two parties would sign an agreement to hand to a panel of arbitrators, with the further agreement that the arbitrator‘s decision could be finally decided by the world court.
All the parties would have access to the same AI program in formulating their proposals, and the court would have access and use of the same.
William Let’s try this out first with Putin and the Ukraine. In Asia, international organizations has ruled that China was illegally claiming/taking territory, but China ignores this. There also have been past rulings. About Israel/Palestine that have been ignored.
William, an interesting idea, workable, perhaps, if the major players will loosen their “control” grip.
Keith, I gave real thought on Thanksgiving to what I am grateful for. This letter and the forum of reader/commenters is high on the list. While all those who comment add value, there are some people who I've come to "know" and I seek out their posts, and I wanted to send a word of thanks. (Knowing I'd miss some, I did post a general thank you. ) I have learned quite a bit from people like you, who expand upon and elaborate the information that HCR gives us.
So, to you a personal thank you! I appreciate your wisdom and experience!
So, what happens when (if) all Israeli hostages are returned? Does Israel continue destroying lives, buildings and land in Gaza? Does Israel get serious about a two state solution? If so, with whom does Israel negotiate? And, most important of all, will Biden, or Trump if he’s elected, have the sense and grace to hold Israel’s feet close enough to the fire to leave Palestine with adequate territory to build a real state? I’m not holding my breath. The US hasn’t been too successful solving problems like this. I offer our continuing failure to end gun violence as evidence of our inability to negotiate solutions when stakes are high and all sides are adamant they are right.
Self-righteous is rarely right…just more selfish
"Does Israel continue destroying lives, buildings and land in Gaza?"
One of the tenets from mathematics that can be extended to history is:
The best predictor of the future is the immediate past (linear interpolation in mathematics).
So, answer? Yes. Israel will continue to destroy lives, buildings and land in Gaza. AND the West Bank.
Corrollary 1: The US will continue to support that activity with weapons and money.
Corrollary 2: US Representatives will continue to receive huge campaign donations to support Corollary 1.
IF all of that sounds ugly and nasty and hateful? Well, that is because it is.
Where will the State of Palestine be? The West Bank is the largest territory with very established settlements of half a million Jews and nearly that number of IDF soldiers determined to intimidate, kill or drive every Palestinian out.
When will you realize that Hamas runs Gaza, is not interested in a two-state solution and never has been. The surrounding Arab countries are not interested in helping. Gaza’s goal is the extinction of Israel. There is no outcry about the thousands of Muslims killed in Syria. There are no protests about them. But Israel is not allowed to win a war. I think that’s called anti-semitism.
Not only is Hamas not interested in a two state solution. It’s also not interested in the wellbeing of the people who live in Gaza. It has repeatedly and continuously diverted humanitarian and construction resources meant to aid Palestinians to their own projects. How else do you think 300 miles of tunnels got built, and rockets continued to fly into Israel while hospitals complained they were running out of fuel? Hamas is a terror factory whose owners safely live on well guarded villas in Qatar.
Tracey,
"There are no protests about them. But Israel is not allowed to win a war. I think that’s called anti-semitism."
Perhaps.
But, in fact, there have been protests. Hillary Clinton lost the election in 2016, in part, because of her role in sponsoring the (bloodthirsty) "rebels" and STARTING the war in Syria.
It was NOT just because of her emails.
Many Democrats remembered the origin story of the Syrian mess and did not vote. I mean, it did not help that Bill would be back in the White House with Dementia chasing teenagers around again either.
But, I was screaming to the heavens when I found out WE, the USA, we starting the Syrian war on Hillary's account.
Obama has since said: "The arming of rebels in Syria was the worst decision I made as President".
I personally opposed what Hillary was doing as soon as I learned about it. Many people did. But, what can we do?
Protest.
Instead of protesting against Israel
Israel has “won” the war already because it has killed 13 or 14 times more civilians than Hamas, while flattening the historical homeland of one million Palestinians. So, don’t imply that Israel or the Biden administration really wants a two state solution either. Check out last Friday’s “Democracy Now” broadcast (democracynow.org) for a different view of what’s going on. Ta-Nehisi Coates went to Gaza after the “war” started and opened his comments during a presentation at the Union Theological Seminary noting that people told him to stay away from the controversy because it would hurt his career and because the whole Israeli-Palestine issue was complicated. He went on the say that what he saw wasn’t complicated at all. It was similar to what he and his ancestors experienced in this country - colonial expansion and domination for the profit of others. Israel just took over from the British. He didn’t deny Israel’s right to exist - just that it needed to kill so many Palestinians over the last 70+ years to do so. I’ll close with my usual - I’m an 81 year old cultural Jew who knows anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.
It is not the Palestinians historical homeland.
Check out the Friday edition of Democracy Now. Open your mind.
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/24/the_mandates_of_conscience_michelle_alexander
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/24/ta_nehisi_coates_and_rashid_khalidi
I just want the Jews to survive Hamas and all the other terrorist organizations. Get rid of Netanyahu and be left alone. Simplistic maybe but very important. With European countries turning fascist, I have to say Never Again.
Agreed on Jewish survival. As for Hamas and other terrorist organizations, it’s nice to be a nation and be able to kill who you want without being called a “terrorist organization”.
Barry AWWWRK! And there is the special category of Israeli military hostages, which has been a humongous issue in the past. So far President Biden does not seem to have significant influence in dealing with Netanyahu’s government and the Israeli Defense Forces.
I note that Hamas, during the ‘hostage pause,’ so far has only released little more than a dozen foreigners—Thais and a Filipino. Biden is hoping that Americans will soon be included.
"Once again, he emphasized that 'this cycle of violence in the Middle East' must end. And, once again, he called for 'a two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians can one day live side by side…with equal measure of freedom and dignity.' He told reporters, 'There’s overwhelming interest—and I think most Arab nations know it—in coordinating with one another to change the dynamic in their region for a longer-term peace.' He noted that he was 'working very closely with the Saudis and others…to bring peace to the region by having recognition of Israel and Israel’s right to exist...'”
It strikes me that as often as I have heard the terms "two-state solution" and "Israel's right to exist," I have never once heard of the second state's name mentioned together with its "right to exist." Doesn't that seem really odd to anyone else? Doesn't having a two-state solution require open commitment to two states' right to exist?
Unless nations can regain a respect for the necessity for international law and an effective international criminal court, the worst elements are left to resolve their conflicted ambitions by violence. If we did not value the rule of law and access to courts, why shouldn't we expect to see vigilantes and gangs of thugs doing the same at smaller scales across our own neighborhoods?
Ed, in 1948 the UN voted that there be two states in the region, one for Arabs and one for Jews. Maps were drawn defining which group went where. Neither state was named. The Jewish leaders in the area, led by Ben Gurion, proclaimed the Jewish state would be named Israel. That day five Arab countries surrounding them declared war, promising to “push them to the sea”. A case can be made that that war has never ended.
A compiled history of the path through which we arrived here is detailed in a decade old volume by Max Blumenthal with the title Goliath.... One should read that because the book is well annotated with sources and evidence, even though there are reasons one may not like the author. It was a NYT best-seller, but the NYT to date has refused to allow publication of a book review. Such is the kind of censorship that we have against open discussion of what we are now drawn into dealing with.
I continue to hope. Hope that Biden and his team have a very tight rope around Netanyahu and his crazy generals in the IDF and the Likud Party. Joe has given Bibi many warnings about his response towards Hamas. Hamas is abhorred by some of the Arab nations but not by Iran nor Lebanon. They are definitely a terrorist organization which gained weaponry, intelligence, and training from members of ISIS. They have proven that they are tunnel rats with sophisticated means. On top of that, they are murderers and rapists. They now are dangling carrots, the people they kidnapped, and if Israel doesn’t do what they demand, then those citizens are left in peril.
Over 14,000 Palestinians have been killed. We simply cannot forget about them. Leadership on all sides must change, like yesterday! Joe is the only one everybody listens to. He is the ONLY ONE. It’s our duty to hold him up.
Marlene President Biden so far has demonstrated scant influence over Netanyahu and the Israeli Defense Forces. In his ‘humanitarian’ initiatives he would want a ‘cease fire’ rather than a ‘hostage pause.’ We’ll soon see how Israel responds to the broad opposition to massive killing of countless civilians and the destruction of much of Gaza.
Meanwhile, Biden should ‘slow walk’ any offensive materials [bombs, artillery shells] destined for Israel.
I agree with you, Keith. Biden chooses his words carefully. Netanyahu has proven his ineptness time and time again. His generals are as crazed as he is. He was a criminal before, but now Bibi is a war criminal.
Surely there has been a problem this vexing in the history of warring sides. But one centered in such a small area of land? And one this far from our home that has brought out so much overt irrational hatred? It’s all so hard to fathom.
Put in the context of several warring mythologies vying for the same smallish patch of ground, it makes perfect sense.
In the sense that any religion makes sense. Back in 1948, a good deal of Florida was open and available, and it was already pretty much a Jewish State. The "Holy Land" could have been left under U.N. mandate to be sacred for all religions with a history there.
And what a better "state" Florida would be today!
This is encouraging news. However , I still feel that not all the hostages will be released. Netanyahu is a authoritarian who will only negotiate so far with President Biden. I pray 🙏 for the Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. This war is far from over.
If prayer actually worked, none of this would be happening.
Now, let us not be dismissive or judgemental. As a lifetime atheist I do understand the needs of others who need some such meditation to maintain their own sanity in the face of the horrors of reality.
Me thinks that god washed his/her hands of this mess long ago. Twitter God once said “I never would have made you this smart if I knew you were going to be this stupid.” My sentiments exactly.
Saving that quote. I have been saying for years that if there was a god, he/she/it moved on in disgust. The most "advanced" mammal ruining everything.
You are spot on. I followed “God” on old Twitter. I have a bunch of quotes that I love. “Everything happens for a reason you make up afterward.” I’ll dig up a few more. Glad somebody else appreciates the humor. Has kept me sort of sane…
I never did Twitter. I have enough info. from the numerous sites I pay for. I would appreciate any other goodies "God" said about his/her/it's badly designed human product.
When some of the people I hold dear and consider intelligent went to the dark side (MAGA) it has been the frequent commenters on here that have been a lifeline.
My sediments also.