Israel, Palestine & the Levant rolling events: Oct 23 on

Israeli officials do not sound like they are going to accept the ceasefire proposal that Hamas has accepted.https://t.co/9WFlbk8UCj

— Séamus Malekafzali (@Seamus_Malek) May 6, 2024

Other reports say Israel are considering it

There's zero downside for Israel in accepting a ceasefire that "permanently ends" the war because that permanent end only lasts until Sinwar violates the ceasefire, unless he doesn't, in which case -- great! But there is a downside *for Netanyahu* and that is the problem.

Yeah, Bibi's right flank will accept nothing less than complete annihilation

I mean Hamas also just fired a bunch of rockets at Israel in between it leaking that they accepted and them officially saying they accepted, so who the fuck knows. I feel like praying for it to be accepted. I think eephus is probably OTM.

The state of things right now, both from @haaretzcom:

Israeli sources: the deal isn't what we agreed to at all, it's a ploy

Foreign diplomatic sources: the deal is basically the same one Israel agreed to, the ball is in Netanyahu's court pic.twitter.com/SBcUnneBZC

— Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) May 6, 2024

“we don’t believe them and want to kill them all so we will say they are liars and antisemites” is pretty much Israel’s modus operandi

"I mean Hamas also just fired a bunch of rockets at Israel in between it leaking that they accepted and them officially saying they accepted"

Here is another excuse for you.

An Egyptian official tells @Alhadath_Brk that Hamas attack on Kerem Shalom on Sunday that killed several IDF soldiers sabotaged the hostage deal talks https://t.co/nggj9fs6Q1

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) May 6, 2024

Israel strikes targets in eastern Rafah as Netanyahu says deal Hamas accepted is "far from meeting demands"
Follow live https://t.co/ubVMztT6rV

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) May 6, 2024

Netanyahu knows this deal is what Israel needs and what Israelis want — show some spine and if it means the Kahanists bring down your government so be it.

If true and successful, this will allow Israel to have total control on the border with Egypt, facilitate the expulsion of Palestinians and the ground reoccupation and recolonisation of Gaza. pic.twitter.com/QbovSxxMJb

— Nicola Perugini (@PeruginiNic) May 6, 2024

I don’t think that’s accurate. Israel only took control of the Palestinian side of the crossing. That doesn’t give them the ability to expel people without cooperation from Egypt.

Time will, in the end, tell

Interesting thread from Amal on where we go from here.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1787873390805582099.html

Israel demolishes dozens of homes of its Bedouin citizens in the southern part of the state ('Negev'), where they have been part of the landscape for centuries or more. This has been going on extensively since 1948.

Ethnic cleansing of Arabs is going on inside internationally… https://t.co/XO0ZFNpenP

— Alon Mizrahi I without equality there's no freedom (@alon_mizrahi) May 8, 2024

Good god pic.twitter.com/DFMqDaLtNa

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) May 14, 2024

Raids appear to be targeting monetary exchanges by arresting owners and breaking into buildings. Cannot help but feel connected to the moves Israeli officials announced earlier today about forcing the collapse of the Palestinian Authority by depriving it of funds. https://t.co/fE2868xro6

— Séamus Malekafzali (@Seamus_Malek) May 15, 2024

Lucidly detailing an endlessly bleak view, so much I didn't know (worth it despite the chill)--hope he's wrong about some of this worth reading transcript because while listening I tend to think about something I hear and miss subsequent point:
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/15/1251546031/gaza-will-be-one-big-displacement-camp-for-the-foreseeable-future-journalist-say

Thanks, listened to it this AM. Extremely depressing, although kind of reinforcing what I already knew. I think I said something in the other thread shortly after Oct 7 about how I didn't get the sense there was any plan. I'm not even sure what a plan could look like.

I also just recently listened to this: https://tlv1.fm/the-tel-aviv-review/2024/05/13/israel-hamas-war-7-months-on/ and it crystalized some things for me about the situation and Bibi. In particular there is a portion I'm having trouble copying and pasting, but the gist is that the guest says that while he does not normally like to ascribe too much to individual leaders, that Bibi can really be said to have made it his entire life project to ensure that no Palestinian state is ever created, from very early in his political career, whereas even other Likud leaders at the time often grudgingly believed that a two-state solution would have to be reached.

I realized that Bibi is a master of liminal political situations - Gaza was not "occupied" but it was not free, the West Bank was conquered but also not annexed, Palestinians could have "limited autonomy" under the Palestinian Authority, a non-government government. The settlements are Israeli but not in Israel. And now Gaza is again occupied but not occupied in a different way. The IDF is not the responsible occupying power, but there is also no functioning government. No one controls Gaza, which itself has been a kind of liminal territory since 1948.

Landmark piece on settlers here -

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/magazine/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-impunity.html

Haven't clicked but I guess its landmark purely bcz its NYT..

This interview...just the levels of violence ans dehumanisation, if you are still breathing..

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/tanya-haj-hassan-interview-gaza-healthcare/

200+ abductions!

Medical workers reporting from Gaza are some of the most difficult things I've ever read (I didn't read that one, but there was an NPR one a little while ago that was nauseating), though I'm fairly squeamish.

The NYT piece looks interesting (only just started it). Perhaps the general scope of events isn't news, but the first part's focus on the settler movement's impunity from the law as a force undermining Israel as a democracy and diving the country politically seems worth reading. Here's a gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/magazine/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-impunity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sk0.1wPs.rgEUqaRH0JSa&smid=url-share

Haven't finished that interview, doubt I will

Small ray of light:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-05-18/ty-article/.premium/arab-jewish-movement-standing-together-to-guard-gaza-aid-convoys-from-right-wing-looters/0000018f-8a88-d9d6-a38f-8ffb2bc10000

The Storyville earlier this week on Christian Evangelicals was really good. Spent a lot of time looking at the Middle East.

That NYT article on settler violence and its relations to and influence on the Israeli government and Jewish Israeli population in general is very good. You can argue that it's late in the game to be saying "Well actually," but between that and the Megan Stack op-ed there's at least some explicit acknowledgment of how fucked-up Israel is beyond just the horrors of Bibi. Grim stuff.

https://x.com/IntlCrimCourt/status/1792511246769570084

#ICC Prosecutor
@KarimKhanQC
announces applications for arrest warrants in relation to Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant

and Sinwar and two other guys at the top of Hamas

And Biden says it’s “outrageous “ that Israeli leaders are facing arrest warrants

Xp doctor reporting on the conflict: this podcast hits hard
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2024/may/20/most-horrific-of-surgeries-on-panadol-australian-doctor-recalls-operating-on-gaza-child-video

Some Aussie docs still stuck there
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/21/australian-doctor-modher-albeiruti-trapped-gaza-hospital-khan-younis-rafah

This morning Palestinians in the occupied West Bank were going to school and work & eyewitnesses report that Israeli forces started shooting at them indiscriminately. A teacher, a surgeon & 2 children were all killed.@nida_journo reporting pic.twitter.com/HasYzjiES6

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 21, 2024

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/21/israeli-soldiers-and-police-tipping-off-groups-that-attack-gaza-aid-trucks

It’s funny, listening to Israeli spokespeople, how everyone just keeps misunderstanding their noble actions

It’s just astonishing how wrong we’ve all gotten things

South Korea’s deputy ambassador Sangjin Kim choked up and was unable to continue while speaking of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who appeared in a video recently released by Hamas.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-un-security-council-holds-meeting-solely-focused-on-hostages-held-by-hamas/

וואו. השגריר סנג׳ין קים, סגן ראש המשלחת
של קוריאה באו״ם, השתנק בדבריו כשדיבר על הוידאו ששחרר חמאס של הירש גולדברג פולין והדברים שאמרה אמו רייצ׳ל. הוא לא הצליח לסיים לדבר והחזיר את רשות הדיבור לשגרירת ארה״ב לינדה תומאס גרינפילד pic.twitter.com/TLP13UBQnI

— יונה לייבזון yuna leibzon (@YunaLeibzon) May 16, 2024

There’s an absolutely lovely guy who has been out every day walking his dogs in (huge nature reserve in North London) Hampstead Heath, wearing a Bring Hersh Home t-shirt (Hersh might be his cousin, I can’t remember the exact family connection but there is one). But he is out there provoking gentle conversations at all times, including the idea that the hostages now seem to be Netanyahu’s prisoners almost as much as Hamas’, purely because BN is out the second they are freed.

I think that has been the view of anti-Bibi Israelis almost from the beginning.

psychotic things taking place:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/man-whose-family-was-killed-on-oct-7-questioned-under-caution-after-allegedly-being-beaten-by-right-wing-activist/

Kedem’s wife Reuma said activist supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government told her she was “a degenerate, a stinking leftist, it’s a good thing your children died.”

Kedem said the man carrying the “leftist traitor” sign then attacked his wife.

Kedem was then seen briefly pushing the man, before he was apparently beaten.

My wife knows someone whose son was killed and who was bombarded with angry messages from other Israelis because she posted about attending the joint Jewish-Arab memorial ceremony in Israel.

how could anyone have predicted:

https://x.com/ErinBanco/status/1793270391948861507

NEW: Biden officials have become increasingly concerned that Hamas has been able to recruit during wartime — thousands over the last several months - allowing thee group to withstand months of Israeli offensives.

w/@alexbward @laraseligman https://t.co/6ZW0U8jgAn

— Erin Banco (@ErinBanco) May 22, 2024

Lol

Of course that just feeds Israeli propaganda about how there's no difference between civilians and Hamas, since anyone they don't kill is a possible recruit. Funny how that works.

My wife knows someone whose son was killed and who was bombarded with angry messages from other Israelis because she posted about attending the joint Jewish-Arab memorial ceremony in Israel.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Wednesday, May 22, 2024 8:31 AM bookmarkflaglink

Very sorry for their loss and for this added layer of grief, man alive.

The bodies of three hostages were recovered yesterday and announced today:

Orión Hernández Radoux, 30
Hanan Yablonka, 42
Michael Nisenbaum, 59

I’ve been quiet about the hostages in general because a close friend lives near Orión’s Mexican family and has been supporting them since 7/10 in dealing with Israeli diplomatic channels and the like, and trying to find him and get him home. Sadly, Orión seems to have been killed on the day at the same time as his girlfriend Shani Louk. Such profoundly sad news…

that's so sad. condolences to your friend.

I learned about this from the settler article:

In 2005, the Jewish Department of Shin Bet received intelligence about a plot to slow the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza by using 700 liters of gasoline to blow up vehicles on a major highway. Acting on the tip, officers arrested six men in central Israel. One of them was Bezalel Smotrich, the future minister overseeing civilian affairs in the West Bank.

Smotrich, then 25, was detained and questioned for weeks. Yitzhak Ilan, one of the Shin Bet officers present at the interrogation, says he remained “silent as a fish” throughout — “like an experienced criminal.” He was released without charges, Ilan says, in part because Shin Bet knew putting him on trial might expose the service’s agents inside Jewish extremist groups, and in part because they believed Smotrich was likely to receive little punishment in any case.

Quote from an interview with Fatah politician Samer Sinijwali that I found both hopeful and tragic in the face of current events:

"I became more identifying myself as a Palestinian who has a situation that he wants to reject and he wants to fight against. And I started throwing stones as part of what was happening in the city. And this got me to five years sentence.
I was in the Israeli jails from the age of 15 to the age of 20. That's where I learned my Hebrew, by the way. And this period is a little bit important to me because when I was throwing stones these days, I wanted to have Palestine free from the river to the sea.

That was the general mood in my country. But a few months later, when I was inside the prison, Arafat announced the declaration of the independence. He said, we now want to achieve Palestinian state within the borders of 67, two-state solution.
All of us, and at that time we were hundreds of young people in the prison, they keep those who are not adults under 18 years old separately. We jumped out of happiness, and we joined in for this call, and we forget about Palestine from the river to the sea, and we started all signing “in for the two-state solution. This tells something... that if you give some hope to the Palestinians, they all shift.
It's very easy to change the mood, the public opinion among the Palestinians. You only need to bring some hope to them, and it's enough."