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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNL_3kuGqz0

Worthwhile vid connecting what Adam Tooze has written about how badly Columbia’s endowments have been managed and connecting that up with how our ruling elite are completely incompetent now across the board

Also a shorter talk here on the cycles of left protest/recuperation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KelbwZUo_5o

Beautiful.

Absolutely LOVE this. Suella Braverman gets the silent treatment she deserves 😂

Not even worthy of a response. Bloody brilliant.pic.twitter.com/pobNu2Xxw2

— Bushra Shaikh (@Bushra1Shaikh) May 16, 2024

lol

Who is on the megaphone?

Oh, it's my son. pic.twitter.com/co4ZtdLgMe

— Claire Hopkin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@claireindubai) May 16, 2024

I'd camp anywhere for the chance to ice out Suella, congrats to those kids!

The Sonoma State president has been put on leave by the CSU for agreeing to protesters' demands:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/15/sonoma-state-president-leave-gaza-00158285

Meanwhile afaict the UCLA pres has suffered zero consequences for allowing a violent extremist mob to assault students for hours

Well.

America’s romantic mythology and wishful thinking about Israel encourage a tendency to see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the main cause of the ruthlessness in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 35,000 people. The unpopular, scandal-ridden premier makes a convincing ogre in an oversimplified story.

But Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, the creeping famine, the wholesale destruction of neighborhoods — this, polling suggests, is the war the Israeli public wanted. A January survey found that 94 percent of Jewish Israelis said the force being used against Gaza was appropriate or even insufficient. In February, a poll found that most Jewish Israelis opposed food and medicine getting into Gaza. It was not Mr. Netanyahu alone but also his war cabinet members (including Benny Gantz, often invoked as the moderate alternative to Mr. Netanyahu) who unanimously rejected a Hamas deal to free Israeli hostages and, instead, began an assault on the city of Rafah, overflowing with displaced civilians.

“It’s so much easier to put everything on Netanyahu, because then you feel so good about yourself and Netanyahu is the darkness,” said Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist who has documented Israel’s military occupation for decades. “But the darkness is everywhere.”

Have seen a few polls pretty much saying that the majority of the Israeli public are more than fine with what's happening. To place this solely on Netanyahu or the far-right is to not want to face this.

According to the poll cited:

Breaking down the Jewish sample by political orientation reveals that a majority of those on the Left support allowing international bodies to transfer humanitarian aid to Gaza (59%), while the Center is divided on this issue, and a large majority of those on the Right think that Israel should not allow the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza residents.

Regarding the transfer of humanitarian aid, a large majority of Arab Israeli respondents support it (85%).

grim stats

indeed

Beautiful.

🐦[Absolutely LOVE this. Suella Braverman gets the silent treatment she deserves 😂

Not even worthy of a response. Bloody brilliant.pic.twitter.com/pobNu2Xxw2🕸
— Bushra Shaikh (@Bushra1Shaikh) May 16, 2024🕸]🐦

"Can I ask what your view is of the events of October 7th?"

Former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman is crushed on GB News. pic.twitter.com/u6PGo9jatI

— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) May 17, 2024

that is genuinely the best thing I've seen all year

Very good tick

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan during CNN interview today:

“I had some elected leader speak to me and be very blunt, this court [ICC] was built for Africa and thugs like Putin” pic.twitter.com/bsGi5s7ayX

— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws) May 21, 2024

The ironic thing is that, apparently, he is the ICC prosecutor due to nomination by the UK and strong support form Israel and the US.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/22/palestinian-state-recognition-ireland-spain-recognise-palestine

Pretty big deal for Spain to recognize anyone or anything

Maybe Trump supporters will vote for Joe now.

Biden administration signals it will support bipartisan push to sanction ICC https://t.co/RkHGbYKw1P

— Financial Times (@FT) May 21, 2024

Shameful.

This is probably a dumb question, but for countries that don't recognize Palestine do they say its part of Israel?

But if it were part of Israel then "occupied territories" makes no sense. Israel itself doesn't say the occupied territories are actually part of Israel. So who are they occupied from if there is no such thing as a Palestine to occupy?

The eternal logical conundrum. “Israel has a right to defend itself?” “From Palestine?” “There is no Palestine!” “So the people who live there are Israelis?” “No, they’re Palestinians!” “They live in Palestine?” “There is no Palestine.”

Etc

Not quite there's also "there's no such thing as Palestinians".

Right. But! Israel has a right to defend itself against them.

Ok, but whats the steel man position of it? Occupied Egypt and occupied Jordan, respectively? Do the countries that don't recognize Palestine categorize Gaza as occupied Egypt? They can't categorize it as part of Israel, as even Israel doesn't categorize it as part of Israel. Where is Gaza considered to be, legally, in the UK or US?

Well that's the thing, right? We just don't talk about it. I mean, as more or less official policy. Israel doesn't talk about it so we don't talk about it. You'd think you couldn't sustain that kind of obvious illogic for decades and decades, yet here we are. There's no solid position Israel's allies can commit to about the Palestinian territories that won't create problems for Israel, so we don't. The U.S. is officially against the expansion of West Bank settlements, but obviously all that ever amounts to is some tut-tutting, no one has ever suggested any kind of real consequences for it.

I need to deep dive on this more, I hadn't actually realized that when Egypt had it, they themselves did same thing as Israel in occupying but not annexing

Official U.S. policy (per the State Dept website) is that the U.S. still recognizes the Palestinian Authority as an official voice for people in the "Palestinian territories" and is committed to an eventual-someday-somehow two-state solution. But that language probably hasn't changed in 20 years and it implicitly just leaves the status of both the land and its residents in total legal limbo for the interim.

surprised the US and UK don’t call it “The Palestine”

The Pale of Stine

Gaza was not part of modern Egypt nor of any modern nation state. The West Bank was, relatively briefly, part of Jordan, but Jordan renounced its claims to the WB in 1988. So for practical purposes, both are stuck in limbo. Israel won't formally annex them presumably because of fears that legal status as part of Israel would strengthen the Palestinians' claims to full rights and the possibility of a demographic majority that could end Israel as a "Jewish state." Israel also won't recognize a Palestinian state, and on this I go back and forth about whether there's a single "real" reason - i.e. whether it's *really* about religious claims or *really* about military advantage or *really* about land/resources. Maybe it's really a combination of all of them.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in large part because it did not want its armed forces spread too thin in two non-contiguous occupations. I don't think there was any grand strategy prior to this war to reoccupy Gaza, but I do think it has strengthened the once fringe movement to do so. A lot of top military brass still seem to be against it, but I think it may be what Bibi now wants, esp since he rejects any other feasible option.

I heard it pointed out recently that "the Gaza strip" as opposed to the city of Gaza is kind of an artificial/historically accidental territory. It was part of a larger swath of land that was supposed to be the Arab state in the UN Partition Plan that Arabs rejected and that Zionists nominally accepted but didn't actually want and hoped to eventually push beyond. The borders of the states in the partition plan were of course ridiculous and it's not hard to see why no one actually wanted them. The "strip" doesn't really make sense as a territory and can't really sustain itself economically.

I was humming "On Jordan's Stormy Banks" to myself the other day (as you do) and the lyrics suddenly struck me with a completely new meaning. The language around "possessions". And even the fact that this land is "promised". The feeling of being separated from your home.

On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand,
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.

I am bound for the promised land,
I am bound for the promised land;
Oh, who will come and go with me?
I am bound for the promised land.

what an absolute freaking weirdo the person running this account is pic.twitter.com/E7laXasdio

— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) May 22, 2024

def a smart rhetorical gambit to appear to be spreading vile & bizarre misinformation

there are some very weird political dynamics going on. e.g., I found this story very depressing and also confusing in terms of the politics of the protesters: https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/05/21/newton-free-library-photography-exhibit

The U.S. is officially against the expansion of West Bank settlements, but obviously all that ever amounts to is some tut-tutting, no one has ever suggested any kind of real consequences for it.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, May 22, 2024 6:17 AM bookmarkflaglink

We discussed the US executive order targeting the settlers previously.

Not as many consequences as one might wish, but there is some reporting of implementations.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/u-s-sanctions-3-israeli-west-bank-settlers-and-their-outposts-for-violence-against-palestinians

Gaza was not part of modern Egypt nor of any modern nation state

I should have realised that, I knew Egypt had it but I hadn't fully appreciated it was never actually part of Egypt.

So for countries that don't recognize Palestine, the official position(s) are basically is that Gaza isn't part of any country, not even as a territory. That US State Department thing upthread seems to say a lot of nothing very much

Not as many consequences as one might wish, but there is some reporting of implementations.

Yeah, tho in extremely limited circumstances having to do with specific violent acts. There hasn't been any real consequences for just the ongoing expansion of settlements for the last few decades.

this human puke: https://newrepublic.com/post/182003/nikki-haley-signs-israel-bombs-gaza

elsewhere in American greatness: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c033m529ry0o

A temporary pier built by the US military to deliver aid to Gaza has been damaged by heavy seas and will take at least a week to be repaired, according to US officials.

US forces began building the floating pier - which is attached to Gaza's shoreline by a temporary causeway - several weeks ago.

The causeway portion of the project has now reportedly broken off and will have to be repaired before being returned to its position.

Humanitarian organisations have warned that the amount of aid reaching Palestinians in Gaza is only a fraction of what is required to meet the needs of its population.

Not exactly "as it relates to other countries," but because it doesn't directly pertain to current events, I'm a little over halfway through reading Tom Segev's biography of David Ben Gurion, "A State At Any Cost," which I think is very good overall and very helpful in understanding the version of zionism that came to dominate by the time of the founding of Israel, including the role of explusion/population transfer. I wouldn't say it's exactly a favorable portrayal of the man, although it also complicates some of the worst things that are said about him.

I'm hoping to next do some reading on the early proponents of a binational state.

complicates some of the worst things that are said about him.

I should clarify that I mean stuff like "he didn't care about saving Jews."

Who's the largest buyer of Israel Bonds do you think? Surely a wealthy American businessman?

Wrong! It's the comptroller of Palm Beach County, who has apparently invested $700 million, 15% of the funds of a county of 1.5 million people, all public taxpayer dollars, into Israel. pic.twitter.com/tgSt7OlN2l

— Séamus Malekafzali (@Seamus_Malek) May 29, 2024

🚨POLICE STATION SUPPORT (PSS) NEEDED ACROSS LONDON ALL DAY🚨

At @PSCupdates Rafah Protest last night - 40 people were arrested and taken to 6 police stations.

We need more PSS volunteers ASAP

If you can help call 07946541511

The protest is not over until everyone is out 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/1REqjRau1O

— #BlackLivesMatterUK (@ukblm) May 29, 2024

I thought the 'argument' as to who the Palestinians were and why they didn't count was that they were just more of those amorphous nomadic arabs therefore didn't have a specific home or several thousand years of history there. Or well known food traditions in the area. Obviously one of the worst examples of racism trying to rewrite history. Sickening that that has been widely swallowed.

They're just Egyptians or Jordanians is a common narrative.

relatable

And manufactured by Boeing, which Blinken worked as a paid consultant for before becoming Secretary of State. It’s how he (and dozens of the other monsters now shaping U.S. foreign policy in the Biden White House) got rich. https://t.co/tu3gzotHVG

— ettingermentum🥥🌴 (@ettingermentum) May 29, 2024

relatable

― felicity, Wednesday, May 29, 2024 6:38 AM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

One would think this would bring some some moderation of Israeli policy, but no. This is the part of the tragedy of the situation the last 25 years that is especially disturbing to me.

I thought the 'argument' as to who the Palestinians were and why they didn't count was that they were just more of those amorphous nomadic arabs therefore didn't have a specific home or several thousand years of history there. Or well known food traditions in the area. Obviously one of the worst examples of racism trying to rewrite history. Sickening that that has been widely swallowed.

― Stevo, Wednesday, 29 May 2024 09:27 (two hours ago) link

Well I think it’s a little more complex than this, but you are right about the argument you are pushing against. I reject essentialist narratives about “the Palestinians” being “the indigenous people of Palestine” who have been there for thousands of years. “Palestinian” is a relatively modern national identity. It includes many people whose families have long established roots in the area, and it also includes Egyptians and Bosnians and Kurds and Syrians and other migrants who came later. Before the 20th C, people’s identities would have been more tied to their family, clan, and locale (eg Nablus) than “Palestine.” But that doesn’t render their identity or ties to the place less real or valid.

One would think this would bring some some moderation of Israeli policy, but no. This is the part of the tragedy of the situation the last 25 years that is especially disturbing to me.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Wednesday, May 29, 2024 4:32 AM bookmarkflaglink

Oh totally. Trying to understand how they arrived at that particular aspect of the tragedy, I read a pretty sobering tweet that kind of pushed back on the diaspora "Westsplaining" of the situation. I'll post it here, not because I agree with it (I don't have this person's lived experience, it's not for me to agree with them) but because it made me curious to understand why they thought that way.

I'll paste it here for those that don't have twitter:

This is not true, but it does hint at a deep truth.

Yes, the American Jewish lesson from the Holocaust is to double down on tolerance and liberalism for all, because American Jews believe they were saved from the 20th century by these features of America.

But Israeli Jews didn’t have that privilege. They couldn’t avoid the cataclysm by relying on the great kindnesses and strengths of America. No one saved the Jews who would become Israel. No one would even take them in after the genocide. So their lesson was the opposite of the American Jewish one. They became obsessed with self-reliance.

In the Israeli Jewish experience, the world is uncaring and hypocritical at best, viciously evil at worst, and it can move from one to the other at the drop of a hat. The only real safety available to a small people is whatever power it can wield in its own defense by its own exertions. Any western elite that claims otherwise knows it will never itself face the consequences of being wrong.

Before you moralize your way out of grappling with this point, dear westerners, here’s one way to show Israelis they’re wrong: Stop the Assads of the world, in realtime, when it matters; meaningfully protect the Uyghurs, even when it means bucking a superpower. Until you can actually do what it takes to bring safety to small and vulnerable peoples, the Israelis will be right and your great moral vocabularies will be no more than undeserved self-adulation.

The Israeli message to Palestinians, then, isn’t that “only Jews get to be safe” - it’s that Palestinians need their own Zionism because only self-reliance brings safety.

The world’s love and concern for them is a mirage, a western elite’s self-validating moral cartoon about itself, not a willingness to actually protect and sacrifice for Palestinians. The very fact that the world is invested in Palestinians more than in any other conflict or suffering population combined is a sign that its concern isn’t the actual suffering but rather western elite narrative-making. True morality and real law would swing into action for others too.

Or put another way, the whirlwind of moralism that is so often described as “anti-Israel” is actually, in the Israeli understanding of history, anti-Palestinian, a vast and cruel political trap Palestinians have not yet seen for what it is.

Palestinians cannot claw back some imagined idyllic Palestine of yesteryear anymore than Jews can reverse the erasure of the ancient communities of Poland or Iraq. The only path available to any of us is to build a new future on the solid foundation of endogenous strength.

The only salvation available to Palestinians will come by Palestinian hands, Palestinian strategy and wisdom, and internal Palestinian solidarity.

That’s the Israeli “claim,” such as it is, and not just for Palestinians. For all small peoples.

https://x.com/havivrettiggur/status/1791309935910756629

He gave an interview in which he presents a version of history describing the path to that tragedy you mentioned. I thought his separation of the Palestinian nationalist movement (which he supports) from the Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood Islamist movement tracks with what some others have said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvBm4Ua1dmI

I understand the urge for pacifism (who doesn't want peace?) and at the same time realize the limitations of my experiences. My mother lived through a brutal Japanese-Nazi occupation and attempted genocide and also watched the Chinese Red Army round up elites and shoot them in town squares. So not a big fan of authoritarian movements, no matter how well intentioned. I live in a country that can't solve school shootings or provide basic health care that has fallen capture to religious fundamentalists itself.