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The Hamas attack and the Netanyahu counter attack clearly demonstrate the harm extremists inflict upon the majority of citizens. And civilians pay the price. Hamas needs to be dismantled and those left alive imprisoned for war crimes. And Netanyahu needs to resign and be investigated for war crimes. And the people terrorizing the Palestinian civilians on the West Bank need to be investigated for war crimes. They sad thing is most folks in the middle on both sides likely want peace and would settle for a 2 state solution if it were not for the extremists wishing to annihilate each other. I hope the people here in the US take a good hard look at the consequences of electing an extremist into power.

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I think we can be a little more precise: an extremist whose goal in taking up the mantle of the nation's highest office is to jack up the government so as to avoid prosecution. In this Netanyahu and Trump are eerily similar.

I am grateful to Heather for noting a path out toward a two state solution, but I would caution against imagining that Fatah would be part of it. They have pulled back from it so many times before.

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Netanyahu has repeatedly told his citizens that this war will be long. I am no military tactician but I do see that a deeply unscrupulous Prime Minister who is facing the possibility of spending the remainder of his life in prison might wish the war to go on as long as there was a single member of Hamas alive. In this way it would be he who is using Palestinians as human shields.

At the very least it is clear that his motives are not simeon pure, and not fully aligned with the people he leads. Yesterday’s question of him resigning was aptly asked.

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Eric, although I haven't heard it broached publicly, it would not surprise me to learn that Netanyahu deliberately ignored intelligence prior to the October 7 Hamas attack in order to distract attention from the thousands who have been demonstrating against his administration and his Trump-like corruption. It is just too difficult to believe that Israel's defenses and intelligence were so deficient as to have allowed this attack to occur. I see something much more nefarious, and I never tout conspiracy theories.

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Your comment is logical if it can be accepted that somebody could be amoral at such a scale and that others near to him would be complicit. Surely it is not only N. who would have received such intelligence. I would honestly prefer to believe that people at or near the highest echelons of leadership would have the country’s best interests at heart.

Regardless, for the good of Israel this war needs to be short and efficient. With each day that passes, people who feel inimical to a. Netanyahu b. Israel or c. all Jews see this more as a vengeful slaughter with limits that Israel is indifferent to.

Personally I see the long, long shadow of the Holocaust. One must grant Israel some license to think and act as they do for they have one of the most terrible memories to live with.

Nonetheless their massive military power is such that they have become the lion in the jungle of the Middle East. They have not always been wise in their use of that status. Their constant encroachment in the West Bank is such to engender deep bitterness in Palestinians. And Gaza is an insult to the concept of humanity.

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Absolutely, Eric. My thoughts have been similar to yours regarding skepticism of deliberate dismissal of intelligence among Netanyahu's upper echelons, but you have only to look at this country to see the damage that Trump and the extreme right wing have caused. Our democracy is hanging by a thread.

While the Holocaust was the stimulus for the creation of Israel, antisemitism preceded the Holocaust by centuries, and for the most part those in power during and after WWII were too afraid of their constituents to welcome Jews into their countries, including the United States. They salved their collective conscience by giving the Holocaust survivors Arab lands, and the result is what we are all seeing today. If the Palestinians had been offered an autonomous state, perhaps we wouldn't be faced with what is happening now. It is not the fault of Israelis as a whole, but of their feckless leaders, who have marginalized the Palestinians and pushed them into the arms of terrorists.

I'm just as horrified that Palestinian civilians are being slaughtered as I am by what is happening to innocent Israelis, and there is no excuse for the encroachment that has happened on the West Bank and the insufferable conditions that existed in Gaza even before the current conflict. Telling Gaza's civilian population to go south, then bombing the south is cruel and deliberate. These people have no choice but to remain where they are and suffer the consequences.

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Brilliant. Thank you for enlarging my scope of knowledge.

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Details of the time after WW2: "The Last Million" by David Nasaw...One million displaced people in Germany...20% were Jews..........interviews of Prof. Nasaw on C-span and youtube....the book is "a page turner"...all 672 pages.

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I was just talking to my husband about how the Jewish people we resettling in the West Bank and making it Israeli. I compared it to the white men pushing out the Indians. In thinking that way, I felt badly for the Palestinian people ( not Homas)

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I never pay attention to conspiracy theories either....I like facts.......But, Netanyahoo is pretty evil and desperate........I saw a video on someone's phone that the camera's on the Gaza border were turned off, the military didn't come for 10 (!!) hours...and other stuff pointing to that possibility.......And, I have heard from credible sources that the Israel military looks forward excuses to go in and destroy homes and arrest or kill people....Keeping people in miserable conditions with no hope has to make some of them "misbehave".....I need to get that person to send me that video.....

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Nov 1, 2023·edited Nov 3, 2023

The Israeli response was sadly lacking, and considering the strength of Israel's military and intelligence strengths, it's difficult to understand how the October 7th attack could have happened.

Another problem is that people conflate ordinary Palestinian citizens with Hamas. I'm sure that civilians are angry and frustrated with the fact that they're trapped in Gaza and not allowed to leave that area even in ordinary times, nor are they allowed to have a say in their politics, but that doesn't translate to being considered terrorists or an unreasonable threat.

Netanyahu has mismanaged the Palestinian situation, in addition to being a corrupt authoritarian, and now it is boiling over. It is sad for Israeli citizens as well as the Palestinians, and the entire region is likely to be affected.

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I have had that exact thought.

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I am really hoping that someone will force a vote of no confidence in the knesset. Netanyahu was warned that his self serving stuff was a security risk. Moreover, any suggestion that Netanyahu is endangering IDF soldiers for personal reasons will really harm his prospects.

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IDF soldiers have been traumatized by what they have witnessed and what they have done.

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Also, it might take a long war to stop 47 nations whose religion tells them to anialate anyone they choose to call sn infidel.

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It is super hard to annihilate an idea. Twenty years of US might, and the Taliban is right where they started.

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Settlements, settlements, settlements are at the heart of Palenstinian resistance to proposed Palestinian states in recent history. That is the FUNCTION of the settlements, and has been for a long time — to make it nearly impossible to craft a rational Palestinian state criss crossed by private Israeli roads and giant “settlements.” Many issues exist to be resolved, but this is — as it appears to me — the BIGGEST. [Moving Israel’s capitol to Jerusalem and continuing to evict Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, or make it otherwise impossible for them to live there, is more …]

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Absolutely!

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The so-called "Two State Solution" is a fraud and a long-con. It always has been. The Zionists throw it out for cover. The goal has always been ethnic cleansing of what is now the "occupied territories." The two territories are not connected. Is there a country anywhere in two separate parts? Other than islands. With another country between them. The West Bank is covered with settlements of some 700,000 Israelis. Neither Gaza or the WB control the basic necessities such as water, power, fuel, and taxation.

The "Single State Solution" would be accepting Palestinians as full members of a state. But they would be a majority and the Zionists could never accept that.

Frankly, there is no solution. But that was known in 1948. Israel would always be a source of conflict. Both within and outside their country. The US is starting to look like that.

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"Hamas needs to be dismantled". ! Wow. Sounds so masculine, so manly. Dismantle sounds so mechanistic, so formulaic, maybe like an obsolete machine. Scrap it boys, as we did my first ship in the Navy. Hamas consists of people, people who've been battered, marginalized , excluded for a lifetime on the outside looking in, in numerous ways we cannot begin to imagine. The only tribe they know is the vengeful one. They are easily, and readily recruited while still in diapers. We men have screwed humanity from the beginning of time with the total addiction to controlling, or killing the ones we deem unworthy of living. My firm contention is that women would never have chosen the perpetual plundering lifestyle men chose in the beginning. Where have all the flowers gone indeed, Pete Seeger. Gone to graveyards, every one!

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When I was growing up we learned about the saying that "the sun never sets on the British Empire." Interesting that such a small country as England could wreak so much havoc on the world and many regions of the world were not as lucky as the USA to overthrow their colonization and rise up in their independence. It is England who colonized Palestine, during which time they helped to settle the Jews in Palestine and to create the modern State of Israel? Here are 3 different points of view on that settlement.

https://www.gchq.gov.uk/information/palestine-mandate

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/myths-facts-the-british-mandate-period?utm_content=cmp-truehttps://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/11/2/more-than-a-century-on-the-balfour-declaration-explained

Clearly the Palestinians did not come out of that colonization like the USA did, or this entire situation would be discussed differently. However, England did not act alone in turning Israel into the Nation it is today. It had the backing of other anti-Semetic nations in Europe and the USA who did not want to welcome the displaced Jews liberated from European countries to their home countries. Jews were desperate to leave before and during WWII.

https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/go-in-depth/impossibilities-escaping-1933-1942/

What did England and the Allies do to help resettle Jews who survived the Holocaust and clearly could not return to the European countries filled with hostile anti-Semetic people?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/09/searching-for-refuge-after-the-second-world-war

European countries and the USA were reluctant to take Jewish settlers, so it is understandable that people would want to go to Israel, or Palestine, which is what that was then. Right now Jews and Muslims are subject to hostility and ugliness in many places in the world, but I know that there are more Muslims in the other countries except for the USA and Israel, than there are Jews. How will this impact the outcomes? How does this affect safety? We need US diplomats in the region. They are being blocked by Rand Paul and Ted Cruz. There needs to be a push made by our elected officials to get around them. This is hugely important for our Jewish and Muslim citizens as well as in Israel and Palestine. Greg Olear writes in his Substack that Mike Johnson has a biblical Evangelical position on why the Ukrainians should lose and the Russians should win, and how that will play itself out in Israel. https://gregolear.substack.com/p/the-revelation-of-mike-johnson-the

We should be writing our politicians in support of good governance, and not in support of Johnson's extreme positions. The clamor of the people should drown Mike Johnson out.

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Israel : Palestine United States : Native Nations

Humanity has been moving and conquering since forever. Perhaps we can only see the horror in that when we see others do it. And before the modern era we were never able to really see it. After all, history is told by the victors.

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...and then not quite accurately 😉

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Yes Linda, Greg Olear’s Substack should be read by all.

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I also think people should read Hussein Ibish's story in The Atlantic. I don't know if you have a subscription, but it is titled Israel's Dangerous Delusion. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/11/israel-gaza-after-hamas/675856/?utm_campaign=one-story-to-read-today&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20231101&utm_term=One+Story+to+Read+Today

There are a lot of moving pieces to life right now that we should be aware of. I cannot imagine either Trump or Mike Johnson taking this over. Let us hope that Biden stays in good health, which I am assuming and Harris does too.

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Thanks Linda, Helen directed me to Olear’s piece and I hunted a l o n g time for it.🫶

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Jim, I believe also that women would not have chosen the violent path men have chosen and continue to choose. Love the song you quote 🎶

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Thought: women have been forced to evolve; most men have not.

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Surprised you would make this about gender. And I would mention “dismantle” suggests strategy as opposed to an all out leveling killing civilians indiscriminately. That we can perhaps understand what helped create Hamas does not mean they should continue to exist this way. They are extremists that wish to kill all Jews at the expense of the Palestinian civilians.

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Gender absolutely matters here and I think it’s insightful of Jim to bring it up. Consider the difference between a matriarchal solution and the patriarchy that got “us” (them) here. Since children are most harmed in these conflicts, and the conflict is passed down through generations, we need some true Mother-thinking! (Anecdotally, how many times did my mother say, “Fight like hell, then” when I said my brother started it? Zero times. 😉)

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My thought was Jim criticized my use of language considering my choices masculine. And I am a woman. That seemed odd to me to be criticized for sounding like a man in his opinion. Is there even a feminine way to state Hamas must be dismantled? (Which I believe as do military experts is the case.)

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Ahhh yes, I see your point!

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Just like no one seems to mention gender when speaking of our homegrown white nationalist terrorists responsible for most mass murders -They are 97% MEN. 141 men shooters to 4 women. https://www.statista.com/statistics/476445/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-shooter-s-gender/

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Men have too much time on their hands....to build, create, invent, conquer, destroy. Women make people.... to feed, clean, protect....

Humans: the bad animal.

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Right on Jim! The sheer destruction in Gaza is truly indigestible. As a female armchair general, I would order all of those tanks to hunt out entrances to the tunnels and sit and wait for however long it takes to force Hamas out.

The unprovoked killing of 1400 Jews is horrific and it's unbearable to hear the families of hostages talk about their pain. Why is it that we haven't heard very much about the close to 9000 Palestinians killed in Gaza and hear their relatives talk about their pain?? Why is it that people show outrage at the outright killing of so many Palestinians, as AOC cited in Congress, the cry is "anti-Semitism?"

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If criticizing Israel is anti-semitic, then color me anti-semitic.

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Exactly! Criticizing a 5-year old's bad behavior is not hate but calling out bad behavior. Looks like Israelis do not like being called out for their bad behavior....

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causes righteous fury...and lies.

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Jim, this is quite a surprise to me early in the am. I agree in a way except that there are women who have been nearly as bad. I just finished a history of Middle Europe which mentioned Maria Theresa and Catherine the Great. Then there are all the howling banshees in politics who seem to lost something of the feminine (and I don't mean looks and other superficial things), but something far more fundamental. I note your post below about tipping points blowin' in the wind and I consider global warming to be that tipping point and we are indeed getting stronger winds among other things.

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I used to blame it on the men...And, why didn't the women just say, "Stay home, no fighting and making trouble"...which lands her and the kiddies in a refugee camp.

Eventually, I had to conclude that it's not the men with their excess testosterone... It's not the fault of the females; goodness knows, we had enough on our hands keeping house for the offspring.........It's the human race. The only mammal that ends up with the next generation in terrible circumstances. Every other mammal procreates, forages for the babies and continues on for centuries on end. Not us.

If there ever was a god, he/she/it has moved on in disgust with what his/her/it's highest animal is doing to this perfect planet.

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Wow. I sure do remember that song. It comes to mind often. I think there is some truth in your reference to gender. There could be a big difference between a patriarchal and matriarchal society. Or consider a society that is actually balanced between the two genders. I am not much of a history buff, but I can imagine Golda Meir as prime minister in place of Netanyahu for the current period of time prior to the attack by Hamas on Israel. Think there would be a different outcome?

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In the song Joe, Mr Seeger referenced the fact we make war, rest, and repeat. The atavistic tendency for humans to never have enough. A novice in history as well, still, I'm aware women have some backstory as warriors as well. Far and away, we outnumber them enormously though. In evolutionary terms, women exceed men in cognitive skills by 25,000 years.generally smaller cortex's, BUT, with more cortical representation in left hemisphere/ communication skills. Not only oral speech, but listening with comprehension as well. Also, both reading, and writing comprehension skills to boot ! Ref. The Female Brain, Dr. Louann Brizendine MD. No pedestals for women, but, my feminine side (yes, Libra), tells me most women won't gladly turn over the ones they carried in them for close to a year, then raised to adulthood, to a war profiteering cause to artificially boost the New York Stock Exchange, or the likes of.

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How many countries/cultures/religions tell the women what to wear, what to do, where to go, who to associate with? Men need to protect that piece of ass they won...to keep her services and to not end up raising some other guy's offspring.

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very interesting. Matches my experience. It seems that society has conditioned women to accept a subservient role for many centuries... but that is changing. There is hope for the future.

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Hamas, like ISIS, has lost any vestige of moral compass, as clearly seen in the terrorist attack. Beyond that, yes, Israeli policies that marginalized and mistreated Palestinians — not to mention the onging treatment of Gaza and what so many see as “collective punishment” of Palestinians for the behavior of members of Hamas, has made it too easy for Hamas to recruit and radicalize NEW members …

I believe Hamas needs to be dismantled, too. Not by blowing up every Palestinian in the near vicinity of every suspected member of Hamas.

There needs to be a better way to find peace in Israel. The people there deserve peace.

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Yes Jim. 😔

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Tipping points are real. Humanity is at a crossroad of grave importance now as we continue floating the notion that band-aids are going to close the gapping, gushing wounds we perpetually inflict on one another. The answers are blowing in the wind, it seems.

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Well said Brandy. Especially the last sentence. As I sit secure, warm, with my morning routine I wonder the numbers of people having no clue as to the chaos that would be eventual upon bringing the MAGA coalition into full power.

It boggles my mind .

Nor can I even fathom the negotiations to get some semblance of toned down control for the two state premise.

That whole melting pot area , centuries of unrest,hatred,war, extremists, yada yada...I’m sure there are many amongst this wonderful group who have studied this extensively.

Do you understand it ? Is there a less than 500 word essay ( need 1,000?) that would put it into a reasonably understandable context?

Me back here ????? I have confusion around the mess right here ! The facts of lying, corruption, greed, hatred, and disinformation ...can only lead me to understand its just normal ....🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️😕

But let the radicals have their way?...our own terrorists, right? Any doubt , folks?

Not here.

Best to our Blinken , Biden, their teams and strategists .

💙💙VOTE💙💙

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One good book: Contested Land, Contested Memory by Jo Roberts.

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Thanks🫶 I am interested.

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Thanks, I have ordered it.

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Patricia Davis, read Greg Olear’s Substack article from yesterday. It explains a long look at the history of wars in the Middle East.

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Not finding it Helen, I’ll look again.

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It was from 10/31 and was called “ The Revelation of Mike Johnson as speaker”

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I found it through a copied format. Thanks, Helen.

Quite the read.

I posted about the separation of the church from state today, and several sometimes ago.

If I thought I could sum up, simplify, or make sense …I’d probably be tripping and I did say I’d never do that again!

Now …I’d really like to ask Our Joe ‘s opinion 😁 this stuff makes me think THAT kind of stuff..

He , Joe, walks his Faith. It’s how I really feel it …sort of glows seems to me. Carries himself with a mentors humility … I feel ….like Jesus would (since this is one of the themes)

If Mike wants to believe all that …religious freedom, right…that’s what America was based on ie coming here not to get persecuted …

How confused , regulated, directed , threatening does it have to get…if YOU like it, it works for you, OK with me, if you don’t like something don’t do it, don’t be it.

It’s moral compass and we can’t legislate them…

But if people go around bombing the shit out of, murdering , cutting off heads…and …and …and well we probably should try to have some rules and allll work for a solution(s)…(but…not.what.autocrats.do.)

Oh …zealots…they’re a bunch , huh? … like radicals

💙💙VOTE💙💙

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Patricia, Thanks for reading the complicated, head spinning article. I referred to it because it helped me understand the Christian Nationalist viewpoint ( I think) and where the new speaker is coming from, because it is influencing how he will lead, to our great detriment. And I agree with what you said about our Joe. He radiates faith and love. I am a practicing Catholic of the social justice movement but respect other faiths or non- faiths because our country was founded on separation of church and state. Everything is so disheartening now and I am just trying to understand history and how it’s affecting us now. But thank you again for taking the time to read the article and respond. 💙💙💙💙

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Hamas will be gone. Then a nice peace loving government takes their place. The "open air Prison" of Gaza, where the Israeli Military has free rein to go in on a regular basis to destroy infrastructure and family homes and kill anyone, will be no problema. So Much Better!

Oh, and BTW: the people terrorizing the Palestinian civilians on the West Bank will be investigated for war crimes.

Fat chance.

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“Israel, ruthlessly, is going after the families, wives, kids, brothers, sisters, parents of Hamas political and military leaders.” He said fourteen members of the family of Ismail Haniya, the political leader of Hamas based in Qatar, had already been killed. Within two days of the October 7 raid, he said, the widow of Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, a Hamas co-founder who was assassinated in 2004, was killed. Similarly, he said, eight members of the family of Muhammed Deif, the Hamas military leader, were killed in safe homes.”

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/the-labyrinth-war?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1377040&post_id=138465481&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=dw1an&utm_medium=email

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I have believed from when Israel started bombing Palestine: they didn't give a damn about those captives......how would they know where they are being held? They didn't. Now they know they in being kept in some part of the tunnels.... they are firing into and destroying tunnels.

I heard somewhere that the Israeli Military knew Hamas was planning the attack and were told to stand down ...to me that counts as a conspiracy theory. I do not give that kind of thing any credence. I like facts. However....the Israeli Military didn't arrive for 10 hours???

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Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly told his people that the war will be long and hard. I’m no military tactician, but I can easily see the following. A deeply unscrupulous Prime Minister facing the fact that he might well spend his post-political life in prison might have every reason personally to continue the war until he deems that every last member of Hamas has been killed. By doing so he would be prolonging his life as a free man, while in effect using the IDF and the Palestinians as human shields. At the very least it can be justly said that his motives at this critical time are not aligned with those of his citizens.

Yesterday’s question as to whether he would resign was almost certainly rhetorical. Sadly he won’t.

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In a survey of Gazans completed on October 6, the Arab Barometer - a long-standing and well regarded poll, found the large majority of Gazans 1) do not have trust in Hamas as a governing entity; 2) believe Hamas is corrupt; and 3) would like a “two-state solution” to the end the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

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All Gazans don't want all Israelis dead, although some may wish for that. Mostly, they're just really mad at their terrible circumstances that were created by Israelis.

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Brandy, excellent. Extremists of any kind are always a problem for the majority of people who are not. They are all true believers in their vision no matter whether is religious or political, making sensible solutions impossible. They already have seen what an extremist and an extremist party can do and those who are true believers refuse to be persuaded. It is up to the rest of us to see that they do not gain complete power. The new Speaker is a religious extremist and as one of my friends noted, smarmy. Just looking at him makes me sick.

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Norman Finkelstein: my hero!!....in the first speech I heard from him, he says that he cannot condemn the brutal acts of Hamas in Israel.

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Nov 2, 2023·edited Nov 2, 2023

Indeed. His comparison of the refusal of leading abolitionists to condemn Nat Turner and his bloody uprising to the current conflict was a light bulb moment for me.

This one dovetails with Norman’s take on the ‘condemn’ issue : https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/01/asad-abukhalil-do-you-condemn-israel/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=82faf6a8-13da-49d4-9966-1c3077801a6e

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It was also a "light bulb moment" for Norman. I had Consortium saved but now I put myself on their email list....so. I won't miss anything. My GOD! This is exhausting....But, I won't give up learning more and more.........

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It is exhausting, but as you say, you might as well embrace being on a continual learning curve. One tip I’ll pass on, that being, it helps to be able to laugh now and then while the learning is going on. To that end, Matt Taibbi’s Racket News (subscription required) site and Katie Halper’s Useful Idiots (I just bookmark the YouTube channel, although you can pay for extra content) always make me laugh out loud. Taibbi has a weekly podcast with Walter Kirn, and Katie and Aaron Mate host a couple of hour+ long podcasts/interviews per week that are always informative. Hang in there. Peace, t

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I think I just paid for Katie...(or will)...she's not only cute (just did her hair up; I kinda liked the dark roots..) but, she's really got it going on. I just watched former IDF soldiers horrified at the violence...Breaking the Silence guy: it's sad that he's taking on a such a sisyphean journey. I'll check out "Taibbi has a weekly podcast with Walter Kirn, and Katie and Aaron Mate host a couple of hour+ long podcasts/interviews per week that are always informative."

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I was thinking the same thing about extremist in power. I just wonder why Netanyahu is in power in light of the huge protest against him. Did people vote him in and then he changed the game rules? I know in one state a woman campaigned as a democrat-pro choice etc, got elected and did a complete turn around and adopted republican ideals.

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The scourge on the good Earth are extremist of all stripes. Wars are always bad economics, regardless of what the arms dealers tell you.

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Many similarities here is the USA

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Netanyahu war crimes? Are you kidding?

There is only one side that wants total extermination and its Hamas. They rape women and behead children. Israel on the other hand wants the extermination of Hamas and anyone

who wages war against Israel. THEY DON"T TARGET women and children.

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Wrong wrong and wrong again. Please stop posting misinformation about children being beheaded which even the White House had said was an unconfirmed report which no one including the IDF or any international news agency has been able to corroborate or for which no one has been able to find evidence. Even the Israeli journalist who first reported it has retracted it as hasty and unsubstantiated. Continuing to post it is inflammatory and fake news. And to say that the Israelis don’t target women and children is tragically laughable. Who do you think make up a large percentage of the civilians killed by Israeli bombing since Oct 7? Thousands of children - thousands - have been killed by the Israelis in very targeted attacks on civilian areas where the Israelis believe Hamas is sequestered and using women and children as “human shields” willingly or not.

To the Israelis every Palestinian is culpable. Who else on the planet tells civilians to evacuate and then bombs the only roads on which they can escape?

No one is arguing the atrocity and barbarity of Hamas’s attack for one second, nor their murder of children, but to spread proven inflammatory disinformation and at the same time be naive - or stubborn- enough to fail to acknowledge Israel’s action’s as well keeps us chained to the ugly position of no possible resolution and no chance of peace or a ceasefire. Is that what you prefer?

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Notice: No One Likes James' stupid post.

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Thank you Lin! The conflation of grouping Palestinians with Hamas and/or suggesting all Israelis are innocent from killing or encroaching on Palestinians is ridiculous. In fact I have been seeing news reports of Israelis on the West Bank using this tragic time to kill Palestinian civilians in their quest to further their settlements. Yet I believe the majority on both sides are peaceful and that it is the extremists who cause most of the horror. In fact I’ve read most Israelis themselves believe Netanyahu to be culpable and wish him out of office particularly as he wishes to dismantle their Democracy and prevent his crimes from being tried. And I’ve also seen reports that Palestinians in Gaza wish to be rid of Hamas - who clearly uses them as human shields and think they are expendable. I wish there was a magic spell for getting rid of the extremists on both sides! 😭

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What an incredibly complicated world we suddenly find ourselves living in. Pray that it resolves peacefully.

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It's going to take more than prayer. What a shame more Americans don't pull their heads out of the sand until they get their butts kicked. "Suddenly there is a world out there!". Maybe this will help them realize their petty differences regarding skin color, gender, and age are pointless.

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In the US we don’t get a balanced view of the conflict. The bias is in favor of Israel. Our politicians must support Israel to get elected. I was shocked to see the real situation when I traveled to Israel years ago. That’s why it’s important to be informed about each side.

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Did you visit Palestine or any of the other 47 Muslim countries? I have a problem with countries ruled by their religion. It's important, but often not rational.

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Nov 1, 2023·edited Nov 1, 2023

Actually, it’s not complicated. Israel has been running a concentration camp in Gaza. That is unsustainable.

https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/31/patrick-lawrence-deeper-into-depravity/

“I saw an interview Sunday with a Defense Department contractor who has visited Israel dozens of times over many years on DoD work. He recounted the steady decline in any belief in a peaceful settlement of the Israel–Palestine crisis that he has detected since 2007. For most Israelis, he observed, it is down to violence now. A headline in Monday’s editions of The Times, recording these changing desires and expectations: “I Don’t Have That Empathy. It’s Not Me Anymore.” This is the voice of a nation that has demolished itself in its attempts to destroy others.

A couple of weeks ago in this space I published a commentary asserting that the two-state solution to the Israel–Palestine question is dead, and a single, secular state is the only way forward. I had some mail afterward to the effect that a one-state solution is too far from reality to think about. I will reply here that these readers have it upside-down. A one-state solution is now the only realistic idea worth considering. Until Israelis accept that they must live in a single nation wherein Palestinians dwell as equal citizens, there is no more future for them than there is for Palestinians. They, Israelis, will be condemned to live in a walled-off garrison state that will come to look ever more like a commodious version of the “open-air prison” we speak of when we speak of Gaza.”

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Nov 1, 2023·edited Nov 1, 2023

"Until Israelis accept that they must live in a single nation wherein Palestinians dwell as equal citizens"

Tom, don't you wish that the two gametically identical Semitic people, the Palestinians and the Israeli's, were not separated by fundamentalist religions? Because, if neither people had a religion at all, then, they might notice they are identical people.....and equal....and worth getting to know and marry and live with and prosper together with.

But, as long as God is on the Israeli side AND a different God is on the Palestinian side and both consider themselves their God's chosen people, well, we will have big problems.

I mean, who is more right than a person God has chosen?

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Yup. And religion is a convenient tool to use against others. Every religious cult has done that for eons. Protestants vs Catholics. Protestants against Protestants. All the same horrific nonsense. My god and my dogma is better then your dogma. Accept my dogma or die. And now we have a Leader of the House of Representatives who believes the same ignorant anti-democratic crap. He is a throw back to the Middle Ages.

I think our species has still not evolved enough to be capable of self management. We can't even agree to manage the health of the only planet that will support life as we know it!

We are like too many rats in a cage. And we are doing what they would do if deprived of the basics of life.

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You’ve entwined most of reality in a short few sentences Bill. Well done.

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Bill, that’s what psychologists wrote about years ago. Then the UN (1970’s) and Paul Ehrlich (scientist) gave us a population warning. Then there was Denny Hastert (speaker of the House) and “the Hastert Rule.”

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Way too many rats in this cage.

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I agree religion is the problem. It separates us from our fellow man merely for a belief. Why this idea that we must all be the same?

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The problem is ... [I know. Everybody says this. The "real problem, the root problem is..." But still I'm going to say it anyway because religion is only being used to justify the real problem which is what each party wants.] The real problem is LAND. It's physical. It's real.

Two bodies can't reside in the same square meter at the same time. Somebody gets to have that spot and the other person will be left to find another place to be.

Beneath THAT problem is the incomprehensible potential for forgiveness. At this point the conflict is all about retaliation and proving a point (he hit me first).

Forgiveness cuts through the problem of the present and sets up a new future.

"Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a better past." – Anne Lamott

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Yes, land and water

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Lebensraum: getting more living space was an idea that thrived in Germany to the end of W War ll where they lost land and still their population grew and prospered. It can be done...but perhaps the real problem is just human beings.

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You got it right. Humans are the worst animal...ever.

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We make God in man’s image instead of understanding God/Source as Love and man and woman made in the image of Love. Now there’s a religion.

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Mike S, this is what's so scary about the new House Speaker.

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Yes, Angela. The separation of church and state is front and center. As is my love of spirituality vs religion .

Walk not Talk and certainly not kill any other because someone else won’t adhere to your Path.

Deep.

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Bingo! Remove G-d and religion and we would have something like peace reign. Or would they squabble over something else?

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White people literally enslaved Black people in this country. There were bloody slave revolts and far more bloody crushings of them. It propelled us into a civil war. We are still struggling with dwelling as equal citizens 160 years later. So there's that.

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Nat Turner: a hero.....he killed 45 whites.

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I have given up hope getting the facts from reading The NY Times...I am tuned into youtube: Norman Finkelstein, Edward Said, Gideon Levy, Dr. Alice Rothchild, Noam Chomsky. Prof. Sam Vadni and substack..... Olear and some others ....BTW: I'm exhausted.

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Exponentially more complicated and thus the fear of what next that we have not imagined.

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Complicated by a power hungry extremist who’s only hope of remaining out of jail is for him to remain in power. His power is supported by the contingent of men that want to “settle” the West Bank by bulldozing its residents, or simply terrorizing them with death so “they” can proceed with their own version of Manifest Destiny

First step toward solution; end Bibi’s reign and keep the Settlers out of the West Bank.

Bibi’s only hope of success is getting Hamas to surrender That’s a tall mountain, so his carnage in Gaza is his last hope of staying out of jail. We’ve seen this movie recently, haven’t we?

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Yes we’ve seen this movie over and over and if tfgcrazymanbaby gets anywhere near the White House, watch for it in 2025.

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I think that it boils down to a lack of respect and an attempt at trying to understand that others see the world from a different perspective than each of us - individually - and yet we all have to try and live together by respecting one another’s differences!!!

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… and yes, I know that there are just some despicably evil and selfishly greedy people who are mentally warped and are probably not fit to fit in - but they’re here.

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........ too late for that prayer.

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I'm so very tired of people offering "thoughts and prayers".

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I agree - how about "think and vote"

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Donate and demonstrate!

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deletedNov 1, 2023·edited Nov 1, 2023
Comment deleted
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Mike, I think Biden has been a restraint (to what degree, I don’t know) on Bibi, who wanted to go in and annihilate Hamas at what ever cost.

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MLMinET, I sure hope you’re right! A large problem is we don’t have much of a leg to stand on. Netanyahu even put that in our face in at least one of his speeches. There is no way he is going to do as we say, not as we do - unless Biden threatened to cut off aid and support or some such thing - which would open up a huge problem. I have said so many times since Biden was inaugurated that I’m sure glad I’m not him. I can’t even imagine dealing with all that he has to deal with!!!! I am glad he is our president now. Who else had the knowledge and experience to do so!? I do wish he were making different decisions regarding Israel, etc now. I’m wondering if his hands are tied (so to speak).

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Yes, Linda. To a degree his hands are tied. And our democracy is so imperiled that he cannot tip any balance we have or may be perceived to have.

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I have never trusted Biden although I certainly voted for him but I lost even more respect for him if possible when he bald-face lied to the world when he said he had actually seen pictures of beheaded babies when we now know he had seen no such thing because NO SUCH PICTURES exist. The White House itself euphemistically “walked back” these comments only a short time later saying the President hadn’t actually seen the pictures himself but had been told they existed and so used that in his speech. He has shown no backbone in standing up to Netanyahu and his mealy-mouthed protestations about protecting civilians came far too late and in spite of the money the US is giving have zero credibility when he’s giving that money with one hand and giving out more money to the Israelis with the other hand to keep bombing and fund a catastrophic ground invasion.

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Let’s talk about antisemitism.

Many of you seem confused about this. Here is a handy guide.

***Not Anti-Semitism***

- it is not antisemitic to criticize and be appalled by the actions of PM Netanyhu and his regime. It’s been happening within Israel for months through protests.

- it is not antisemitic to critique past actions of Israel. Multiple leaders have made horrible judgements in the past, and these actions should be studied to not be repeated. This has been happening for decades through scholarly discourse.

- it is not antisemitic to mourn Palestinian lives and their culture. They are a distinct people who have suffered loss, and have the human right to grieve. Validating their humanity does not eliminate justice or care for Jews or Israelis. It’s been happening within Israel for years through community.

- it is not antisemitic to want a Palestinian homeland. Everyone deserves a place where they feel, and are, safe. It’s been happening for years through peace talks and diplomacy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

***Anti-Semitism***

- it IS antisemitic to fail to denounce Hamas. Their charter and mission, still, calls for the elimination of Jewish people worldwide. They are not the same as the Palestinian people. 53% voted for Hamas. The rest did not. And an appalling number of Americans have swept the atrocities of October 7 under the rug in a matter of weeks.

- it IS antisemitic to chant “From the river to the sea…”. It calls for the elimination of the state of Israel, a legally and justly recognized formal democracy. This has been happening for years now through ignorance and group think.

- it IS antisemitic to call Israel “colonizers”. People cannot colonize land they are indigenous to. This has been happening for millennia through demonization and expulsion of Jews worldwide.

- it IS antisemitic to write off Jews as having white privilege. There are Jews of all skin color and from all corners of the world. While many of us are white passing and benefit from it, it only exists until others learn that we are Jews. This is called “conditional whiteness” and has been extensively studied. This has been happening for thousands of years through forced assimilation and self preservation.

- it IS antisemitic to call Israel an apartheid state. There are more than 2 million Palestinians peacefully living in Israel in all walks of life including doctors, teachers, lawyers, and politicians. There are no Jews or Israelis living in Gaza. This has been going on for decades through the democratic process.

- it IS antisemitic to accuse Israel or Jews of ethnic cleansing. The Palestinian population in Gaza has approximately doubled in the last 15 years, and the Palestinian population in Israel has grown as well, although not in proportion to Jews because refugees from all over the world (recently: Ukraine and France) can only come to Israel for safety because they have nowhere else to go. This has been happening for years through financial and humanitarian aid.

- it IS antisemitic to accuse Jews or Israel, the only Jewish state, of genocide. The term developed because the horrors of Jewish genocide needed an official word as it wasn’t recognized formally prior to the Jewish population being reduced by 30% worldwide. Turning this trauma back onto the only place where Jews have refuge from this exact crime, is demonizing and again calling for the only safe place for Jews worldwide to be punished. This has been happening for years through pure propaganda and hatred.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Indeed, fight for the Palestinian people. But for the love of decency, please do it without being antisemitic.

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Thank you.

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Hear, hear! Thank you for this excellent summary. As a 70yo WASP woman I’ve watched this terrible conflict all my life. Reading thru the Old Testament shows that it has been going on from the beginning. How long, oh Lord? Dona nobis pacem

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Nov 1, 2023·edited Nov 1, 2023

Sorry, but you lost me at apartheid. Israel most certainly is an apartheid state.

Genocide? Ethic cleansing? It’s getting close.

I’m with Norman here. His parents were both in concentration camps, and he has studied the Palestinian issue for decades.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX2Wl-2dbQo&t=3473s

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Nelson Mandela had some very stimulating things to say about the human right to self determination and nations that deny people that right. If the Palestinian perspective is less and no right to self determination while Israeli’s possess that right, then it does seem closer to apartheid than further. Anti Zionist is not the same as Anti Semitic. Isn’t that true?

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One take on Zionism which agrees with your last statement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZenuSv2vVI

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“Everyone deserves a place where they feel, and are, safe.” If only we believed that.

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Does Israel have the right to defend itself? 100! That it the responsibility of its/any government. It also has the responsibility to bring home the more than 240 hostages that were abducted on Oct. 7 in a carefully planned and executed attack. They are sadly missing in this discussion and today’s newsletter.

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I realize that a lot happens behind the scenes, but exactly how will Israel's military actions help to bring the hostages home safely?

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There is a lot of nonsense flying around. And many otherwise (presumably) reasonable people spouting Hamas talking points.

But it is always easy to throw Jews under the bus.

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It amuses me that you think the ‘talking points’ and ‘throwing under the bus’ are so clear cut, as if there aren’t Israeli talking points being spewed by otherwise (presumably) reasonable people, and the ease to which Palestinians are crammed into an open-air prison doesn’t qualify as nonsense.

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Agree completely.

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Of course the speaker wants to defund the IRS. His donors are American oligarchy, and Russian Oligarchy. That doesn’t happen without the Kremlin signing off. I can’t figure out Mitch though. 2 years before the war started, wasn’t Moscow Mitch getting a cut for selling some old Kentucky Aluminum plant to Oleg Dereposka? What’s changed?

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I am finding evidence in Johnson's FEC filings of his links to the Koch network. I will report what I find later today on my substack, I am also trying to figure out what Johnson's and Koch's positions are on Israel. Koch has investments there and Johnson being so deeply evangelical suggest pro-Israel, but the funding bill tied to the IRS cuts clearly put the IRS cuts as the real top priority.

I am sickened that thousands of innocent lives are being lost in Israel, Gaza and Ukraine as we watch Koch and company pull the strings in the puppet show in the House.

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I look forward to what you conclude.

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Koch wants what the Saudi and gulf states want. A higher price for crude = a higher price for refined products. This is also what Russia needs to keep the war going in Ukraine.

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Defund Israel and their corrupt anti democracy leader Netanyahu

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Israel has been building settlements in the West Bank for 40 years. The majority of Palestinians in Gaza, which contains eight refugee camps, are descendants of refugees who fled or were expelled from the area that became Israel after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It didn't start with Netanyahu; he has only been Prime Minister for 16 years.

It's been the policy of Israel from before 1948.

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But he and his government have encouraged settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and in direct violation of international have tacitly encouraged the illegal seizure of Palestinian land. In the last two weeks alone settlers have killed over 100 Palestinians in the West Bank with arms supplied to them by the government. They were not defending themselves- they were the aggressors.

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You are absolutely right; he's a monster.

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Now we are seeing the result of the assassination of President Rabin in 1992 by an Israeli fundamentalist fanatic. Since then the religious hardliners have slowly but surely determined Israeli policy regarding the West Bank. The USA has continued to send billions to Israel no strings attached — when what Israel needed was some tough love, I e demands that the Israelis change their disrespectful treatment of Palestinians. Underlying all of this is the power that religious fundamentalists wield on both sides of the conflict. These people never willingly enter into compromises. This is also what we witness in the States as the Christian Nationalists pressure the Republican Party to

Implement their backward looking beliefs. As the founding fathers knew, we need a clear separation of church and state.

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Netanyahu needs to be defeated at the ballot box by the Israel voters. Israeli people would be better served with a moderate in power. On this, I agree with you.

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That would result in a complete and total genocide of the Palestinians. And then greater regional war.

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Mitch may finally have understood that he might have to move to China or Russia if he doesn’t support Ukraine funding.

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Putin has played Mitch like a sucker by funneling cash to R’s Super PACs, the NRA is one ( Oligarch Alexander Torshin), and foreign investment in Kentucky ( Oleg Deriposka Aluminum). Maybe he had finally seen the light like some conservatives in the UK.

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Thank you for giving these details. It helps more people see what we are facing if we don’t vote and vote blue.

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A major obstacle to peace is that the Hamas charter calls for the elimination of Israel and the murder of Jews. Hamas doesn't want a 2-state solution; it wants only 1 state, meaning no Israel.More about the charter is in The Atlantic- https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/?utm_campaign=one-story-to-read-today&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20231013&utm_term=One+Story+to+Read+Today

The actress Mayim Bialik made this video to help non-Jews better understand what Jews are experiencing these days. She expresses some of my feelings, and you might find it worthwhile to watch and share. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?extid=SMS-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&mibextid=UVffzb&v=203611696091233

A blog post in The Times of Israel might also clarify the Israeli and Jewish perspective. I encourage you to read it all the way to the end. https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/dear-world-i-dont-care

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Hamas is not going to kill all the Jews with small arms and hang gliders and homemade bombs. Israel needs to stop playing the victim. Stop the occupation. Stop the apartheid. Stop 75 years of violating Palestinian human rights. Stop the genocide. Stop funding Israel.

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I'm with you. We give Israel $3.3 Billion every year -- far more in military aid than any other country. What has that paid for that we should be sending them even more millions now? The asymmetrical firepower between the two opponents is very David versus Goliath . NOT saying that Hamas has any claim to the moral high ground and doesn't deserve to be neutralized. But when the field is as uneven as it is we shouldn't be making it worse with our commitment to unconditional support for the government of Israeli. To be clear, I have always been firm in my support of and love for the Jewish people, just as I have been dismayed by the actions of the government of Israel.

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The current Israeli "war" ...Biden is asking them to take it easy...please, no war crimes.

Israel laughs at Biden.

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Of course they do. He says one thing then goes on TV and tells the world the US is rock solid in its support for Israel. Please. He has the credibility of a three and a half dollar bill.

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I love Biden but he's so SO sadly wrong on this....There are reasons behind it: that tricky Arab region, the oil, the Jewish lobby...more things impossible for me to understand. We have to sacrifice Palestinians for these reasons?? I have lost faith in the human race.

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Mayim Bialik’s video is disgusting and reprehensible in its fear mongering and unbelievable distortions of the situation and complete dehumanization of Palestinians and wholesale approval of Israel’s war crimes. Someone as intellectually brilliant as Bialik certainly ought to be capable of grasping two concurrent realities, namely that it is possible to join in the universal condemnation of Hamas for the atrocities it committed in its barbaric attack on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 and emphatically agree that Hamas is guilty of war crimes in that attack, AND at the same time acknowledge that Israel’s response has been been an appalling exercise in disproportionate collective punishment which also includes repeated actions universally recognized as war crimes, not to mention the staggering toll of civilian deaths.

She repeats thoroughly discredited claims about Hamas beheading Israeli infants and children, reports that not a single reputable news source has been able to verify including the IDF and the White House and which every reputable source which reported it has since retracted. Her fear-mongering and exaggerations are unconscionable and serve no other purpose than to play on emotions already overburdened with grief, frustration and anger which she does her best to exacerbate.

At a time when we should be coming together to demand an immediate ceasefire and push back harder than ever against Netanyahu’s corrupt fascist blood fever, Bialik doubles down on the narrative which lays the fertile ground for Netanyahu’s classic doublespeak which continues to blame the victim. He continues to promote the insane ideology that a ceasefire means victory for Hamas and that civilian casualties are an expected by-product of war and what do you expect when we are fighting an enemy like Hamas which is so thoroughly embedded in the Palestinian population that there really aren’t any non-complicit civilians anyway.

And an astonishing number of Jews - not just Israelis, but Jews certainly in the West, have readily accepted the idea that there is no distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian population and that Israel cannot be blamed for anything it is doing. The growing disconnect between Jews like Bialik who have a large platform and push this reactionary garbage fail to see how they have created a growing alienation between young Palestinians and Arabs internationally and the Jewish community; instead they continue to “blame the victims” for being unwilling to make peace (!) or they don’t care because they have already written off Palestinians based on the only nominally “democratic” election of Hamas in 2006 and point to that as proof of Palestinian support for Hamas.

There’s no point in arguing this point,I know that and I’m not looking to get into that discussion. But I cannot let repeated recommendations for Bialik’s post go buy without presenting an alternative viewpoint.

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Another great viewpoint. To bring out the disinformation , use it to incite further, all the while ‘our/their’ own backyards are a mess.

The bottom line is it’s 2023 and the WHOLE should know better/find solutions because THERE.ARE.SOLUTIONS.

It’s about money, control, racism, greed.

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Lin, oddly, I agree with you - and I much appreciated Mayim Bialik's post. Even though it was exaggerated and iffy information-wise, it helped me to see and feel at least one jewish person's perspective.

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Well, I hear you and of course everyone has the right to choose but your comment frightens me a little I confess. I think Bialik’s perspective is extremely dangerous and reactionary and I don’t think there’s anything useful in having it out there for people to see as if it were an equal representation of a two-sided argument. It is not. It may represent the far right extreme of Jewish thinking but that doesn’t mean it should be given a platform.

The best analogy I can think of is climate change. Please bear with me. Climate change and global warming are real phenomena, demonstrated unequivocally and agreed upon by the majority of scientists internationally across a broad spectrum of congruent fields for decades.

Nonetheless, as we now know, a well-organized effort funded by the oil industry worked for years to dispute and cast doubt on the scientific narrative, insisting that there were actually scientifically viable alternate explanations for what scientists were seeing that had nothing to do with CO2 emissions etc. and that global warming was a myth.

This was so successful that the mainstream media all over the world bought into the idea that in fairness “both sides of the story” should always get equal time, even though there had been a consensus on climate change and the science was indisputable for years. But this manipulation by Big Energy resulted in millions of people being perpetually confused and in doubt about whether or not climate change is real, and if so what causes it and what should be done about it etc etc. It held back public support and progress for years all because of the ability to present a false equivalency and give a platform to something that was based on disingenuous disinformation carefully constructed to play into the psychology of its audience.

I think that is exactly why Bialik’s little performance is so dangerous with the one significant difference that I believe that she really believes what she is saying which is really scary. But she has created an entirely false scenario, an alternative reality that people buy into to the enormous detriment and damage to any hope for peace or progress in the Mideast.

Yes the attacks by Hamas upset the status quo, but I fervently hope we are not all the fragile frantic terrified community that Bialik makes us out to be, and that for all her book smarts her Yiddishe kup has completely failed her this time in really reading the room.

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Lin, I hear you too, and very much understand and respect what you are saying. The reason I appreciated Bialik’s sharing is that it brought back forcefully for me the horrors the Israelis experienced on the 7th. I was somewhat aware of the exaggeration/ misinformation, but her emotions, her fears felt real. My emotions had been mostly with the Palestinians and the horrors going on in Gaza. The videos are devastating - and constant. Anyway, Bialik brought the Jewish people emotionally back to me and gave me an understanding of what some of my fellow citizens might be feeling. One thing (among many) that distresses me is that people who are standing up for the people of Gaza are being called antisemetic when so many Jewish people want the horror there to stop as well.

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Mayim Bialik and Noa Tishby would be more effective if they stopped exaggerating and sharing unsubstantiated and false information. What is happening is horrible enough.

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Thank you Laurie. And everyone should watch Mayam Bialik’s video.

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Thank you LaurieOregon. I do not have a subscription to The Atlantic but read and watched the other material you recommended here.

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Laurie, thank you for these links! Mayim Bialik's words finally enabled me to cry the tears I have been wanting to cry since October 7th. They had just been all bottled up and wouldn't move. I think the constantly televised horrors in Gaza and huge numbers of Palestinian casualties are so overwhelming that the Jewish people are getting lost in the mix. Just as the Palestinians are not Hamas, the jewish people are not Netanyahu.

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LaurieOregon -- Many thanks for your links! All very important. Am making my way through them.

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Thanks for letting me know. Sharing accurate information and perspectives helps me, too.

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For a less emotional take, there’s https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/22/opinion/hamas-israel-jews-massacre.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Why Jews Cannot Stop Shaking Right Now, a NY Times editorial by Dara Horn, the author of “People Love Dead Jews.”

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wsjabraham, Dara Horn is one of my favorite authors. I'm glad you linked to this column.

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“When this crisis is over...”

I fear this crisis will never end. It is already over a thousand years old.

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Yes indeed! It is centuries of this. Righteousness and hatred in the area prevent any solutions. Those living there need to want to end this and collectively the need to be right prevents finding answers.

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“After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. And while we sought justice and got justice,...”

We did? From attacking another sovereign nation (Iraq), based on lies, and which nation wasn’t even the origin of the vast majority of the terrorists (Saudi Arabia)? George Bush should be tried at The Hague before Putin is.

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That stopped me, too. I read "got justice" as "got bin Laden." Nothing else makes sense to me.

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I find it difficult not to believe that the hardcore MAGA Mob in Congress are knowing Russian agents on Putin's payroll. Military aid to Ukraine is a boost to the US defense industry, which is why military aid of any kind to anybody historically enjoyed solid Republican support. But the MAGA Mob wants to cut off US defense contractors from $billions in orders bound for Ukraine, turning our backs on our friends, and boosting Putin's sagging domestic political stature. The only winner is Putin.

Should the MAGA Mob be busted for failing to register as foreign agents, like New Jersey Senator Menendez? Are there ingots of Russian gold stashed somewhere?

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I believe you're onto something, Ralph. It starts with the head MAGAt...

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GENEVA, 31 October 2023 – “From the earliest days of the unprecedented hostilities in the Gaza Strip, UNICEF has been forthright on the need for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, for the aid to flow and for children abducted to be released. Like many others, we have pleaded for the killing of children to stop.

“Our gravest fears about the reported numbers of children killed becoming dozens, then hundreds, and ultimately thousands were realized in just a fortnight. The numbers are appalling; reportedly more than 3,450 children killed; staggeringly this rises significantly every day.

“Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.

“And yet the threats to children go beyond bombs and mortars. I want to speak briefly on water and trauma.

“The more than one million children of Gaza also have a water crisis. Gaza’s water production capacity is a mere 5 per cent of its usual daily output. Child deaths – particularly infants - to dehydration are a growing threat.

This is what one of my UNICEF colleagues, Nesma, who lives and works in Gaza said. She has two children, 4yr old Talia, and 7yr old Zain: It breaks my heart to see children around me strive for a cup of clean water and cannot find it. Zain keeps asking for regular water.

“She means safe drinking water, not salty water which is the only option right now and making 7yr old Zain and many other children sick.

“And then there is the trauma. When the fighting stops, the cost to children and their communities will be borne out for generations to come. Before this latest escalation, more than 800,000 children in Gaza – three quarters of its entire child population – were identified as needing mental health and psychosocial support. That’s before this latest nightmare.

“The same UNICEF colleague, Nesma, who spoke of her 7yr old desperately asking for clean water, explained the trauma her 4yr old is going through. Four year old Talia is showing severe symptoms of stress and fear, and is now self-harming, such as ripping her hair off and scratching her thighs until they bleed. And yet as her mother explains: I don’t have the luxury to think about my children’s mental health. I keep telling myself, ‘Nesma, keep them alive.’ And when all of this ends, I will provide them with mental support and medical care.

“And so we say again, on behalf of Talia and Zain, and the other 1.1m children in Gaza living through a nightmare: We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. And all access crossings into Gaza must be opened for the safe, sustained and unimpeded access ofhumanitarian aid, including water, food, medical supplies, and fuel.

“And if there is no ceasefire, no water, no medicine, and no release of abducted children? Then we hurtle towards even greater horrors afflicting innocent children.”

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How can anyone read what is happening and not want to stop the bombing in Gaza and bring help immediately?

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Sadly you’d be surprised how many people support Israel 100%.. They believe Israel “has the right to defend itself”, they believe all Palestinians are either Hamas or supporters of Hamas and if disagree you are a Holocaust denier, a Nazi and a self-hating Jew, and also insane, all of which I have been called in the past few days.

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Lin, I have had the same experience. You cannot say that what Israel is doing to the Gaza strip is wrong, or you're excoriated.

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Yes, the amount of censorship and pressure applied to those who are speaking out is remarkable. For years most people were very supportive of Israel, but their treatment of the Palestinians and their accommodation of illegal settlements has finally opened the eyes of many people, not to mention the increased awareness of the obvious role the US plays as the supplier of arms. It's literally a testing ground for new weapons.

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It works just fine for the Israeli government. They don't consider those people human. The more that die or leave (to where?) the better.

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"It works just fine for the Israeli government. They don't consider those people human. The more that die or leave (to where?) the better."

That's what Hamas thinks about Jewish people.

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You do understand the difference in the power dynamic between slave owner and slave?

Your attempt at equivalency here is… well… false.

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I should have added ", too." at the end of the sentence. I highly recommend the above-mentioned Gabor Maté video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHDBw-wx6w0) for a deeply thoughtful discussion about the subject.

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ThankYou,

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Just building another generation of fighters who remember the present. All the bombing and firepower we applied in Vietnam did not change the resolve of the people we were fighting. Literally, we slaughtered them and they still kept coming.

You can have one country where everyone has the same and “enforced” rights or you can have two separate countries where each can exist and not economically infringe on the other. Israel has a right to exist and so do Palestinians. Exist on the lands they were granted without having them confiscated by the other. The West Bank belongs to the Palestinians as does The Gaza. Israel belongs to the Israelis.

Neither has the right to disenfranchise the other from the land granted them . Each has a right to exist on their land without the fear of eviction.

This is another Vietnam and our incursion in the form of $billions of military aid must stop. In turn, the US must rebuild The Gaza and help establish the West Bank. Both have been cut off economically and land confiscated on the West Bank. Israel must recognize their right to exist the same as they have the right to exist.

Israel can fight its own battles with out US military aid or are Navy showing up on their shore. We can offer them aid for domestic needs too. They have to resolve their differences without US influence.

In 69, 2nd MarDiv Hdqtrs Bn, we were kept on base along with other elements awaiting orders to goto middle east. Didn’t happen. Fifty something years later and still the same nonsense. The adults have to decide how they will exist together and on an equal footing. So far this is just another Vietnam waiting for US intervention with our planes, troops, and fire power. No more . . .

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How can we have a ceasefire w/o Hamas participating? They’re stealthy terrorists and committed to annihilation.

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This is a real issue.

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Thank you Heather. There's a great deal to unpack here. My first reaction is that the United States could be exerting additional economic leverage on Netanyahu to not commit atrocities in Gaza (Just as our assistance in Ukraine has generally been directed at defense and retaking territory that was illegally seized by Putin). The complex challenges around a two-state solution at a time of conflict are massive, and I'm grateful there is a competent, capable team in place that could possibly achieve a long-lasting peace. I don't see how it is possible until Netanyahu resigns. There must be a place those who attempt to subvert democracies to concentrate authoritarian power belong -and there is -it's prison.

Finally, when I find myself agreeing with anything McConnell says I expect it to be raining frogs any minute. Since he was able to bend the U.S. Supreme Court appointments to his will, perhaps he can use the same 'force' to address the burn it all down GOP extremists now controlling the House.

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To you I give the day's "eternal optimist" award. While I agree with your assessment of Netenyahu (who has always been a scoundrel) if Israel hasn't put him in jail by now (they're following our lead - we've been unsuccessful in bringing T**** to justice) I don't think they will until he has lead them into the abyss of genocide against the Palestinians. And I worry that McConnell's power will not be enough against the crazies in the House, though he lives only to keep that power.

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“The administration appears to be trying to defend Israel’s right to self-defense in the face of a massacre that took the lives of 1,400 Israelis, while also trying to recover the hostages, get humanitarian aid into Gaza, and prevent U.S. ally Israel from committing war crimes in retaliation for the attack.”

We haven’t recovered the hostages, nor even gotten American citizens out of Gaza, the trickle of humanitarian aid is pathetic, and we certainly haven’t prevented our ally from committing war crimes. As for defending Israel’s right to self defense, our rhetoric will increasing fall on deaf ears. Israel had the support of most of the world in the immediate aftermath of October 7th and managed to squander it through vengeance.

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Thank you Heather for this letter with so much information! Hopefully it will end peacefully the sooner the better for all of humanity!

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Times like these challenge us. We must rise to deal with the age.

Many thanks Professor ⭐

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Since 1948 the concept of Israel has been a challenge and the more time and damage make it worse. The only solution is to have two states. A change in government for both entities is required to start of the long road to a permanent peace.

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Israel controls over 80% of that land and has control over the Palestinians. Think they will give that up? No way. They can do whatever they want with all of it and the USA just stays the loyal ally, mouth buttoned shut.

I highly recommend watching on youtube: Ilan Pappehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipT1dHU1ya4 and also Norman Finkelstein, Edward Said, Gideon Levy, Dr. Alice Rothchild, Noam Chomsky. Prof. Sam Vadnin. Jimmy Carter's book: Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. This is ethnic cleansing. The decades long festering infection that is Gaza erupted into a boil that burst. It's an assault on everything Israel stands for and unbelievably humiliating. There have been many smaller events like this that gave Israel the excuse to further eliminate the Indigenous population they uprooted in '48, destroying nearly all the Palestinian villages and then the urban area. Don't expect the Israeli's to respond to criticism with anything other than righteous fury. They believe they are entitled to destroy these inferior people who are even less than animals.

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Exactly so. I also encourage people to listen to the daily broadcast of Democracy Now! which can be streamed from their website www.democracynow.org You will hear reporting there you won’t get anywhere else especially from the Palestinian perspective and reports from the Occupied Territories themselves much more in depth than on any other broadcast network.

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Democracy Now, Democracy Now!! I have been tuned into Amy Goodman for years, a least...and, I donate. (Journalism is my religion.)

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Israel doesn’t want a two-state solution. And U.S. unconditional support for Israel means we really don’t care about it, either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk0h7aTPQto&t=1356s

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"Today the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications, John Kirby, reminded reporters: “We aren’t on the ground fighting in this war. There’s no intent to do that…. [T]hese are Israeli military operations. They get to decide what their aims and strategy are. They get to decide what their tactics are. They get to decide how they’re going to decide to go after Hamas. [And oh, those two US carrier battle groups parked a few miles from the action? They're just there to ensure that no one interferes with Israel's right to defend itself, no matter how many innocent trapped Palestinians have to die in Gaza.]"

What a crock of shit.

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We are FUNDING this genocide. We are reprehensible even if our troops aren’t on the ground.

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I do not LIKE with a red heart. Rather a very bleeding heart.

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While the line between Hamas and the Palestinian people of Gaza is blurry, there does seem to be a consensus here that Hamas = bad, Gaza/Palestinians = good. Assuming this to be true, I have to ask a tactical question: what is the proper response when Hamas locates a command/control center in a bunker located beneath a residential apartment building? I see a distinct lack of direction on this board as to what exactly Israel should be doing about Hamas.

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I agree with you, Dick. No nation would let what happened on October 7 go unanswered. I’m not talking about the rights and wrongs of settlers in the West Bank or the plight of the Gazans, just the reality that Israel must answer, and how they can do that while minimizing civilian casualties seems almost impossible. So does that mean that they don’t respond? They can’t. This is existential for them.

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