Genocide..

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday pushed back against claims that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, calling such accusations “false” after South Africa filed a case against Israel at the U.N.’s top court.

“I would like to say a word about South Africa’s false accusation that Israel is committing genocide. No, South Africa, it is not we who have come to perpetrate genocide, it is Hamas,”

 Netanyahu said during a Cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, according to an English translation reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Nearly 70% of Gaza's 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed. The bombing has damaged Byzantine churches and ancient mosques, factories and apartment buildings, shopping malls and luxury hotels, theaters and schools.

Well, with the world watching what Israel is doing in Gaza, what do you call that? 

Vigil..

 

A group of junior staffers in the Biden administration last week chose to hold a public vigil in front of the White House, protesting the administration’s approach to the Gaza war. Standing behind a sign reading “PRESIDENT BIDEN: YOUR STAFF DEMANDS A CEASEFIRE,” a spokesman read remarks demanding a “permanent cease-fire” and “an immediate de-escalation now.”

We respect the Constitutional right of these individuals and indeed all Americans to express their views. But  .....................

Increasingly recognizing the dangers of ideological monocultures, the White House and U.S. government departments and agencies have developed formal channels for internal dissent. These processes were strengthened significantly in the State Department in 1971, to accommodate very valid objections to the conduct of the Vietnam war. The expectation of these established procedures is that once views have been aired and considered, employees are expected to support whatever the president decides.  

Humanitarian..

 

The United States government’s credibility on democracy and the rule of law has always been shaky. By supporting Israel’s war crimes and the ongoing illegal settlements and the theft of Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank, U.S. credibility has dissolved completely. 

Yes, war crimes. Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have detailed war crimes, from the use of white phosphorous to the bombing of schools and hospitals. AI and HRW, along with the Israeli human-rights organization B’Tselem, had already documented Israel’s crimes of apartheid. 

Israel has murdered over 100 members of the United Nations staff in Gaza. And we are to believe the Israeli ambassador to the UN, who says that those staff members, too, are Hamas? Absurd and criminal. 

Bret Gustafson | Professor of Anthropology November 16, 2023

Border..

 

Blinded..

 

The war in the Gaza Strip is generating destruction comparable in scale to the most devastating urban warfare in the modern record.

By mid-December, Israel had dropped 29,000 bombs, munitions and shells on the strip. Nearly 70% of Gaza’s 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed. The bombing has damaged Byzantine churches and ancient mosques, factories and apartment buildings, shopping malls and luxury hotels, theaters and schools. Much of the water, electrical, communications and healthcare infrastructure that made Gaza function is beyond repair.

Most of the strip’s 36 hospitals are shut down, and only eight are accepting patients. Citrus trees, olive groves and greenhouses have been obliterated. More than two-thirds of its schools are damaged.

President Biden, all of sudden, is unable to see the destruction of schools, Hospitals, Places of worship and killing of innocent civilians, women, elderly and children. 

Plants..

 

Hammer..

 

Struggle..

 

Senator Susan Collins is developing legislation to compel the U.S. military to follow state-level red and yellow flag laws for service members.

The proposed law is a response to the 2023 attacks in Lewiston, Maine, carried out by a U.S. Army Reserve member.

The bill aims to ensure that military branches use state-level weapons restriction laws when they believe a service member poses a threat to themselves or others.
The legislation is intended to address instances where existing red and yellow flag laws were not utilized despite concerns about a service member’s behavior.

According to CNN, law enforcement was notified that the Maine shooter could “snap and commit a mass shooting” but they did not activate the yellow flag process.

We train ordinary young people, send them to the war we create time and time again, and upon return, they struggle with all these issues including suicidal tendency.  Just a thought.

Miss..

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), likened Israel's war against Hamas to the Holocaust on Wednesday and said that Israel will make you "miss Hitler."

On October 7, Hamas led the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history. Israel subsequently launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes on Gaza. Israeli officials have said that 1,200 people in Israel were killed in Hamas' attack, according to the Associated Press, while more than 21,100 Palestinians have been killed, officials from the health ministry in Gaza said.

Erdogan compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians to that of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's treatment of the Jews and other marginalized groups in the 1940s. The Nazi party and their collaborators killed about 6 million Jewish men, women and children, along with millions of non-Jewish people, during World War II.

Re-Routing..

 

President Xi Jinping’s to Vietnam, a rare 2023 trip outside his country, showcased how he isn’t standing idly by while Washington attempts to diminish China’s role in supply chains that end in American consumption. 

On the surface, US friend-shoring moves appear to be having an impact, with Chinese goods making up a diminishing share of American imports, direct investment in China on the wane and investment in other emerging markets soaring. 

A closer look also shows that Chinese exports to nations that are rising in the ranks of US import sources—like Mexico—are climbing. This suggests China is simply re-routing a chunk of its shipments. And back home, Xi’s government is doubling down on investing in high-value-added manufacturing to replace the lower-end production that’s shifting abroad. 

When Western capitals realize their friend-shoring project is being undermined, the risk is a new wave of protectionist backlash. Just a thought.