The violence that showed up on Saturday, October, in Gaza and the surrounding towns and kibbutzes didn’t began in October.
While it’s hard to say when this attack on Israel, resulting on another attack on Gaza, began, it’s clear that fifty years under military occupation, and a sixteen year blockade of Gaza have with increasing land grabs by Israeli settlers has something to do with what’s happening.
These historical contexts, mainly missing from the U.S. media, aren’t the only factors that led to this exchange of violence. Current affairs, which some mainstream media and a lot independent journalism mention, are also the reason for what’s happening. The Biden administration continues to push the Trump-project Abraham Accords, which are designed to remove the Palestinian cause from the Arab consciousness and make it easier for Israel to make the Palestinians disappear. The Biden Administration is pushing Saudi Arabia to become the next country to join the Accords; Saudi Arabia is also the closest country, physically, that would join the Abraham Accords.
Israel’s government, formed at the end of last year, is the most right-wing government ever formed in Israel. Right-wing Israeli settlers, against all norms and agreements, entered into the Al-Aqsa Mosque (Dome of the Rock to Jews) complex last week. Some have visions of building the third temple there. As the one of the most important places to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, this is intentionally inflammatory.
Israel’s government, which comprises of several settlers, is supporting tacitly and directly taking land from Palestinians in the West Bank, in violation of Israeli law, international law, and in direct violation of agreements like the Oslo Accords. Like all the Israeli governments before it, Netanyahu’s current government detains and arrests Palestinians who haven’t committed a crime without charge (a term nicely called ‘administrative detention‘), for as long Israel likes.
This context is largely missing from jingoistic “reports” published in the mainstream media. Hamas may have attacked Israel, but it didn’t happen out of the blue and it happened because Israel provokes Hamas into launching an attack. Everything in Gaza is controlled by Israel; the Palestinians are monitored by impersonal drones and other technology.
Apparently, Israel did a terrible job of monitoring Hamas as they planned and executed a mission to get through and around, by land, sea, and air, a border fence to hold them in. The other option, which I’ve heard rumors of, is that Israel staged this attacked and helped Hamas get through the border fence so that Israel could change the domestic focus from the protests against judicial form that Netanyahu has been pushing to create a “rally-around-the-flag” moment to get the reservists to recommit to fighting when the army calls them.
Regardless of how Hamas and Palestinian fighters made it around a wall to keep them in, the historical context and current affairs are, unfortunately, reasons that oppressed people fight to make themselves visible, and their request for a decent life we all long for something we work for.
Like everyone else, I hope that there is peace. To create that peace, I know that we need to understand the context.
Wars have long-reaching impacts. I wrote about this last year, in The Championships, about Wimbledon banning Russian and Belarusian players because of Russia’s ongoing military assault on Ukraine.
The Ukrainian players have since demanded that all Russian and Belarusian players be banned from tennis. I feel sympathy – and I hope, empathy – toward the Ukrainians players. However, banning players because of where they come from is a dangerous idea and a slippy slope. Why not demand that U.S. players be banned because of all the war the U.S. supports?
The Ukrainian players are feeling attacked not so much by other tennis players, but a collective and sometimes personal attack on them and their families. There’s a constant demand from the Ukrainian players that Russian and Belarusian players condemn the war – some do, but for any with family in Russia (or Belarus) that can be a dangerous thing to do.
Tennis is an international sport, perhaps more than any other sport. It’s also an individual sport, where Federer represents Federer, Nadal represents Nadal, and Djokovic represents Djokovic. Federer doesn’t play for Switzerland, Nadal doesn’t play for Spain, and Djokovic doesn’t play for Serbia, except for occasional team “Cups”. However, the Ukrainians, since the war began, are playing for flag and country -they’re playing for Ukraine instead of for themselves.
Generally tennis players appear to respect one another. There’s always grumbling about not doing well enough, and sometimes handshake at the net at the end of a match is barely a handshake. But is doesn’t seem personal. That’s changed since the beginning of the Russian attack on Ukraine..
Ukrainian players have state that they’ll play Russians (and Belorussians), but won’t shake their hand at the end of a match.
The commentary on the internet isn’t quite right – “don’t mix sports with politics”. Sports are very political.
The refusal to shake hands could be considered a protest against Russian players, but by playing Russian players the polite thing to do would be to shake hands at the end of match.
If the Ukrainians players can’t respect their opponents at the end of a match the correct thing to do would be to refuse to play.
The general orthodoxy of the “peace process” between Israelis and Palestinians proposes that Israel will retain an army (including nuclear weapons) and that the Palestinians will disarm and have no army.
I tried to explain to my brother that it made no sense for one country to maintain an army while the other side remained disarmed, and that it would be better if both sides disarmed (including nuclear weapons).
Although I did a rather bad job – I’ve never been good at getting points across to my brother for several reasons – having one side armed and another without a military or weapons makes no sense. To create and sustain peace it would be better if both sides didn’t have weapons.
He made the conventional argument that Israel needed weapons because of Iran. Essentially, nuclear weapons are good for deterrence and countries will never abolish nuclear weapons. This isn’t true, but as I said I’m not good about getting points across to my brother.
I wasn’t thinking about it when I tried to make my point about nuclear weapons yesterday, but today happens to be Nagasaki Day.
The fact that nuclear weapons have been used in war makes it clear that they should never be used again. The best way to make sure nuclear weapons are never used again is to get rid of them.
The “peace process” ignores nuclear weapons in the same way the climate agreements like the Paris Accords ignore the fact that the military (especially the US military) is one of the biggest environmental polluters in the world.
Nuclear weapons are the opposite of peace. They make no one safer. It’s time all countries abolish them.
The midterm primary election time is nigh. That means, of course, that in election pamphlet across the country candidates will be toting their commitment to development.
Candidates for city office, county jobs, and Port Commissioners will be toting their commitment to development. There will be a lot talk about they have, and will continue to work on development, or that they will make sure the constituency they are running to represent will get lots of new and improved development. Mainly, there will be promises of economic development, with an occasional mention of environmental stewardship.
But what is “development”? How are we supposed to interpret what kind of “development” these elected official will want to implement?
Few of those that will be advocating for development will consider, or be aware of, the definition of the Bruntland Report – a report that generated the concept of sustainable development.
According the the report,
development involves a progressive transformation of economy and society. A development path that is
sustainable in a physical sense could theoretically be pursued even in a rigid social and political setting. But physical sustainability cannot be secured unless development policies pay attention to such considerations as changes in access to resources and in the distribution of costs and benefits. Even the narrow notion of physical sustainability implies a concern for social equity between generations, a concern that must logically be extended to equity within each generation.
Succinctly, sustainable development “is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
When we vote, it’s important to consider what kind of development these want-to-be elected officials mean when they say they want to promote development. Does that development meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future – or even present –generations to meet their own needs?
Yossi Alpher is a former Israeli intelligence professional whose highly-classified intelligence-gathering and analyses were delivered to the Israeli leadership. How does he explain ex-President Trump’s obsessive hoarding of so many sensitive government secrets?
Exclusive access to secrets empowers a head of state. Trump left office insisting he still was the legitimate head of state in the United States. Apparently, in his warped psyche, those boxes of documents–“my boxes”–ratified and confirmed his self-image as president. Note that after leaving office, Trump reportedly moved the boxes around and examined their contents with the help of an aide, in his own ‘presidential’ manner.
Add to this that he came to the presidency with no background in reading and absorbing classified intelligence assessments. Apparently, he is also not endowed intellectually to process sensitive strategic intelligence. Conceivably, Trump does not really comprehend the significance for the nation of what he has hoarded.
Sadly, at least one aspect of this description, lack of intelligence background, fits most recent American presidents and, indeed, many world leaders. For what it is worth, Israeli leaders usually enjoy an advantage here. Sadly, that does not necessarily improve their strategic decision-making.
This is my own personal theory about Trump and the documents he hoarded. The boxes show better than anything else just how unfit for office this man is.
Originally found in Palestine, The Legitimacy of Home, by Richard Falk. Read more at his website:
An acute problem with extremism, whether of the Likud or Tea Party variety, is that it subordinates interests and rationality to the dictates of an obsessive and emotive vision that is incapable of calculating the balance of gains and losses in conflict situations, being preoccupied with all or nothing outcomes, which is the antithesis of diplomacy
There are a lot of advantages of a big city like New York City. It’s multicultural with culture of any kind going on all the time. There’s a history which both tourists and life-long residents can connect to. There’s a possibility to do anything, and to be anyone.
The problem with big cities is that they can be depressing. There are too many people, and that there’s too much going on. There are too many people rushing around. The problem with cities is that to add more people they either have to expand outwards – to suburbs – or upwards to add more people. As cities expand upwards the people have very little space to live.
One thing I noticed about being in NYC recently is that there are no trees. It’s very depressing that everything is concrete. A park here or there, or a tree growing in the cemented sidewalk hardly counts as having any greenery.
My guess is that a lot of people in cities are depressed. Surrounded by concrete with little space to call their own, and little space to find privacy or alone-time hardly sounds idyllic.
When Israel elected a far-right government last year people began to write about Kahanism. Based on the ideology of Meir Kahane, Kahanism calls for annexation of Judea and Samaria – the ancient kingdoms of that comprised biblical Israel – and an immediate expulsion of all Palestinians.
Twenty-nine years ago, a disciple of Kahane entered the Cave of the Forefathers, in Hebron, where biblical Abraham and his family are said to be buried, and killed almost thirty Palestinians and wounded hundred more while they were at prayer. Baruch Goldstein, the settler from Brooklyn that lived in Kiryat Arba, just outside Hebron., used a machine to indiscriminately kill dozens of defenseless Palestinians.
In Hebron about 800Jews live in tiny fortified urban settlements at the center of a city inhabited by 180,000 Palestinians. After the massacre in the mosque the response from Israel was to subject the Palestinians of Hebron to collective punishment. The doors of business on the main street were welded shut, and they remain that way twenty-nine years later.
Baruch Goldstein was beaten to death by survivors of hist massacre that killed dozens and injured more than a hundred. His ideas and his worldview did not die. His gravestone calls him a martyr with a pure heart.
More recently, the name Itamar Ben-Gvir has been in the news. A member of Netanyahu’s most recent, noticeably-right-wing, government Ben-Gvir worships both Goldstein and Kahane.
The massacre in the Cave of the Forefathers was neither an accident nor a solitary event. It’s a sad continuum in the oppression and murder of Palestinians .
Sitting in a chair is a great opportunity to think.
I don’t just refer to sitting in a char while at the computer, or while eating. It occurred to me, as I was getting my hair cut, that my thoughts while sitting in a barber’s chair is quite different than the thoughts I had while sitting in a dentist’s chair.
I’ve always found that the being at the dentist is a great time to try to remember monologues from Shakespeare I’d memorized. Although I’m not really inclined to talk there’s also no opportunity to talk, as the dentist technician monotonously says “open” “shut”. My mind wanders away from Shakespeare, however to contemplate the ceiling light. There used to be a big off-white light that dangled in the air to help the technician see; no they have a giant spotlight on their forehead. I don’t even know the technician’s name. What inspired her to take up the career of cleaning people’s teeth? These are my thoughts.
Not long after this I was sitting a barber shop. I’m not sure it should actually be called a barber shop – are mass-franchised places that hire “hire stylists” actually barber shops? A barber shop (even a mass-franchised one) is a place where talking seems to be expected. I’ve always dreaded the idea of getting a haircut for this reason. I don’t go there for conversation, and I don’t know what to talk about. I don’t need to ask why the “hair stylist” chose that career – or line of work – it seems more obvious than a someone who cleans teeth, for some reason. Although I didn’t talk about it, I remember thinking about how sitting in a chair getting a haircut (somehow I don’t feel like the phrase “sitting in a barber’s chair is right) is different than reclining in a chair while having teeth cleaned.
Thirteen years ago Israel launched what has been politely referred to as a “major military offensive” against the Gaza Strip. The offensive, called Operation Cast Lead, was not the first time or the last time Israel assaulted the Palestinians of Gaza. The Operation was merely a continuation, and a punctuation (almost an exclamation), of Israel’s policy toward Palestinians and to Gazans in particular.
It’s not clear how many people died during those three weeks; Robert Fisk lists the number of Palestinians killed at 1,417, including 313 children, and more than 5,500 injured Palestinians – many permanently. B’tselem, a human rights group in Israel differs, saying that 1,387 Palestinians died, of which 773 were civilians. B’tselem also reminds us that nine Israelis died, of which three were civilians. It’s clear that during the twenty-two days of the Operation that Israeli soldiers followed the rabbinical injunction to inflict “cruelty to the…
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