Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b singer Ruth Brown. Enjoy!

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."

-- Aldous Huxley

News and Opinion

Gaza Is Deliberately Being Made Uninhabitable

Infectious diseases are tearing through Gaza, whose healthcare system has been rendered almost nonexistent, and people are beginning to starve in massive numbers. All of this is due to concrete policy decisions made by Israel in its horrific assault on the Gaza Strip.

In an article titled “Gaza’s health system is ‘on its knees’ as Israel pushes into Khan Younis,” The Washington Post reports that the mass displacement of nearly two million Palestinians in Gaza has led to overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions that are rapidly giving rise to disease.

“Meanwhile, the Gaza Health Ministry and other medical workers said they were recording new cases of acute hepatitis, scabies, measles and upper respiratory infections, mostly among children,” the Post reports. “Infectious diseases are spreading fast, said Imad al-Hams, a physician at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah, as people crowd into tiny slivers of land to escape advancing Israeli forces.”

In a recent interview with CNN, Doctors Without Borders emergency coordinator Marie-Aure Perreaut described conditions in Gaza as “apocalyptic”, saying living conditions at the Al-Aqsa Hospital she’s working from “can barely be described as living conditions anymore.”

“The healthcare system is completely collapsed at the moment,” Perreaut told Al Jazeera.

The UN World Food Programme reports that half of Gaza’s population is now starving due to Israeli siege warfare and the collapse of civilian infrastructure. In northern Gaza that figure goes up to nine in ten.

All of this aligns perfectly with Israeli policies of massive forced evacuations, attacking healthcare facilities, and laying complete siege to the Gaza Strip.

A doctor named Hafez Abukhoussa writes the following in a new article for Time titled “What I’ve Seen Treating Patients in Gaza’s Remaining Hospitals”:

“Gaza’s health care system has almost completely collapsed as a result of Israel’s ongoing bombardment. Hospitals and ambulances have been repeatedly attacked. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, more than 250 medical workers have been killed so far, including two of my colleagues from Doctors Without Borders, who died while performing their duties in Al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza. Of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, only 11 are still functioning in any capacity, according to the World Health Organization. Hospitals in the north like Al-Shifa are barely functioning at all, as basic medicines and fuel have run out. My colleagues have been performing amputations by flashlight and without anesthesia. When Israeli soldiers raided Al-Shifa a few weeks ago — a move the head of the WHO called ‘totally unacceptable’ — doctors and staff were forced to abandon patients too sick or injured to evacuate. Some of those who refused to leave, including the hospital’s director, were arrested, alongside dozens of others. At Al-Nasr Children’s hospital, soldiers ordered staff to leave the patients, including four premature babies who required oxygen, who were later found dead.”

Netanyahu’s goal for Gaza: “Thin” population “to a minimum” https://t.co/viqCUXZsqo by @ryangrim https://t.co/viqCUXZsqo

— The Intercept (@theintercept) December 3, 2023

This all also aligns perfectly with the Netanyahu government’s reported agenda to “thin” the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip “to a minimum,” and with all the other calls for ethnic cleansing we keep seeing pushed by Israeli officials and thought leaders over and over again.

It also aligns perfectly with the suggestions made last month by an influential Israeli national security leader named Giora Eiland, a retired major general for the IDF.

“The international community warns us of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and of severe epidemics,” Eiland wrote. “We must not shy away from this, as difficult as that may be. After all, severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer and reduce casualties among IDF soldiers.”

In an Op-Ed titled “Let’s Not be Intimidated by the World,” Israeli ret. Major General Giora Eiland argues that all Palestinians in Gaza are legitimate targets and that even a “severe epidemic” in Gaza will “bring victory closer.”https://t.co/miQhavMx57

— Mondoweiss (@Mondoweiss) November 29, 2023

Eiland was completely dismissive of the idea that there are innocent people in Gaza, a sentiment we’re seeing pushed harder and harder as Israel draws nearer and nearer to a very, very dark chapter in the history of human civilization.

“They are not only Hamas fighters with weapons, but also all the ‘civilian’ officials, including hospital administrators and school administrators, and also the entire Gaza population that enthusiastically supported Hamas and cheered on its atrocities on October 7th,” Eiland wrote, adding, “Who are the ‘poor’ women of Gaza? They are all the mothers, sisters or wives of Hamas murderers.”

“Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism,” Eiland adds. “Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.”

When people talk about genocide in Gaza, they’re not just talking about the thousands of civilians who’ve been killed in Israeli airstrikes. The policies Israel has been deliberately putting in place have the potential to kill many, many more people than that in the coming months, and if Netanyahu and his goons get their way, that’s exactly what will happen.

Phil Giraldi: Biden’s Indifference to Israeli Slaughter

US increasingly alone in Israel support as 153 countries vote for ceasefire at UN

The United States was looking increasingly isolated on the world stage on Tuesday after a resounding vote at the UN general assembly calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

Cheers and clapping echoed around the general assembly chamber in New York as the emergency vote was announced. A thumping 153 member states out of the 193 total membership backed the resolution, with only 10 including the US, Israel and Austria voting against, and 23 – including the UK and Germany – abstaining.

The Palestinians had been hoping for an emphatic result as a demonstration of the unequivocal global desire for an end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza – and they got it. By contrast, the previous UN resolution calling for a “humanitarian truce” on 27 October attracted 120 votes in favor, 14 against, with 45 abstentions. ...

An almost identically-worded resolution proposed at the UN security council on Friday was vetoed by the US, underlining the growing isolation of the Biden administration. The US president has extended staunch support for Israel in the wake of the 7 October Hamas attack that killed nearly 1,200 people, mainly civilians, to a degree that now leaves him exposed internationally.

Palestinian Diplomat Nada Tarbush: Israel & U.S. Are Isolated on Gaza

Looks like Genocide Joe is feeling the heat:

Biden warns Netanyahu that Israel attacks on Gaza are alienating allies

Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he has warned Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza was beginning to alienate Europe and the rest of the international community.

Speaking at a 2024 re-election campaign fundraiser in Washington, the US president ramped up pressure on Israel over any post-hostilities deal. He said the Israelis “can’t say no” to a Palestinian state, and urged Netanyahu not to repeat the mistakes made by the US after 9/11.

Invoking specifically the prolonged US war in Afghanistan, he said: “There’s no reason we did so many of the things we did.”

While Israel could rely for its security on the US, Biden warned that the alliance of international support that had been created in the wake of the 7 October attack by Hamas was now in peril.

Israel “has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world supporting them, but they’re starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place”.

Biden Says Israel’s Gaza Bombing Campaign Is ‘Indiscriminate,’ Vows to Keep Supporting It

President Biden on Tuesday said Israel was losing global support due to its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza, which has been supported by unconditional US military aid, and criticized certain elements of the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Israel’s security can rest on the United States, but right now it has more than the United States. It has the European Union, it has Europe, it has most of the world supporting it,” Biden told donors at a fundraising event.

“But they’re starting to lose that support by the indiscriminate bombing that takes place,” he said. Despite labeling the Israeli campaign as “indiscriminate,” he said the US will continue to provide military assistance, which involves supplying 2,000 pound bombs.

“The literal security of Israel as an independent Jewish state is literally at stake. But it is unshakeable, our commitment to Israel,” Biden said. “We continue to provide military assistance to Israel as it goes after Hamas.”

PSYOP: IDF Floods Israelis With Misleading War Footage

"Exterminating the roaches."

"You won't believe the video we got! You can hear the crunch of their bones."

These posts from the IDF are full of hatred, dehumanization, and genocidal glee.

The people of Gaza are in unfathomable danger. We can't fail, we MUST get a ceasefire. https://t.co/V4l8GWVsCf pic.twitter.com/DOTwJ8WupW

— IfNotNow (@IfNotNowOrg) December 12, 2023

Australia calls for Gaza ceasefire in joint statement with NZ and Canada

The prime ministers of Australia, New Zealand and Canada have called in a joint statement for a sustainable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an end to the “continuous suffering” of its citizens.

“We are alarmed at the diminishing safe space for civilians in Gaza,” a joint statement released on Wednesday said, as the Israeli bombardment of Hamas militants in the enclave continued.

“The price of defeating Hamas cannot be the continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians.”

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and his New Zealand and Canadian counterparts, Chris Luxon and Justin Trudeau, said they wanted a resumption of the recent pause in fighting and supported “urgent international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire”.

9 in 10 Gazans report lack of food

As Israel continues its bombing, starvation and ethnic cleansing of the people of Gaza, hunger has reached epidemic proportions. Nine in 10 people in Gaza reported going to bed hungry, the United Nations’ World Food Program reported. More than half of the population—over 63 percent—reported going for days without food. “Hunger stalks everyone,” UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine), the United Nations body responsible for Palestinian refugees, wrote in a statement on Twitter. “Too many people haven’t eaten now for two, three days in the Gaza Strip.”

UN Special Rapporteur on Food Michael Fakhri told Al Jazeera Arabic, “Every single Palestinian in Gaza is going hungry,” in an interview, in which he identified the mass murder of the population of Gaza as “genocide.”

These reports follow a veto Friday by the United States of a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire. This week, a non-binding ceasefire resolution is expected to pass the United Nations General Assembly. The United States, meanwhile, doubled down on calling for a “military” solution to the crisis, in an open endorsement of the genocide.

“We think there can be a military solution to taking out the leadership of Hamas that planned and carried out the attacks of October 7, in taking out the militants who crossed into Israel and carried out those attacks,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a briefing. This followed the statement Sunday by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “When it comes to a ceasefire in this moment, with Hamas still alive, still intact, and again, with the stated intent of repeating October 7th again and again and again, that would simply perpetuate the problem.”

Biden Boasts 'I AM A ZIONIST' But Privately WARNS Netanyahu LOSING SUPPORT

Biden not briefed on attacks on ships in Middle East

Yemen’s Houthis warn ships travelling in the Red Sea to avoid Israel or face being attacked

A senior official from Yemen’s Houthis has warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid travelling toward Israel and the occupied territories, after the Iran-aligned group claimed an attack on a commercial tanker earlier in the day.

Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen’s Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, said that ships should avoid heading toward Israel and that any that pass Yemen should keep radios turned on, and quickly respond to Houthi attempts at communication.

Al-Houthi also warned cargo ships against “falsifying their identity” or raising flags different from the country belonging to cargo shipowner.

In solidarity with Palestinians under attack from Israel in Gaza, the Houthis are using their control of Yemen’s western seaboard, including ports such as Hodeidah, to mount attacks on what it regards as shipping linked to Israel. On Saturday, they said they would target all ships heading to Israel, regardless of their nationality, and warned international shipping companies against dealing with Israeli ports. ...

The US has also warned Houthi rebels that the peace plan for Yemen that was negotiated with Saudi Arabia and handed to the UN peace envoy will fail if attacks on vessels continue.

NYT Amplifies Outrage Over Imaginary Calls for Genocide

University presidents are under fire from politicians and the media over what is being framed as their waffling over allowing antisemitic speech on their campuses. But it is a concocted outrage that has nothing to do with safeguarding Jewish students, and the New York Times is going along for the ride.

The uproar concerns an appearance by the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania before the House Education committee, in which Rep. Elise Stefanik (R–NY) grilled them about antisemitism on campus and whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violates university codes of conduct.

The Times (12/6/23) reported the story under the headline, “College Presidents Under Fire After Dodging Questions About Antisemitism,” with the subhead: “The leaders of Harvard, MIT and Penn appeared to evade questions about whether students should be disciplined if they call for the genocide of Jews.” Reporters Stephanie Saul and Anemona Hartocollis began:

Support for the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT eroded quickly on Wednesday, after they seemed to evade what seemed like a rather simple question during a contentious congressional hearing: Would they discipline students calling for the genocide of Jews?

Specifically, the reporters wrote, the presidents’ “lawyerly replies”—that it depends on the context of the speech—drew criticism from Jewish leaders as well as Democratic bigwigs, thus framing the ire not as partisan positioning against liberal academia, but a categorical defense of Jewish students against uncaring administrators.

But there are two big problems with the Times‘ framing: The calls for genocide were imaginary, and the presidents’ answers were not evasive, they were accurate reflections of the constitutional protections of free speech and the scope of university policies on harassment and bullying.

As a subsequent Times report explained (12/7/23), Stefanik

repeatedly tried and failed to get them to agree with her that calls for “intifada” and use of slogans such as “from the river to the sea” were appeals for genocide against Jews that should not be tolerated on campuses.

First, let’s be clear: Calls for “intifada” or a free Palestine “from the river to the sea” are not the same as calls for genocide. Merriam-Webster defines the Arabic word “intifada” in the context of Palestine to mean “an armed uprising of Palestinians against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is a slogan that’s long been used by Palestinians to “represent the vision of a secular democratic state with equality for all,” as University of Arizona Mideast studies professor Maha Nassar (Conversation, 11/16/23) noted.

The American Jewish Committee describes the phase as “a rallying cry for terrorist groups and their sympathizers,” saying it calls for the “establishment of a state of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, erasing the state of Israel and its people.” But as Nimer Sultany of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies told Al Jazeera (11/2/23), the word “free” in the slogan refers to “the need for equality for all inhabitants of historic Palestine.”

As US corporate media outlets seldom remind their audiences, Israel is currently deemed an apartheid state by leading human rights groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israel’s B’Tselem (FAIR.org, 2/3/22).

Pro-Palestinian protesters on campuses do talk about genocide, however (Ha’aretz, 10/25/23)—to argue that Israel is carrying one out in its assault on Gaza, which has so far killed at least 17,000 people, 70% of them women and children, according to Gazan health officials (Reuters, 12/7/23).

Announcing the “second stage” of the war against Gaza (Common Dreams, 10/30/23), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible”—a reference to 1 Samuel 15:3: “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling.”

But Stefanik—the chair of the Republican Conference, whom Times reporting by Nicholas Confessore (12/31/22) had earlier depicted as a vacuous opportunist with no real ideology beyond her own advancement—wasn’t asking good-faith questions about antisemitism on campus. She was asking a gotcha question to force the presidents to answer “yes” or “no” about legal and policy matters that in fact required more context. The paper quoted at length her exchange with UPenn president Mary Elizabeth Magill, who has since resigned:

Ms. Stefanik asked Ms. Magill, “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct, yes or no?”

Ms. Magill replied, “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment.”

Ms. Stefanik pressed the issue: “I am asking, specifically: Calling for the genocide of Jews, does that constitute bullying or harassment?”

Ms. Magill, a lawyer who joined Penn last year with a pledge to promote campus free speech, replied, “If it is directed and severe, pervasive, it is harassment.”

Ms. Stefanik responded: “So the answer is yes.”

Ms. Magill said, “It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman.”

Ms. Stefanik exclaimed: “That’s your testimony today? Calling for the genocide of Jews is depending upon the context?”

Stefanik was smugly triumphant, and the exchange led to pressure against Magill from the state’s governor (Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/6/23) and calls to resign from the board of UPenn’s business school (Axios, 12/7/23). The school lost a $100 million donation (BBC, 12/8/23).

After issuing an apology (Wall Street Journal, 12/7/23), Magill resigned (New York Times, 12/9/23). Falling just short of openly declaring a witch hunt against university administrators, Stefanik (Fox News, 12/9/23) replied to the resignation: “One down. Two to go.”

The New York Post (12/10/23) wasn’t so shy, saying that in response to the supposed leftward nature of higher education society should “starve these schools of funds (alumni giving, government largesse, tuition money) until they have boards and administrations dedicated to righting things.” So much for right-wing opposition to “cancel culture.”

But Magill was correct. Speech is protected; Penn’s policies are about bullying and harassment. So if someone simply uses the phrase “from the river to the sea” or “intifada,” it doesn’t fall under Penn’s policies unless it is accompanied by conduct that can be interpreted as bullying or harassment. As the Daily Beast‘s Jay Michaelson (12/6/23) wrote:

What about when someone makes a statement in a classroom or a college lecture? If someone insists, in a classroom discussion, that Israel as a country is an illegitimate colonial outpost and should be “wiped off the map”?

That sounds like a political statement to me, not an act of bullying or intimidation.

But if a mob marches into a Shabbat service and shouts the same slogan, then that’s clearly harassment and in violation of the policy. Context matters.

In the Times‘ letters section (12/7/23), one writer said:

Free speech doesn’t exist only for speech with which you agree, and if it doesn’t cross the bright legal line into literally targeting individuals or inciting violence, punishing it is problematic.

So yes, as Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, rightly said, context matters as it relates to discipline. But that doesn’t mean there is any ambiguity, any argument, that calls for genocide against Jews aren’t both bigoted and deeply disturbing. They surely are.

It wasn’t until the eighth paragraph that the Times said the university presidents “tried to give lawyerly responses to a tricky question involving free speech, which supporters of academic freedom said were legally correct.”

This is a sneaky way to hide the reality that, yes, free speech means, hypothetically speaking, defending people’s rights to make atrocious and offensive statements. If Republican lawmakers believe that such a reality is unacceptable, then they should come out and say they are against free speech.

But the next paragraph is far worse:

But to many Jewish students, alumni and donors, who had watched campus pro-Palestinian protests with trepidation and fear, the statements by the university presidents failed to meet the political moment by not speaking clearly and forcefully against antisemitism.

The Times had just noted that all three presidents “said they were appalled by antisemitism and taking action against it on campus. When asked whether they supported the right of Israel to exist, they answered yes, without equivocation.” So the problem is not their clearly stated opposition to antisemitism or support for Israel. It’s their unwillingness to say they’ll discipline those whose speech some find abhorrent.

Just because people don’t like a protest—even with good reason—doesn’t mean that the protesters should be punished for their speech. Many women might find anti-abortion tabling to be sexist; that doesn’t mean it is outside the bounds of free speech. Would the Zionist version of “from the river to sea”—where Israel includes the Occupied Territories  (Times of Israel, 9/22/23)—be considered so offensive to Palestinian students that students who make them should be punished? Would the Times also have us believe that it should be illegal for pro-police students to have rallies in defense of cops accused of brutality and murder of unarmed Black people?

After quoting no fewer than six critics of the presidents, the Times finally found someone to offer a defense of their answers—sort of. Saul and Hartocollis turned to Will Creeley, legal director at the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression, a group more often associated with libertarian pearl-clutching over “cancel culture” (1/31/22). He grudgingly accepted that the administrators were right: “It does depend on context,” he told the Times.

But Creeley added that he was sad “to see them discover free speech scruples while under fire at a congressional hearing,” and hadn’t come out as advocates for his version of free speech more generally, which sees decisions by publishing companies to not publish certain (right-wing) authors as “book banning.”

After Creeley’s brief and half-hearted defense, the Times returned to more critics, one of whom demanded that the presidents “resign in disgrace,” and another who was “appalled by the need to state the obvious: Calls for genocide against Jews do not depend on the context.”

Perhaps the Times could have glanced at Stefanik’s own record; she has come under fire for engaging in white nationalist conspiracy theories like the “great replacement” theory (Washington Post, 5/15/22, 5/16/22; NBC, 5/19/22). In fact, Albany’s Times-Union editorial board (9/17/21) blasted her embrace of the far-right theory:

If there’s anything that needs replacing in this country—and in the Republican party—it’s the hateful rhetoric that Ms. Stefanik and far too many of her colleagues so shamelessly spew.

This was in response to her ads that said, “President Biden and fellow Democrats are seeking a ‘permanent election insurrection’ by expanding pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants” (Washington Post, 9/16/21).

In perhaps her weirdest outburst, Stefanik “denounced Democrats who disagreed with her proposals to ease baby formula shortage as ‘usual pedo grifters’” (Daily News, 5/13/22), a nod to the antisemitic QAnon conspiracy theory that fuels the Trumpian right (Guardian, 8/25/20). Once an obscure backbencher, Stefanik has risen in conservative fame while latching onto conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election being rigged, to the point the point of aligning herself with an anti-Muslim leader of the “stop the steal” movement (WAMC, 8/23/21).

The Times missed this important context, which would have led a reporter to question if Stefanik’s pointed questioning toward the university presidents was genuinely motivated by a concern for antisemitism or, instead, a kind of projection of her own record.

The whole affair has boosted Stefanik’s currency in right-wing media, especially Fox News (12/6/23, 12/6/23, 12/8/23). In fact, the New York Times (12/7/23) wrote a followup article reporting that the exchange with the three university presidents “went viral, racking up tens of millions of views on social media (the Israeli government even reposted a clip of the hearing).” While Stefanik has had support from the right, Times congressional correspondent Annie Karni wrote that her grilling achieved the “unthinkable” by

prompting many Democrats and detractors of Mr. Trump to concede that an ideological culture warrior with whom they agree on nothing else was, in this case, right.

In yet another follow-up piece, the Times (12/10/23) accepted Republican concern about campus antisemitism as fact, without questioning whether mere criticism of Israel was being wrongly branded as antisemitic, or acknowledging that it has actually been the left that has blown the whistle on the rise of white nationalism, antisemitism and xenophobia in conjunction with the political rise of Donald Trump (Washington Post, 10/17/22; Haaretz, 11/8/22). The “potency” of the recent Republican inquisition into free speech on campuses, the Times‘ Nicholas Confessore said, “was underscored by how many Democrats joined the attack.” It was lost on the Times that it was its own misframing of the exchange that lent liberal validation to a far-right GOP leader like Stefanik.

Of course, Stefanik took to the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page (12/7/23) to rebroadcast her congressional spectacle, calling the presidents’ testimony “pathetic” and displaying a “lack of moral clarity.” But it makes sense for a conservative opinion space to act as a right-wing PR vehicle.

Reporters for an ostensibly liberal paper, meanwhile, should be looking at what is actually being said and what is actually happening. Instead, the Times is fanning the flames of a fake outrage, and it’s already having a dire impact on free speech.

New Jersey Arab Americans go on strike over Gaza: ‘The administration isn’t listening’

A general strike called after the US blocked a UN resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza took hold across New Jersey’s Arab American communities on Monday, in the latest expression of opposition to Israel’s devastating military offensive in the Palestinian territory.

Along Palestine Way in the city of Paterson, dozens of business owners, community leaders and families with young children, swathed in keffiyeh scarves against the cold, heeded the call from Palestinian leaders to show, in symbolic, political and economic terms, deepening anger and distress about an Israeli military operation that began after a Hamas cross-border attack on 7 October.

“We hope it sends a message that Muslims are unified, the public is unified and we’re all on the same page, and that we’re willing to pause our business to make our voices heard,” said Dr Jabeen Ahmed, co-owner of the local Sheefa Pharmacy. ...

Diab Mustafa, chairman of the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton, a suburb of Paterson, said the general strike was focused on bringing awareness to what was happening after the US vetoed a resolution on Friday in the UN security council, backed by 90 member states, for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”. ...

“As Americans, and especially as Muslims, we need to speak up – and as we believe that most American people are asking for a ceasefire,” Mustafa said. “We need to put an end to this killing and to find a political solution that gives the Palestinian people their rights, their independence, their rights of self-determination. We feel that the administration is not listening to us and it’s not listening to the people on the streets.”

US Jews Demand Biden Apologize for Linking Their Safety With Israel

Progressive Jewish Americans on Tuesday expressed anger and disbelief after U.S. President Joe Biden linked their safety with Israel—a nation which many critics say is placing Jews around the world in danger by waging a genocidal war on Gaza.

Speaking at the White House Hanukah party on Monday evening, Biden said, "Were there no Israel, there wouldn't be a Jew in the world that is safe," a reprise of earlier comments in which he asserted that Israel is "the only ultimate guarantee" of Jewish safety.

"We are deeply alarmed by President Biden's antisemitic statement that only Israel can keep Jews safe. As president of the United States, it's his job to make this country safe for everyone, including Jewish Americans," saidEva Borgwardt, national spokesperson for the peace group IfNotNow. "We demand that he apologize for his hurtful remarks."

That's actually a stunningly antisemitic statement because it literally means that Jews around the world are protected by Israel and not the country they're citizens of, perpetuating the notion that Jewish citizens ought to be more loyal to Israel than their own nation (this… https://t.co/ou1kobeJpg

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) December 12, 2023

Alyssa Rubin, another campaigner at IfNotNow, said that Biden's remarks were "a truly unhinged thing to say to a room of American Jews at the White House Hanukkah party."

Jewish Daily Forward contributing columnist Emily Tamkin asserted that Biden, as president of a country that millions of Jews call home, is ultimately responsible for the safety of all Americans.

Tamkin wrote:

There have been Jews in the United States, today home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, for longer than it has been a country. Some American Jews' families have been here for generations, and some immigrated here themselves. But all of us—and I can't believe I am typing this in 2023—are a part of the fabric of this country. And our safety should not rely on the existence of a foreign state.

"I am an American. And my safety, as well as my family's safety, here in the United States should not be contingent on a foreign leader," she added, referring to far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "I would hope that the head of the state in which I actually live would be the first to recognize that."

Stephen Wertheim, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said on social media that "as a Jew in America, I resent the implication that Jews in America are unsafe and that they must rely upon a foreign government, rather than their own, to make them safe."

Biden Gifts Zelensky's Ukraine $200M Weeks After Pentagon Failed SIXTH AUDIT IN A ROW

Minnesota man wrongfully convicted of murder freed from life sentence

A man convicted of murdering a Minnesota flower shop clerk largely based on a single eyewitness identification has been freed from a sentence of life imprisonment, elating his supporters and him but outraging the slain victim’s family. Marvin Haynes was 16 when the killing which sent him to prison for nearly two decades unfolded in 2004 in Minneapolis. His release comes amid the implementation of court-mandated reforms to the local police department, prompted in part by a former officer’s murder of George Floyd in 2020.

After leaving prison on Monday, Haynes received a formal apology from the local district attorney, who said prosecutors had no forensic evidence, surveillance video or murder weapon linking him to the deadly shooting of 55-year-old Randy Sherer, the news station KARE reported. “That should have made any prosecutor hesitant to bring charges because eyewitness identifications are often unreliable and one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions,” the district attorney, Mary Moriarty, said. ...

Authorities charged Haynes four days [after the killing], even though Moriarty said he was “younger, 50 pounds lighter, significantly shorter, had much longer hair and a different manner of speech than the man [McDermid] described to the police”.

Another witness later described seeing Haynes as he fled the scene. A relative of Haynes reported hearing him brag about pulling off a robbery on the morning of the killing. Both witnesses helped set the stage for Haynes to be convicted at trial despite his assertions of innocence. He was also sentenced to life imprisonment.

But last year, the Great North Innocence Project obtained affidavits from both witnesses which cast doubt on Haynes’s conviction. One said he didn’t get a clear view of the person fleeing the flower shop but felt pressure by police to make “potentially inaccurate identifications”, according to copies of the affidavits, shared by the New York Times. The other said he initially told investigators he didn’t know about Sherer’s killing but implicated Haynes after being threatened with criminal charges.

TRUMP OFF THE HOOK? SCOTUS To Hear Jan 6 Case That Could UNDO Federal Election Charges

New York high court orders new state congressional maps for 2024 elections

New York’s highest court on Tuesday ordered the state to draw new congressional districts ahead of the 2024 elections, giving Democrats a potential advantage in what is expected to be a battleground for control of the US House.

The 4-3 decision from the New York court of appeals could have major ramifications as Democrats angle for more favorable district lines in the state next year. Republicans, who won control of the House after flipping seats in New York, sought to keep the map in place.

The state’s bipartisan independent redistricting commission will now be tasked with coming up with new districts, which will then go before the Democrat-controlled legislature for approval. The court ordered the commission to file a map no later than 28 February 2024.

“In 2014, the voters of New York amended our Constitution to provide that legislative districts be drawn by an Independent Redistricting Commission,” Chief Judge Rowan D Wilson wrote for the majority. “The Constitution demands that process, not districts drawn by courts.”

The ruling is an early, but important, step in Democrats’ plans to retake a handful of congressional districts in New York seen as vital to winning a House majority.

Last-ditch attempt to forge fresh Cop28 deal after original rejected

The hosts of the Cop28 climate summit will make a last-ditch attempt on Wednesday to forge a fresh deal on the future of the climate, after their original attempt was roundly rejected by rich and many poor countries.

A new text laying out a potential deal on fossil fuels was under preparation for more than 24 hours, as the fortnight-long talks stretched nearly a day past their official deadline of Tuesday morning in Dubai.

Sultan Al Jaber, president of the talks on behalf of the United Arab Emirates, engaged in an intense round of shuttle diplomacy throughout Tuesday and had meetings with heads of delegation singly and in groups planned until 3am on Wednesday.

Nations were still deeply divided over whether to phase out fossil fuels, after an initial text proposed “reducing both production and consumption of fossil fuels”. This was couched merely as one of a list of options that countries “could” act on, however, which was unacceptably weak to many vulnerable countries. A group of countries described the text as “a death warrant” for small island states. ...

Many developed countries are publicly pushing hard for a phase-out of coal, oil and gas – but with caveats such as “unabated” or just coal, in the case of the US. In contrast, many in the developing world – despite their desire to see global temperatures limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – say any commitment to phasing out fossil fuels must be “fair, funded, and fast”, with the rich polluting countries transitioning first.

Phase Down, Not Phase Out: COP28 Deal on Fossil Fuels Disappoints

The U.S. insisting that a fossil fuel phase-out is the moral litmus test for climate leadership at COP28 while reaching record levels crude oil production—with no plans to stop!—feels like a strategy designed in a lab to drive people insane

— Kate Aronoff (@KateAronoff) December 11, 2023

One in four billionaire Cop28 delegates made fortunes from polluting industries

At least a quarter of the billionaires registered as delegates at Cop28 made their fortunes from highly polluting industries such as petrochemicals, mining and beef production, a new analysis has shown.

The findings, revealed to the Guardian in an exclusive analysis of the 34 billionaires who are signed up to the UN summit, raise concerns about the influence wielded by ultra-rich, mega-emitters on the world’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis. Together the 34 are worth about $495.5bn.

The high number of billionaires at the conference, along with the many private jets they flew in on, suggests Cop may now be second only to Davos as a gathering point for the world’s ultra-rich, who can meet and potentially influence government leaders and senior politicians and bureaucrats, while making deals with other business owners. ...

Four of the billionaires have party badges, meaning they can go into the negotiations in the blue zone, while another 11 have host country badges because they were invited by the United Arab Emirates. They include Aliko Dangote, a cement and oil mogul from Nigeria; Mukesh Ambani, the head of an Indian oil and gas conglomerate who is a member of Cop28 presidency’s international advisory panel and the US Microsoft founder Bill Gates, whose nuclear company did a deal with the UAE this week.

While it is widely accepted that business and money need to be part of any climate solution, there are growing concerns that billionaires and companies are taking a disproportionately influential role at the Cop gatherings. ... Alex Maitland of Oxfam, who compiled the analysis of Cop28 billionaires, said: “The number of billionaires at Cop is shocking and further evidence of their influence behind the scenes. The super rich, who have done most to cause climate change, are mobilising to drown out the voices of communities who are suffering its consequences.”

Dozens of US lobbyists represent both climate-focused charities and fossil fuels

Dozens of US charities, including ones prioritizing climate action, are employing lobbying firms who also work for fossil fuel companies, new data shows.

Pew Charitable Trusts work on environmental issues while sharing a lobbying firm with Chevron. New Venture Fund’s priorities include a “range of conservation, climate, and energy issues”, yet it employed lobbying firms representing oil and gas companies in six states since the beginning of 2022. And Ballmer Giving funds climate and Indigenous rights programs, yet represents a company building fossil fuel infrastructure on tribal land.

The data comes from a new report from F Minus, a lobbying watchdog and database project launched earlier this year.

“These foundations are helping lobbyists to greenwash their image,” said James Browning, executive director of F Minus.

Browning, a former lobbyist for Common Cause, identified 86 US foundations that shared lobbying firms with fossil fuel companies since the start of 2022, 19 of which list environmental issues as major grant-making priorities.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Death and Destruction in Gaza

Patrick Lawrence: Gaza & Confronting Power

IDF Murder Porn Channel Compared to Horrors of Abu Ghraib

The Forcible Transfer of 85% of Palestinians in Gaza Is a Crime Against Humanity

Margaret Kimberley: Black People Won't Be Silenced About Israel

'Zelenski's Demise' - Gordon Hahn Provides His Political Obit

The Entire West’s Military Is Weak

US Hypocrisy at COP28 Seems Designed 'To Drive People Insane'

UN General Assembly VOTES YES on CEASE-FIRE; YOUR Money Is BOMBING CHILDREN In Gaza

The PATHETIC End To Bernie Sanders Career!

Zelensky Bad Day: Republicans Reject Ukr Funding, Marinka Falls, Rus Enters Avdeyevka

A Little Night Music

Ruth Brown - I Don't Know

Ruth Brown - If I Can't Sell It, I'll Keep Sittin' On It

Ruth Brown - As Long as I'm Moving

Ruth Brown - This Little Girl's Gone Rockin'

Ruth Brown - Sweet Baby of Mine

Ruth Brown - Lucky Lips

Ruth Brown - Teardrops from My Eyes

Ruth Brown - That Train Don't Stop Here

Ruth Brown - Good Day For The Blues