Israel/Palestine post 10/7 - follow-on events/thoughts as relate to other countries

I've been excoriated for posting Salaita before, but I think it is important to keep up with his thoughts, as he is a Palestinian-American, an academic whose job was rescinded for his politics on Palestine, and a great polemicist— it is a genre of writing that isn't taken seriously by many people in this day and age, and with good reason in many cases, but I think he is one of the best even when I quibble with some of his turns of phrase.

Warning that there is a fair number of uses of the word Zionist in the article, linked here and excerpted below:

What does it tell us that the Zionist entity can conduct this genocide in high definition, with no credible deniability and amid condemnation from all corners of the world?

...

More than anything, it tells us that in the benighted West there is no democracy, no free speech, no legislative remedy, no human rights, no right even to be human. These are illusions people repeat in an effort to survive pervasive depravity, or myths they cynically invoke to gather the crumbs of deprivation. There is a ruling class and various iterations of the dispossessed and the dispossessed exist only to serve ruling class gluttony.

That’s why countless people can deplore a genocide zoomed into our personal devices without being able to stop it. We are not simply ineffectual in the world of policymaking; policymakers are taunting us with their depravity.

What can we do, then? It’s important to start by recognizing that the entire political class, from presidents to online pundits, has no regard for us—detests us, in fact—and is therefore never a reliable source of empathy or relief. Denizens of this class do not want our feedback; they want us to scroll through the debris of their malevolence.

I also am moving through this Edward Said essay from the LRB nearly 40 years ago— how little has changed.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v06/n03/edward-said/permission-to-narrate

Read the first of what you shared, it was brilliant and terrible to read, thank you for sharing it. Reading the second one now

Thanks for that, Table. And don't apologise for bringing the language used. It was part of his work.

I saw a clip of Said talking the other day. Didn't ever read him as I was coming across "Orientalism" through a literature lense so kept putting that off.

Might watch this video lecture later:

https://vimeo.com/887954478

Bipartisanship isn’t dead!

https://x.com/govkathyhochul/status/1733529147912155425?s=46&t=z1egexpHAtHcPPxgbp4Hrw

"Ignoring these developments also assumes that all information on TikTok is bad, self-generated and highly manipulable garbage. The reality is that news reports about Gaza from mainstream media are frequently clipped and circulated on TikTok, extending their window of relevance and consumption. Over the past few days the most-watched clip on CNN’s TikTok account, which has more than 3 million followers, is one of its news anchor Jake Tapper taking Mark Regev, senior adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, to task over the killing of the family of one of CNN’s producers in Gaza by Israeli airstrikes. On the Guardian’s TikTok account, the most-watched video of the past six weeks, with more than 7m views, is of a protester interrupting the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and calling for a ceasefire"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/11/tiktok-social-media-young-people-moral-panic

I saw a clip of Said talking the other day. Didn't ever read him as I was coming across "Orientalism" through a literature lense so kept putting that off.

― xyzzzz__

I recommend him, especially his memoir and general writing on Palestine.

infuriating

In the past few days:
- The UN said half of Gaza is starving
- WaPo found that the IDF used U.S.-supplied white phosphorus in Lebanon
- U.S. bypassed Congress to sell tank munitions to the IDF

Meanwhile, this is the homepage of the New York Times. Journalistic malpractice. pic.twitter.com/K4ney15pc9

— Jeremy Slevin (@jeremyslevin) December 11, 2023

This is where twitter and tik too come in and amplify the things that aren't making it to the front pages.

or rather what makes the front pages

Yes, as per that tweet, in judgement of it

The march for Palestinian liberation through Manhattan tonight feels endless. pic.twitter.com/kgniBfJj3R

— Talia Jane ❤️‍🔥 (@taliaotg) December 9, 2023

Fine thread on the visa ban against settlers.

---

Mouin Rabbani
@MouinRabbani
THREAD: More on visa bans. It seems the new fad among Western governments is to denounce settler violence and adopt measures against individual settlers. Following the US, the European Union and United Kingdom are now also considering the nuclear option

Matthew Miller

@StateDeptSpox
.
@SecBlinken
reiterated in a call today with Israeli Minister
@gantzbe
that Israel must take all possible measures to avoid civilian harm and discussed efforts to increase levels of humanitarian assistance to Gaza

---

Just saw a video of the IDF blowing up a school literally a tweet or two from the above.

If you are going to stay away from twitter because of this then sure, I get it.

"Speaking to Democratic donors in Washington, Biden said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a “tough decision to make.”

“This is the most conservative government in Israel’s history,” Biden said, adding that the Israeli government “doesn’t want a two-state solution.”

Biden said Israel was beginning to lose support around the world, and argued Netanyahu “has to strengthen and change” the Israeli government to find an eventual long-term solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/12/politics/biden-israel-losing-support-netanyahu/index.html

I highly doubt Israel will stop looking for these hostages or their remains, ever.

Haven't there already been news stories about Netanyahu and his henchmen basically expressing zero concern that Israeli hostages might be present in places he wants to bomb?

Probably, not looking for a fight here.

Nor am I. When I read about it it struck me as extremely fucked up, like "not the kind of thing a sane leader says out loud."

Netanyahu and his fascist goon supporters have shown outright contempt for families of the hostages.

After all they are probably the sort of liberal fake Jews who didn't vote for him.

It’s like the Raid on Entebbe, but instead they just nuked Uganda.

the US didn't invite families of American hostages to the Hanukkah celebration, which just seems like setting yourself up for criticism. Dumb, White House.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/11/politics/families-hostages-white-house-hanukkah/index.html

Why was your post deleted Felicity? I was about to reply to it.

I'll just post part of my reply, which is that I only posted that piece from The New Yorker because we happened to get talking about the nature of Hamas' violence back on the 10/7.

And then I was going to remind us all why we got to talking about Hamas' actions on the 10/7, and in response to what post. But I will leave that out.

I requested deletion because I was intending to hide text part of that post. It's ok.

Ok.

---

UN News
@UN_News_Centre
BREAKING: UN General Assembly ADOPTS resolution demanding immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, as well as immediate and unconditional release of all hostages

FOR: 153
AGAINST: 10
ABSTAIN: 23

US still voted against even with the demand for hostage release? Jesus

The context is that the US and other countries voted against the resolution because the majority of member states would not vote to include the following two draft amendments to the language of the resolution:

Austria has proposed an amendment, that inserts the phrase, “held by Hamas and other groups” in relation to the hostages still being held by Palestinian militants in Gaza, as well as inserting the word “immediate” in reference to ensuring humanitarian access.

The first draft amendment has secured 89 for, 61 against and 20 abstentions. This means the Austrian amendment failed under the two-thirds rule.

The US amendment reflects its continued point of contention regarding Hamas, which it designates as a terrorist group, calling for wording to be inserted “unequivocally” rejecting and condemning “the heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas that took place in Israel starting 7 October 2023 and the taking of hostages” as the first operative paragraph.

The second draft amendment from the US sees 84 in favour, 62 against and 25 abstaining. Again, the amendment failed.

UN resolutions are not legally binding but of moral weight only.

Not binding, but influential
Resolutions by the General Assembly, though not legally binding on nations, do carry immense moral weight, representing the collective resolve of the UN membership on a matter of grave importance.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/12/1144717

I've seen a lot of conflicting reporting on what UNRWA schools and hospitals have done or not done, but the above amendments are basically the source of contention.

Of course it would be great if the UN resolution did result in the release of hostages and ceasefire.

Last paragraph otm

"Do you condemn Hamas" gotcha question being used to greenlight this genocide and lengthen Netanyahu's career.

All of these resolutions are moral. This is about further isolating Israel. We need to see worldwide Boycotts of the country. It should be treated like Apartheid era South Africa.

Agreed.

Back on the university note, as was expected, the deep-pocketed donor who drove Magill’s ouster at UPenn seems to be trying to set the agenda for faculty hiring, retention, and classroom pedagogy. Or at least he has “questions.” This is where this always was going to go— donors dictating to schools what they should and shouldn’t do. https://www.inquirer.com/education/marc-rowan-university-pennsylvania-agenda-20231212.html

Israel next.
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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
@FCDOGovUK
🔴 SANCTIONED: leaders and financiers of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Working with our allies we are isolating Hamas and cutting off their funding.

Palestinian and Israeli citizens have a right to live in peace without the brutality of Hamas

Right.

BREAKING: Israeli ambassador @TzipiHotovely rejects the idea of a two-state solution

"The answer is absolutely no", she says.https://t.co/cjkJJFipKp

📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/9z0fMWSSui

— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 13, 2023

shocked!

They probably wouldn’t give it to Hannah Arendt https://t.co/z0wh1zBQWR

— John Ganz (@lionel_trolling) December 13, 2023

speaking of that gessen essay

Students for Justice in Palestine group at Rutgers New Brunswick suspended for seemingly no reason— I did some research and these accounts are pretty accurate.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pS9xFt-_JGVFqOJLPfOYYWo5ETVzLKey/view

Politoco was reporting John Gottheimer's letter about Rutgers

At Rutgers, anonymous protesters have gathered outside of the Chabad House, destroyed hostage posters, and verbally assaulted Jewish students. The Chabad Rabbi reported that Jewish students felt “physically afraid” to leave the building.

The University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter labeled Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attacks as “justified retaliation.”9 In November, a Rutgers student was charged with bias intimidation, terroristic threats, and false public alarm after posting on social media threats to kill an Israeli student from the AEPi fraternity.10 Jewish students on campus feel “devastated, and terrified.”11

"You allegedly have had multiple cases of disrupting classes, a program, meals, and students studying,"

I didn’t see thost despite some Googling. Apologies!

Here's the letter btw: https://d12t4t5x3vyizu.cloudfront.net/gottheimer.house.gov/uploads/2023/12/Gottheimer-Letter-to-Rutgers-President-December-7-Event_JG-Final.pdf

Neither Estes nor Hill are antisemites, sorry.

Yes, the citations in the letter making that claim are unconvincing. Gottheimer seems to see zero distinction between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, which is unfortunate because the incidents in the part felicity quoted are quite serious.

I think the Chabad post ("strapped, armed, locked and loaded") was a play on the wearing of Tefillin, as shown in the picture (straps around your arms, the box is loaded with a scroll and locked?) -- maybe like "haha we are using prayer, not violence" -- but nonetheless ill considered and needlessly inflammatory.

Some of the links in the letter are paywalled - clearly there have been bad incidents on campus, but it's a little bit unclear to me to what extent SJP is associated with them or not (there's a quote from the WaPo about SJP calling 10/7 "justified retaliation" but I can't actually read the link)

Ok nm got it

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/10/10/colleges-react-israel-hamas-war/

Diverging views on the conflict are already creating divisions on campuses. Over the weekend, Students for Justice in Palestine at Rutgers University issued a statement standing with the “Palestinian resistance” and calling the attack on Israel a “justified retaliation.”

Isabella Kajiwara
@kajiifire
·
3h
Violent arrest of Jewish activist protesting at a fundraiser for Israel at Royal Society of Arts, with Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Hotovely just now!! Near Charing Cross station.

masha gessen
@mashagessen
·
8h
You'd think, with all the attention to the Arendt Prize debacle, I'd be inundated with media calls/texts. You'd be wrong. Not one German journalist has reached out for comment. One US journalist did. All reporting has happened with no input/reaction from me. Inaccuracies pile up

Good piece by Judith Butler both apologizing for their initial response to 10/7 as well as diagnosing the problems with speech on campuses. Here it is

In a mind-bending twist, those who oppose genocide are, paradoxically, sometimes accused of genocidal intention, as we saw in Republican representative Elise Stefanik’s December 7 public grilling of University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill and Harvard president Claudine Gay. Her interrogation packed a number of dubious assumptions into the questions—that certain phrases express genocidal intent—rather than considering their place in an emancipation movement. Intifada, generally translated as “uprising” in Arabic, means “to be shaken” or “to shake oneself.” It is understood as a movement that refuses to remain docile in the face of colonial violence, an effort to throw off the shackles of colonial rule. It is also a call for Palestinian unity. Does it necessarily imply genocidal violence? No. Now, some may imagine that the colonized, once freed of their shackles, will turn against the colonizer with vengeful, genocidal intention. But imagining is not prediction. Indeed, that will not happen if a radical decolonization is successful. If the rage of intifada, however, is directed against colonial rule, then decolonization will more likely produce another emotion: emancipatory joy, a sense of freedom, the release from shackles that have only tightened over the seventy-five years of their imposition. One need only ask whether Palestinians would prefer to be killed by non-Jewish actors to see that it is state violence they oppose.

When asked whether Harvard University would condemn calls for Jewish genocide, Gay rightly hesitated, since the question assumed that anyone who called for “intifada” or chanted “from the river to the sea” was expressing genocidal intent or making a concrete threat to obliterate Israeli Jewish life, or Jewish life more broadly. The interrogation should have stopped right there to expose its fugitive assumptions. In the moment of questioning, however, they were consolidated: “intifada” and “from the river to the sea” were, without a pause of reflection, made identical with calling for genocide against the Jews, and calls for liberation were understood as threats of anti-Semitic violence. When the ability to reflect on questionable assumptions is ruled out, the trap is set. The terrible consequence is that there can be no critique of Israel’s killing machine, no oppositional speech, that is not immediately construed as a call for violence—if not the verbal threat of violence itself. Any president would be right to hesitate before answering such a question, since the interrogator has offered a set of false premises and specious conflations in the form that that question has taken. In the aftermath of Magill’s resignation, president Gay has an ethical decision to make: to stand up to forms of inquisition that conflate resistance to Israeli violence with genocidal intention, to stand up for the rights of protest and dissent, or to become an instrument of censorship and denial. Her stated apology does not bode well. Whatever she finally decides will set a consequential precedent for both academic freedom and freedom of expression.

I don't understand that at all, it seems thick-headed.

"Now, some may imagine that the colonized, once freed of their shackles, will turn against the colonizer with vengeful, genocidal intention. But imagining is not prediction." Prediction? It has already happened numerous times - what do you think 10/7 was? Again, I don't think "intifada" means "genocide," but in the direct wake of 10/7, used by people praising 10/7, it's not really a stretch to hear it as a call for violence against civilians. Meanwhile, globalizing it: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/14/four-arrested-in-europe-over-alleged-cross-border-hamas-terrorism-plot

They’re very much not free of their shackles. Gaza and the West Bank are unrecognised and not autonomous in any meaningful way shape or form.