juicy

A broad coalition of political forces, from Israel's far right to the Zionist left, have differing motivations for turning the war into the new normal.

...

In the typical style of Israel’s center-left governments between the 1950s and 1980s, especially that of the self-righteous Golda Meir, they say they are sorry for the Palestinian suffering, “but we have no choice.” They barely mention military and settler brutality and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem. And, of course, they strongly oppose the cases being brought against Israel in The Hague. The result is an updated version of “conflict management” — one that, despite their other differences, unites virtually all currents of Israeli politics. 

And make no mistake: Israel is getting away with it. All you have to do to understand that is to look at the aftermath of the WCK attack.

It has severely damaged the pipeline of aid into the region, and sent a stark message that nobody—not even the most benign, apolitical, high-profile organization—is off-limits. In exchange, Israel endured some light criticism from Biden, while receiving assurances that the flow of weapons will continue. Overall, Israel must count the attack as a huge success.

According to NBC News, another guest, Dr. Nahreen H. Ahmed, “was taken aback when she showed Biden prints of photos of malnourished children and women in Gaza—to which Biden responded that he had seen those images before. The problem, the doctor said, was that she had printed the photos from her own iPhone.” Biden was clearly making up the fiction of having seen the pictures before as a way not to have to look at them. As Ahmed rightly notes, Biden’s behavior “speaks volumes to the dismissive nature of the administration when it comes to strong-willed action towards a permanent cease-fire or, at a bare minimum, a red line on the invasion of Rafah.”

As flour ran out, they started grinding animal fodder and barley to make bread to eat along with the khubeza or with broth made from animal bones.

...

According to Yaseen, her granddaughter had gone from 40 kgs to 20 after months of eating only broth and what little bread could be made from the animal feed. The girl is now on a saline drip for her survival.

Israel Aerospace Industries, a weapons maker that has boasted of playing a “pivotal role” in the current war against Gaza, is taking part in at least two of those projects.

Many other projects include Tel Aviv University, the Technion and Hebrew University of Jerusalem. All three of those colleges are offering special funding to students who – as reserve soldiers with the Israeli military – have perpetrated a genocide over the past six months.

A leading Jewish American philosopher has been disinvited from taking up a prestigious professorship at the University of Cologne after signing a letter expressing solidarity with Palestinians and condemning the killings in Gaza carried out by Israeli forces.

Abdullah, a professor of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, helped to form the LA chapter of the group Black Lives Matter, and West praised her as “one of the great freedom fighters of her generation”.

The engineer, identified as Sam Salehpour, told the newspaper that sections of the fuselage of the Dreamliner were improperly fastened together and could eventually break apart mid-flight.

Nicaragua told the ICJ that it was “pathetic” for Germany to provide Palestinians with humanitarian aid while supplying the arms that killed them, and that Germany seemed “not to be able to differentiate between self-defence and genocide”.

Seventeen Democratic senators, led by Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), have warned the State Department that Israeli assurances of compliance with the February memorandum were neither credible nor reliable.

Congress should demand that the administration provide a full and immediate public briefing detailing how the State Department’s decision was reached. It is not too late. This initial decision was only preliminary. Each day since has further proven that the famine is primarily due to Israel’s blockade, and it will almost certainly continue until the May 8 determination deadline.

A human rights monitor documented the sniping of at least 13 children in and around Shifa Hospital, all between the ages of 4 and 16.

Benjamin Netanyahu says there is no starvation in Gaza. Palestinian Israeli politician Ayman Odeh was forcibly stopped from speaking in the Knesset after he referenced the hunger crisis. And, in the United States, the lobby group AIPAC has been pushing talking points saying that “reports that people are starving in Gaza are false.”