(January 1, 2025)
Pain is unavoidable. It’s what we do with the pain that matters. As Devine writes, “When you are broken, the correct response is to be broken.” Accepting that reality doesn’t make life more painful — it makes it more bearable — especially when it feels impossible to bear.
On Dec. 11, over a dozen NYU students and faculty dropped flyers and hung banners throughout the Bobst Library while 13 people sat in on the administrative floor of thelibrary. The actionists were demanding a meeting with administrators, who had, in the spring during the Gaza solidarity encampment movement at NYU, promised students to disclose the university’s endowment, including all its investments in weapons manufacturers and ties to Israel and companies that profit off its occupation of Palestine.
The direct action was organized by student group Shut It Down NYU, which challenges what it sees as NYU’s ties to imperialism. Not only were the students’ demands ignored, but yesterday, 11 of them were suspended for a year on the pretext of participating “in coordinated and collective disruptive action” — the non-violent action at the library. Several more NYU students are currently going through disciplinary proceedings that could result in similar punishments.
Here is the press release we received from Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine:
In an interview with Mark Levin, Waltz explained the “philosophy” of the incoming administration for the Middle East. “The problems in the Middle East by and large originate from Tehran, not from Tel Aviv. We’re going to stand by and support our greatest ally in the Middle East,” he said. “We’re aligned from a national security, intelligence and values standpoint.”
Waltz described this policy as instituting a “complete philosophical, wholesale national security shift.”
Human rights advocates in the United States and around the world on Monday condemned outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden for continuing to fuel Israel‘s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip with a pending $8 billion weapons package.
Since Axoisrevealed late Friday that his administration had notified Congress of the deal, Biden has faced a fresh flood of outrage, with critics calling the president „morally bankrupt“ and his decision to keep arming Israel „willful madness.“
The administration of US President Joe Biden announced on Saturday an arms sale to Israel valued at $8 billion, just ahead of President-elect Donald Trump‘s return to the White House.
Biden has repeatedly rejected calls to suspend military backing for Israel because of the number of civilians killed during the war in Gaza. Israel has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, primarily women and children.
(April 9, 2024)
Western governments could once be confident of protecting their friends. Nicaragua’s case shows those days are gone
(December 3, 2024)
For many years, Putin has publicly questioned the Ukrainian nation’s right to exist. He has repeatedly stated that he sees today’s independent Ukraine as an artificial state, and regards all those who disagree with this verdict as anti-Russian forces or outright Nazis. For more than a decade, he has sought to turn this toxic vision into reality via an escalating campaign of military aggression.
Putin responded on December 26 to a journalist‘s request to comment on the Trump team’s reported early November suggestion to delay Ukraine‘s membership in NATO for 10 to 20 years.[1] Putin stated that it does not matter if Ukraine joins NATO „today, tomorrow, or in 10 years.“ Putin‘s December 26 statement is part of a series of comments he has made recently reiterating his refusal to consider compromises on his late 2021 and early 2022 demands.[2] These demands include forcing Ukraine to become a permanently neutral state that will never join NATO, imposing severe limitations on the size of the Ukrainian military, and removing the Ukrainian government.
His demands continue to include Ukraine’s permanent neutral status, renouncement of NATO ambitions, restrictions on its military size, and regime change in Kyiv.
(December 23, 2024)
From the beginning it was clear that the only feasible post-Hamas arrangement would be a return of the Palestinian Authority, which now runs the West Bank autonomy zones, back to Gaza, from which Hamas expelled it in 2007 by force. Israel itself once yearned for this, back when rational people governed the country. The proposals pushed by President Joe Biden for more than a year now envision versions of this, with the PA rejuvenated and assisted by Arab and perhaps other forces.
An Israel that wanted this would have ensured that Hamas is out of the way, publicly and persistently offering its remaining troops exile. Arab pressure on the group would have been overpowering. Israel would possibly get peace with Saudi Arabia as part of the bargain.
Instead, Netanyahu’s goons flooded the airwaves arguing that Israel cannot pull out of Gaza and end the war because Hamas would regain power.
(November 28, 2024)
A senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private consultations, said Wednesday that the outgoing Democratic administration wants Ukraine to lower the mobilization age to 18 from the current age of 25 to expand the pool of fighting-age men available to help a badly outnumbered Ukraine in its nearly three-year-old war with Russia.
The official said “the pure math” of Ukraine’s situation now is that it needs more troops in the fight
(November 27, 2024)
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan recently hinted that the US was pressuring Ukraine to expand conscription, saying Ukraine’s biggest problem in the war was the lack of manpower.
“Our view has been that there’s not one weapon system that makes a difference in this battle. It’s about manpower, and Ukraine needs to do more, in our view, to firm up its lines in terms of the number of forces it has on the front lines,” Sullivan said on PBS News Hour last week.
(November 19, 2024)
Joe Biden genehmigt der Ukraine, mit amerikanischen Raketen Ziele in Russland zu beschießen. Damit riskiert er einen Weltkrieg.
Kurz vor der Amtsübergabe eskalieren die US-Demokraten nochmal. Ihnen scheint völlig egal zu sein, dass Kamala Harris auch wegen der Ukraine-Politik die Wahl verloren hat.
(November 21, 2024)
Bereits Ende August hatte der Spiegel unter dem Titel „Wladimir Putin und seine Schauermärchen von den roten Linien“ Verniedlichung betrieben. Die Autorin Ann-Dorit Boy, die laut Spiegel auch „Public Information Officer bei UN OCHA in Kiew“ war, schreibt:
„Die Erkenntnis, dass Putins Drohungen leer sind, ist nicht neu. Der Kreml hat in seinem Krieg gegen die Ukraine schon viele angeblich rote Linien gezogen. Militärhilfe von Drittstaaten sollte tabu sein, später Angriffe auf die Brücke zur Halbinsel Krim, die Lieferung von weitreichenden Raketen und Marschflugkörpern und F-16-Kampfjets. Alle diese Linien sind überschritten worden. Passiert ist nichts.“
Der Text war von allen zehn nicht ständigen Mitgliedern des mächtigsten Gremiums der Vereinten Nationen eingereicht worden. Nach wochenlangen Verhandlungen und Änderungen auf Wunsch des Israel-Verbündeten USA blieb am Ende Uneinigkeit vor allem über eine Formulierung: Im Entwurf hieß es, der Sicherheitsrat „verlangt eine sofortige, bedingungslose und dauerhafte Waffenruhe, die von allen Parteien zu respektieren ist; bekräftigt ferner seine Forderung nach der sofortigen und bedingungslosen Freilassung aller Geiseln“.
Unlike several previous resolutions regarding a ceasefire in Gaza, Wednesday‘s measure was brought forward by all 10 elected members of the Security Council.
The veto was the fourth time the United States blocked an effort by the Council to demand a cease-fire since the war began over a year ago when Hamas attacked Israel and took more than 200 people hostage. In the months since, more than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the local health authorities.
(November 16, 2024)
„Cutting off dialogue with Israel does not benefit the people suffering in the Gaza Strip, the hostages of Hamas, nor the people in Israel who are ready for dialogue,“ said a statement from the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin.
It was reported from Berlin that the EU-Israel Association Council is creating an „appropriate framework“ to discuss with the Israeli government the respect of the principles of international humanitarian law, they write.
“We know that there are tragic events in Gaza, huge civilian casualties, but we do not forget who started the current cycle of violence,” Sikorski said in Brussels. “And I can tell you that there was no agreement on the idea of suspending negotiations with Israel.”
Diplomats said the politicians who did not support Borrell‘s initiative at the meeting included foreign ministers from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and the Netherlands.
(November 8, 2024)
Democrats actually benefitted from Trump‘s rise, which presented an opportunity for them to win votes freely by positioning themselves as the only alternative to outright fascism.
Yet, instead of looking inwards for answers on why Harris lost to a candidate as problematic as Trump, these liberal Democrats chose to reprimand minorities. Signalling a sense of superiority, they could not hide their racism, implying that it was incumbent upon these minority communities to vote within the guidelines provided by their liberal saviours.
By this logic, Arabs, Muslims and Latinos must vote for a Democrat no matter what.
(October 24, 2024)
Laut Auswärtigem Amt wurden seit August Ausfuhren im Wert von 94,05 Millionen genehmigt. (…)
Die neue Zahl geht aus einer Antwort des Auswärtigen Amts auf eine Anfrage der BSW-Abgeordneten Sevim Dagdelen hervor, die der Nachrichtenagentur dpa vorliegt.
Over the past year, Israel’s slaughter and starvation of Palestinians — funded by U.S. taxpayers and live-streamed on social media — has triggered one of the greatest surges in progressive activism in a generation. Many Americans roused to action by their government’s complicity in Gaza’s destruction have no personal connection to Palestine or Israel. Like many Americans who protested South African apartheid or the Vietnam War, their motive is not ethnic or religious. It is moral.
The agreement, part of a broader military aid package approved by the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress earlier this year, was finalized hours after Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election to Republican nominee Donald Trump following a campaign in which she resisted calls to support an arms embargo against Israel.
(November 6, 2024)
According to a statement by the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority today, Wednesday, over 85,000 tons of bombs have been deployed by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the conflict on October 7, 2023.
(June 4, 2024)
Israel dropped 70,000 tons of bombs on Gaza Strip since last October, exceeding World War II bombings in Dresden, Hamburg, London combined, according to rights monitor
(October 30, 2024)
In her address to the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese expressed frustration, saying, „I always experience a sense of shock and delusion when I come to this room because many of you recite the same script you had last year.“ She acknowledged the condemnation of Hamas‘s attack, the solidarity shown to Israeli victims, and calls for the release of hostages but questioned the lack of empathy toward Palestinians, stating, „Is it possible that after 42,000 people killed, you cannot empathize with the Palestinians?“ Albanese criticized those who had ignored the crisis in Gaza, saying, „Empathy has evaporated from this room, and empathy is the glue that makes us stand united as humanity.“
(October 31, 2024)
Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, presented her latest report to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 30 October 2024.
A spokesperson for Harris’s campaign said Sunday that the comments made by the protester “don’t reflect the position of the Biden-Harris administration or the vice president’s stance.”
The spokesperson added that Harris “didn’t agree with defining the war as a genocide, and she has not expressed such a stance in the past, as this is not her position.”
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that its “plausible” Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian population of Gaza. There have been massive civilian casualties in the onslaught, and Israeli forces have purposely targeted children.
The ‘Gaza Effect’ may be much larger than anyone expects. Unless they change course, the Democrats are much likelier to lose in November than most people seem to realize.
It should be self-evident that genocide is bad because it’s genocide, but apparently it isn’t—at least, not to everyone.
“We see no signs that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,” Fischer stressed to reporters at the press briefing as he was quoted by Anadolu news agency.
He went on to say in reference to a report published by the German Bild newspaper on the topic: “In this light, you may also be able to assess the reporting, and the accuracy of this reporting.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on 16 October promised that Germany would “always” continue delivering arms to Israel for its war against Lebanon and the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
“There are deliveries and there will always be further deliveries. Israel can rely on that,” Scholz said in remarks to parliament, adding that Germany must keep Israel “in a position to defend its country”.
The United States is overwhelmingly the biggest supplier of arms to Israel. In 2023 69% of Israel’s arm imports came from the US, according to a report into international arms transfers by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Germany was the second largest, providing 30%, followed by Italy with 0.9%. The UK, France and Spain were among other minor contributors.
Der Nordkurier stellt folgende Frage:
„Ebenfalls oft kritisiert wird ihre Aussage aus der Corona-Zeit, als sie sagten: ‚Für meine Regierung gibt es keine roten Linien mehr.‘ Wie stehen Sie heute zu diesem Satz?“
Scholz antwortet daraufhin mit den Worten:
„Es darf keine roten Linien geben, das hat uns diese Pandemie nun wirklich gezeigt. Dazu stehe ich auch heute noch. Politik muss handlungsfähig bleiben. Wir müssen immer bereit sein umzudenken, wenn die Umstände es erfordern. Ich habe mich in keinem Politikfeld je auf rote Linien festlegen lassen, weil das nur zu einer hypernervösen Öffentlichkeit führt, wann eine solche Linie möglicherweise doch überschritten wird – weder in der Corona-Pandemie, noch in der Frage von Krieg und Frieden.“
(12. November 2016)
Kontext B.N.D.-Gesetz: Die Allermeisten haben weder eine Ahnung was Totalüberwachung aka Massenüberwachung tatsächlich bedeutet, noch welcher Gefahr auch sie dabei ausgesetzt sind, selbst wenn sie sich noch so sehr anpassen und die technischen Möglichkeiten im 21. Jahrhundert über den privaten Konsum hinaus ignorieren. Welche Skrupellosigkeit und geistig-moralischen Verfall die Apparatschiks des elektronischen Polizeistaats bei ihrem Tun an den Tag legen, während gleichzeitig seit Jahren reguläre Polizei, Justiz und Rechtsstaat systemisch verschwinden, zeigen Berichte von Aussteigern, allerdings nicht aus Deutschland.
(…)
“Ich nahm eine Funktion an, in der Leute ´Ziele´ genannt wurden, und diese Leute die uns wirklich interessieren sind in keinem Sinne Terroristen, sondern eher generell normale Menschen – die uns interessieren wegen ihrer Funktionen, so dass wir mehr Geheimdienstinformationen über sie bekommen können und mehr Zugang erzielen. Wir nutzen unsere Möglichkeiten über diese Menschen zu unserem Vorteil, um es uns leicht zu machen. Wir nutzen die Einwirkung / die Wucht (“impact) die wir auf deren Leben haben. Manchmal beinhaltet dies das Leben, oder die Seele einer Person wirklich zu verletzen. Ich meine Erpressung, bei Dingen die sie vor Leuten um sich herum verbergen müssen. Ich kann Menschen wirklich das Leben zerstören. Es gab mir das Gefühl omnipotent zu sein.
Als ich diesen Job begann, war ich überrascht von dem Ausmaß meiner Verantwortung. Ich hatte das Gefühl über wichtige Dinge ein Mitspracherecht zu haben. Ich konnte Dinge in Gang setzen, die das Leben (Anm.: es folgt die Bezeichnung der ausspionierten Ortsansässigen) betrafen – ich konnte meine Einheit dazu bringen alle möglichen Maßnahmen zu ergreifen. Die Einstellung war ´Warum nicht? Wir können, also lasst es uns tun.´ Ich dachte, dass das, was ich tun konnte verrückt war. Wir waren die Chefs.”
Ein ex-Spion von 8200 berichtet, wie Soldaten unter seiner Ausbildung systematisch moralisch korrumpiert wurden, um sie zu “vergiften” und die Skrupellosigkeit im Apparat weiter auf Standard zu halten. Bei Razzien “beschlagnahmte” persönliche Gegenstände von Individuen – “Photos von Kindern, Uhren, Familienfotos, Fussballtrophäen, Bücher”, bis hin zu Juwelen – wurden nicht nur zur Mitnahme angeboten, sondern in den Ausbildungsräumen zur Schau gestellt.
“Die Idee war die Auszubildenden (“students”) zu vergiften.“
(…)
“Die einzige Schlussfolgerung die gezogen wurde, dass es in dieser Einheit so etwas wie einen illegalen Befehl nicht gibt. Es sind nicht wir, die entscheiden was moralisch ist und was nicht. Heute erkenne ich, dass dies das ist, was auch der Bomberpilot sagt: `Es ist nicht an mir zu sagen was moralisch ist und was nicht.` Jeder reicht die Verantwortung an Andere weiter.”
The heavy historical burden has compelled Germany to support Israel unconditionally in all international forums. While such support might be understandable in the context of historical relations, using it as a pretext to overlook Israel’s ongoing human rights violations in Gaza is both ethically and politically unjustifiable.
Nagasaki decided not to invite Cohen to mark this year‘s 79th anniversary of the bombing, citing security reasons to avoid possible protests.
That decision prompted the ambassadors of the United States, Britain and the European Union, among others, to skip the ceremony and send lower-level officials instead.
Israeli Army Radio reported that military aircraft deployed approximately 85 bunker-busting bombs, each carrying one ton of explosives, in an attempt to assassinate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The bombs were dropped in civilian areas, resulting in numerous casualties.
You actually have to be mentally ill to achieve what this profoundly sick society of ours defines as “success”. Your head has to be full of a bunch of fantasies and fictional narratives which have no basis in material reality. You’ve got to have a hole in yourself that cannot be filled with any amount of wealth or power or private jets or private islands. That’s the only thing that can propel you to step on top of all the people you need to step on in order to become obscenely rich.
(October 25, 2015)
A political consultant once related how he lunched with Benjamin Netanyahu, who ordered a hamburger with fries. He was not supposed to be eating such foods – doctor’s orders. As they were finishing up, Bibi’s wife, Sarah, came in, saw the evidence and began to see red. Netanyahu, all righteous indignation, looked her straight in the eye and said he had eaten no such hamburger. The storyteller said he was convinced at that moment that Netanyahu himself believed it.
If apocryphal, it is definitely in character. Netanyahu regularly embraces bad ideas or even lies so totally that he convinces himself of their rightness. Others start to believe them too. His outlandish idea, uttered in a speech, was that Hitler would have been happy with just expelling Jews if a Palestinian, the then grand mufti of Jerusalem, had not suggested annihilation instead.
(April 16, 2008)
„We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq,“ Ma‘ariv quoted the former prime minister as saying. He reportedly added that these events „swung American public opinion in our favor.“
Netanyahu reportedly made the comments during a conference at Bar-Ilan University on the division of Jerusalem as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians.
(12. September 2001)
Asked tonight what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, “It‘s very good.“ Then he edited himself: “Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.“ He predicted that the attack would “strengthen the bond between our two peoples, because we‘ve experienced terror over so many decades, but the United States has now experienced a massive hemorrhaging of terror.“
(July 7, 2024)
There are exceptions of course. The Reform Movement issued a statement supporting President Joe Biden’s announcement of a potential ceasefire and hostage release plan, and calling on Netanyahu to accept it. T’ruah, the organization I lead, has been clear in our calls for a bilateral ceasefire that brings home the hostages and ends the war. Ditto our partners in the Progressive Israel Network, including J Street, Americans for Peace Now, New York Jewish Agenda and New Israel Fund.
But many of the largest Jewish organizations, including legacy groups such as Jewish Federations of North America, American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League have decoupled calls to “Bring them Home” from any talk of ending the war, and have refrained from placing any blame on the Israeli government.
A war zone is a collapse in law and order where might makes right and whoever has the guns makes the rules. People who normally wouldn’t risk imprisonment for acting out their fantasies of torture and murder have the opportunity during wartime to become one of the people with the guns who make the rules. They have a helpless population at their fingertips to whom they can do anything they like.
War is the worst thing in the world. It’s the most insane thing humans do. So, so much of the trauma and dysfunction of our species are the lingering reverberations from wars which ended decades ago, passed down from generation to generation by soldiers returning home and by civilians who’ve been subjected to unfathomable abuse by those who found themselves free to do anything they want to them.