#jews blocking humanitarian aid

[pocoloco2018-blog]

https://x.com/ma000111/status/1753266871846019270?t=bLV9y5NEjC2CQ4PT9e-L2w&s=09

[heritageposts]

By Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory (2023)

[...] The problem in Israel isn’t solely Netanyahu. He’s the symptom of a major larger societal shift. Replacing him with another carbon copy will change little for the millions of Palestinians who live under a brutal military occupation. One possible successor, Benny Gantz, has spent his career proudly promoting the destruction he’s caused in Gaza in previous wars. [...] Back in 2019, I wrote for the Jewish Forward outlet in the US that anti-Palestinian racism was ubiquitous in Israel, undeniably exploding since 7 October, and Netanyahu had simply been a reflection of contemporary Israel.   A 2016 poll found that close to half of Jewish citizens wouldn’t live in the same apartment blocks as Arabs. Fast forward to early 2024 and 68 percent of Israeli Jews opposed facilitating humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to an Israeli Democracy Institute study. This is at a time when Palestinians in Gaza are starving to death due to Israel’s deliberate policy of withholding lifesaving aid into the besieged territory. As far back as a 2012 poll, a majority of Israeli Jews opposed voting rights for Arabs if the Jewish state annexed the West Bank, and one-third of Israelis wanted Arabs in Israel to be denied the right to vote. In other words, apartheid was the Israeli vision for Palestine.

. . . continues on MEE (1 Apr, 2024)

[tikkunolamresistance]

Local foreigner that has nothing to do with judaism or Jewish history pretends to be anything more than a person that happens to be of Jewish decent.

Instead of hurting your own people, open a f*cking book.

Tikun olam alek, mefageret.

“Hurting your own people” And the senseless murder of, the brutual occupation and the violence inflicted upon Palestinians whilst IOF soldiers, whilst wearing our symbols, cheer, laugh, mock and boast about the situation doesn’t hurt us? Magen Davids being carved into the flattened grounds of Palestinian homes, sprayed onto walls where families had been slaughtered, and Channukiahs placed in the middle of warzones? The Magen David paraded on a flag as people gather to dance and sing to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza through the border?

That doesn’t harm us, but the Jews that follow the Torah and know that we are in no place to inflict pain onto another (Exodus 22:20, 23:19) for it is the same pain we have once felt, are the ones causing our people the most harm? Oh because history will hate the Jews that stood up against injustice, certainly not the ones who helped perpetrate it. Give me a fucking break.

Oh and how lovely that you called us an ableist slur! You Zionists are all the same. Self-serving bigots who do not truly care for anything other than their own interests and delusion of grandeur. Your life has no value over anothers, none of us are above anybody, not G-d, not the Earth we walk on. To think you can speak down on Jews who stand against this inhumanity being committed in our name, and even more so, from the sweet haven of anon. Say it with your chest if you stand by this genocide so much. Make sure you let it be known for history that you enabled the genocide of millions.

Anti-Zionist Jews will continue to do the work that honours our ancestors, our people, G-d, and most importantly the people of Palestine. Your vitriol will not stop us from dismantling this.

[matan4il]

Every time I think I've seen it all, the current antisemitic protests against Israel teach me I was wrong. The people at the Columbia University encampment have finally been forced to stop breaking the law, physically blocking, vilifying and attacking Jewish students, but one of the last notes they went out on is worth highlighting IMO (besides committing vandalism instead of accepting the university admin's offer to invest more in Gazans should the illegal encampment dissolve itself peacefully).

As they barricaded themselves inside a building they had no right to take over, causing physical damage in the process, their spokeswoman demanded they be allow food and water inside. Her argument? That they paid for their meal plans. These are the same people who have been denying Jewish students access to their own campuses, libraries, classes, to the very education that these Jewish kids, who have broken no laws, have paid for, not to mention robbing them of their basic human right to safety and dignity as Jews... These same protesters were throwing a hissy fit, demanding humanitarian aid, as if they were disenfranchised people fighting to stay alive in the middle of a disaster beyond their means of dealing with, rather than adults who consciously chose to break the law, despite knowing such actions come with consequences.

How are these America's best and brightest?

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Bernie Sanders has hit back fiercely at Benjamin Netanyahu over the Israeli prime minister’s claim that US universities were being overrun by antisemitism on a scale comparable to the rise of Nazism in Germany.

In a video posted on X, the progressive senator from Vermont – who is Jewish – accused Netanyahu of “insult[ing] the intelligence of the American people” by using antisemitism to distract attention from the policies of his “extremist and racist government” in the military offensive in Gaza.

“No Mr Netanyahu, it is not antisemitic or pro-Hamas to point out that, in a little over six months, your extremist government has killed over 34,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 78,000, 70% of whom are women and children,” Sanders said.

The two-and-a-half minute video listed a catalogue of further consequences of the war in the Palestinian coastal territory, including the destruction of infrastructure, hospitals, universities and schools, along with the killing of more than 400 health workers.

Sanders, who sponsored an unsuccessful Senate bill in January to make US aid to Israel conditional on its observance of human rights and international law, said Netanyahu’s government had unreasonably blocked humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza, causing “thousands of children [to] face malnutrition and famine”.

In a blistering conclusion, he said: “Mr Netanyahu, antisemitism is a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to many millions of people. But please, do not insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal policies of your extremist and racist government. … It is not antisemitic to hold you accountable for your actions.”

Sanders’ comments were a riposte to a video posted on social media by Netanyahu in which he waded in to protests sweeping American university campuses and claimed not enough was being done to combat a “horrific” rise in antisemitism.

“Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities,” Netanyahu said. “They call for the annihilation of Israel. They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty. This is reminiscent of what happened in German universities in the 1930s. It has to be stopped. It has to be condemned and condemned unequivocally, but that’s not what happened. The response of several university presidents was shameful. Now fortunately, state, federal and local officials, many of them, have responded differently. But there has to be more.”

Netanyahu’s comments came against the backdrop of police deployments to break up pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University and numerous other US campuses. In some universities, faculty members have been arrested, including the chair of the philosophy department and a professor of English and Indigenous studies at Emory University in Atlanta.

Jewish students have reported feeling threatened by the protests and heated atmosphere that followed Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, resulting in the deaths of about 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of more than 200 others.

Videos posted on social media have depicted anti-Israel protesters shouting “go back to Poland” and “go back to Belarus”, apparently at Jewish students. A congressional hearing earlier in April into a reported upsurge of antisemitism at Columbia heard allegations that Jewish students had been subjected to taunts of “F the Jews”.

Last October’s attack triggered an overwhelming and continuing Israeli military response that has so far killed more than 34,000 Palestinians – according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza – and led to a burgeoning humanitarian disaster, accompanied by accusations that Israel is committing “genocide”.

In his video, Netanyahu said Israel was being “falsely accused” of genocide and called it part of an “antisemitic surge”.

“Israel tries to defend itself against genocidal terrorists who hide behind civilians,” he said. “Yet it is Israel that is falsely accused of genocide. Israel that is falsely accused of starvation and sundry war crimes. It’s all one big libel. But that’s not new. We’ve seen in history that antisemitic attacks were always preceded by vilification and slander.”

The Joe Biden White House, while resisting pressure to condition or limit weapon supplies to Israel, has voiced frustration over its resistance to allowing more humanitarian aid freely into Gaza and roundly criticised the recent strikes that killed seven workers from celebrity chef Jose Andres’s World Central Kitchen charity.

Protests on campuses across the US continued on Saturday, with some protesting student bodies and universities locked in a standoff that saw demonstrators vowing to keep their movements going at the same time as college authorities moved to close down the encampments.

Police in riot gear cleared protest tents on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston, while students shouted and jeered at them, the Associated Press reported. The university said the protest had been “infiltrated by professional organisers” with no connection to the institution, while some demonstrators had used antisemitic slurs.

The picture of campus antisemitism run amok was lent further credence by Lawrence Summers, a former Harvard president and ex-US treasury secretary, who accused authorities at his former university of failing to act decisively against protesters occupying Harvard Yard.

“This is the predictable culmination of the Harvard Corporation’s failure to effectively address issues of prejudice and breakdowns of order on our campus,” he posted on X. “There can be no question that Harvard is practicing an ongoing double standard on discrimination between racism, misogyny and antisemitism.”

His comments provoked a sharp response from critics of Israel. “Your efforts to portray student demonstrators challenging Israel’s genocidal actions as ‘antisemitic’ are cheap & disingenuous,” wrote Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). “These students should be commended for their courage & compassion, risking suspension & smears (like yours), to fight the most heinous crimes underway in Gaza.”

[crimeronan]

guys. okay. rubs my temples.

i have blacklisted every word u can Possibly think of to block posts i do not want to see and somehow keep seeing them. so Please know that this is not a shit-starting post. hence why it's unrebloggable. because i legitimately just want to communicate to people in my immediate sphere.

it is... Not Acceptable Or Appropriate... to make/reblog posts referring to a collective of "jews" or "jewish people" in response to israel's genocide of palestine.

what i mean by this are posts along the lines of "what jews don't realize is-" "i wish american jews knew-" "can't wait to watch jewish bloggers come up with the worst takes imaginable-" etc etc etc.

it is similarly Not Acceptable Or Appropriate to refer to rabbis, synagogues, jewish practice, and other aspects of judaism/jewish culture as a monolithic hivemind that's loyal to israel. this includes "you're all being brainwashed by your rabbis/synagogues" "synagogues are zionist institutions" "stop speaking hebrew until your people stop committing war crimes" etc etc etc.

your kneejerk reaction (if u are a leftist goy) will likely be along the lines of: but it's simply like referring to a collective of british people or american people wrt imperialism, colonialism, and war crimes. you don't mean LITERALLY all jews, just like you don't mean literally all brits or americans.

this is unfortunately a false equivalence because of the antisemitic history and violence behind the idea of Monolithic Jews and Dual Loyalties. there is a quick overview of some of The Problems here; jewish scholarship and discussion of this is incredibly broad and varied... because jewish people are incredibly broad and varied.

like i'm fucking begging. you have Got to knock it off. i was gonna say something snide about how it's telling that i'm seeing a lot more posts About The Jews than about the fundamentalist christians who fanatically support israel's right-wing fascist govt, but like.... god i don't care i don't care i don't want to be writing this. It Just Sucks.

That's It. It Just Sucks

while i'm here, since i don't plan to talk about this anymore unless i have important resources to share: ACTUAL helpful things you can do are to keep an eye on the news and communicate with your own governments. for americans (just bc i am american) -- the biden administration has pledged to work with israel to allow humanitarian aid into gaza. it's important that the public pressure for that to happen continues & that the documentation of what's happening in palestine continues.

the more you guys turn your issue into an issue with "the jews" or "jewish people," the more time we're going to waste explaining why this is not acceptable or appropriate. which is frustrating because there is shit out there that Matters A Whole Lot Fucking More Right Now.

so keep talking about what matters. and please please PLEASE think for two seconds before you make any posts referencing jewish people.

[mariacallous]

(JTA) — As we mark the grim second anniversary of the Ukraine conflict this Shabbat, I’m reminded of a haunting melody I heard in the city of Poltava last month.

I was standing before Sonia Bunina, a plucky 17-year-old, when she opened her mouth to sing when an air raid siren rang out.

I flinched. Not Sonia — she didn’t miss a beat.

“Kol haolam kulo gesher t’zar meod, veha’ikar lo lifached k’lal,” she belted out before seeking shelter. “The whole world is a very narrow bridge, and the most important thing is to have no fear at all.”

Sonia, like so many Jews I know in Ukraine, is many things — determined, grieving, focused — but she’s certainly not cowering.

As she sang those words by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov — the Ukrainian Jewish sage whose followers continue to come by the tens of thousands to his grave in Uman annually — she embodied the prayer’s indomitable spirit.

Sonia and I met outside Poltava’s Hesed, part of the network of Jewish humanitarian hubs founded by my organization — the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, or JDC — more than three decades ago. Today they’re a lifeline to tens of thousands of Jews facing loss and strife. Since she was a toddler, Sonia has been attending activities at Hesed — her mother coordinates cultural programs for the elderly, and she connects teen volunteers like herself with isolated seniors, a critical source of comfort these last two years.

These days, traveling to Ukraine feels like a pilgrimage — there’s a pull in my soul to visit family near Lviv, to bear witness to Ukrainian Jewish resilience, and to be inspired by the clarity of purpose that is so palpable there. Since my first trip in 2011, I’ve been eight times. Last year, I wrote about how a year of crisis had transformed the ordinary into the sacred in Ukraine. Now, visiting feels even more essential with the worsening humanitarian situation.

Ukrainian Jews aren’t blasé about these challenges — far from it. Just take the delicate ballet of emotions on their faces when checking their phones during an air alert — contacting loved ones, scrolling through photos of devastation, and analyzing Telegram chats speculating on a given rocket’s make and trajectory.

But life goes on — there’s work to do — and though they’ve lost so much, they refuse to give any more away.

Showing up for each other, whatever it takes, is now baked into their very essence as Jews, and in Ukraine, there are tens of thousands to serve — hungry old women and displaced young families, disabled Holocaust survivors and stunned middle-aged professionals, shocked to now need help when they were once donors and volunteers.

They act fearlessly to ensure their communities make it through this crisis, body and soul intact. Can we expect anything less than boundless creativity from the people who birthed Sholem Aleichem and the Baal Shem Tov?

“These bombings, all these things that are killing people, destroying houses, leaving children homeless … it’s very scary,” Galina Limarenko, an 82-year-old retired nurse, told me in her small bedroom in Berezivka, taking note of the warm blanket, firewood, and other winter supplies my colleagues provided. “Thank God for the Jewish community, which never gives up and always shares even their very last piece of bread.”

I saw that irrepressible spirit again at our Beit Dan JCC in battered Kharkiv — a shapeshifting wellspring of strength just a few dozen kilometers from the eastern border. Shortly after Feb. 24, 2022, the center became a staging ground for truckloads of emergency aid — part of the 800 tons of humanitarian assistance we’ve delivered so far.

A few blocks from missile strikes, it now hosts children’s camps and soulful Shabbat services and operates a “kids hub,” offering academic enrichment to children who haven’t had in-person school for years — robbed of normal childhood by the pandemic and now the ongoing crisis.

And amidst blizzards and blackouts, Beit Dan has also become a “warm hub,” a safe place for beleaguered Jewish Kharkivites to charge their devices and obtain a hot drink and warm meal.

“If you share in our pain, and provide support where it’s needed, I’m forever grateful,” said Nika Simonova, Beit Dan’s program director. “The ability to remain human is the main thing. Done right, I believe that can save the world.”

That’s why we at JDC, aided by a coalition of partners including the Jewish Federations, Claims Conference, and International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, deployed a historic response to this conflict and remain committed to the Jewish future here.

We’re focused on ongoing humanitarian support for more than 41,000 Ukrainian Jews, expanding trauma relief, closing children’s educational gaps, and getting unemployed Jewish community members, among millions of Ukrainians plunged into poverty, back to work.

There is no doubt that the Jewish world is now responding to crises on multiple fronts, including this one, but we have been here so many times before. We must draw strength from our history and from the sure knowledge that this is what we’re built for. Our compassion and commitment, when leveraged with that timeless sense of mutual Jewish responsibility, means we can tackle the challenges we face — and come out on the other side even stronger.

As I walked through Lviv on my last day in Ukraine, I asked my cousin Anna Saprun, a 25-year-old business analyst, how this period has changed her.

“I hate what’s brought me here, but I love who I’ve become,” she said with a fierce and feisty smile. “Nothing scares me anymore. I feel powerful.”

Two years after the conflict began, Ukraine’s Jews are inspired anew each day, resolute in the sure knowledge that they know exactly who they’re working for — each other.

[palestinegenocide]

Biden is ‘pristine’ on Israel, says megadonor Haim Saban

We’ve reached the point where Everything that Joe Biden and his mouthpieces say about the Gaza war is a lie.

They say that they deplore civilian deaths in Gaza, and yet they send more money for Israeli munitions and block any effort to hold Israel back, “casting international humanitarian law to the winds.” And when they are pressed about this, Biden’s surrogate Nancy Pelosi says that no American arms have gone to kill Palestinian civilians.

They say that Israel has a strategy to defeat Hamas. It has no strategy. (Even the liberal Zionists admit.) It has only rage and anguish, at the highest level.

They say that this war has given hope to the two-state solution. This is the talking point from Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Chris Coons, Martin Indyk, Tom Friedman, J Street and the State Department. But Netanyahu is dead set against a Palestinian state.

So they say that the problem is Netanyahu – he’s the “pinchpoint,” Senator Coons says — but the Israeli Knesset voted overwhelmingly this week to oppose a Palestinian state.

They say that Biden has argued with Netanyahu about the embarrassing fact that Israel is wantonly killing 10s of thousands of Palestinian civilians. But there is actually No diversity in Israeli leadership over collective punishment, smashing Gaza to bits and mass murder and ethnic cleansing. Over 2/3 of Jewish Israelis oppose humanitarian aid to Gaza.

The State Department and Tom Friedman declare we are just trying to keep alive the dream of normalizing Israel with Arab autocracies so as to spread peace through the bad neighborhood of the Middle East. But Saudi Arabia says it won’t dream of such a thing till Palestinians have sovereignty. And everyone knows that a chief cause of the horrific Hamas attacks on Israeli families in their homes was that the international community was taking Palestinians for granted.

It’s all lies, because Biden knows that the truth will just hurt him. All of America, even evangelicals, are for a ceasefire. Michigan progressives are deserting Biden. The rage is “unprecedented,” even the NY Times says. “The chorus of voices from foreign capitals has grown thunderous in recent days… “

Biden and his friends tell these lies for a simple reason that I talk about to the point of boredom (because so few talk about it). He needs the Israel lobby on his side, way more than he thinks he needs Michigan progressives.

This week Biden had a fundraiser in L.A. co-hosted by Haim Saban – whose only issue is Israel – and a vice-chairman of the ADL— which says that to oppose Zionism makes you an antisemite. Ticket prices, $3,000 to $250,000.

And as Saban told TheWrap, Biden is “pristine” on Israel in these “dire times.”

He’s paying a political price… There’s never been a president as supportive in facts, not only in words, of Israel… [M]ost specifically, in these dire times for Israel, he’s been pristine.

Without the U.S., Israel would be fighting with “sticks and stones.”

These lines from the leading Democratic donor should have been on our airwaves and leading papers. But no, this is a scandal in plain sight because it would just feed the claim that pro-Israel Jews have outsize political influence in the U.S., which everyone knows anyway. And by the way, a PR firm with close links to the White House is an attack dog against journalists who say a kind word about Palestinians.

Biden is pristine because the American Jewish community and Israel are deluded about Israel.

They believe Israel is a robust democracy. No, it is a robust apartheid state– all the human rights organizations affirm– a Jewish supremacist state in which Palestinians have second-class and no-class rights– an order that Palestinians will reject, by any means.

So today Israel perpetrates a likely genocide against those people, killing nearly 30,000 Palestinians, most of them trapped civilians.

And Biden is pristine in his support of this slaughter because he needs political backing in the U.S.

Back in 2015, Obama said that only Israel in all the world was against the Iran deal and it would be an “abrogation” of his constitutional duty if he went with Israel.

Today all the world but Israel wants the slaughter to end, and Biden is abrogating his constitutional duty so as to be pristine in support of Israel.

The difference between Obama and Biden is that Obama was in his second term and could take a stand against the tail wagging the dog. Biden is in his first and cannot. So he and everyone around him just lies.

Thanks for reading,

[hero-israel]

Okay but why is Gaza surrounded by a heavily military guarded wall? What is the justification for basically segregation or worst case a concentration camp? (I only feel comfortable calling it that because I’ve seen Jewish people do so) What is the justification for turning off electricity, stopping food import, turning off the water and stopping fuel import and cutting off humanitarian aid. What’s the justification for dropping 6000+ bombs in one week? Is it all to get to Hamas? It’s fucked that 2.2 million people half of which are under 18 must suffer for the actions of others.

Before you try to find the right comparator term for Gaza, make sure that you are seeing it the way it actually is - not the way the minders attached to every cameraman want you to see it.

Blocking fuel makes sense - Hamas leaders need it for ventilation in their tunnels, without it they can't maintain large populations underground. Water, food, aid, etc. have all been turned back on.

Having a hard barrier between two nations that aren't on good terms (3 in this case, because Egypt) likewise makes sense.

But it didn't used to be this way. The wall went up in 1994. Before then, even all the way through the First Intifada, there was minimal border control and people could drive more or less unhindered from Gaza through Israel into the West Bank. Israel hardened the border in response to the terror attacks that (successfully) aimed at neutralizing the Oslo Accords. Israel totally evacuated in August 2005, with just the barrier wall but none of the other measures we see today. When Hamas took control in June 2007 (thanks to some despicable interference by George W. Bush, second worst president ever), refused to renounce their charter goal of total Jewish genocide, and began firing missiles, Israel then locked in the naval blockade and the degree of intense control that we see to this day.

Time and time again, Jewish people take steps to make it harder to kill them - and the people trying to kill them complain that now their lives are made harder. All of this could have been negotiated away.

I could not swear in court that I believed all the strikes and bombings by Israel right now are militarily justifiable. I am accustomed to them blowing up legitimate military targets, blowing up missile launchers that are in civilian areas, with all the casualties that comes along with that. But the current leadership has thrown away all trust and confidence. There have been multiple reports from high-placed U.S. authorities within the Israeli press (as in, leaked by Americans to Israeli journalists with the full knowledge it would go public) that "you don't have a plan and should slow down."

It is, indeed, fucked. And it is a perfect example of the damages of colonialism, albeit not in the way people usually mean the word. If this were a 1:1 contest between Israel and Palestine, it would have had a peaceful-ish, manageable-ish resolution worked out by now. But enough people in the world keep colonizing the issue with their insistence that Jews must be killed by any means, and enough others with their drive towards special magic prophecies that depend on Jews living here or there, that each side is incentivized away from a diplomatic deal. It is MUCH MORE the Palestinian side incentivized away from that, but this is me being polite.

[girlactionfigure]

🟤 Fri morning - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

✡️ Erev (before) Shabbat - Parshat Kedoshim - Leviticus 19:1-20:27 - “You shall be holy, for I, the L‑rd your G‑d, am holy” followed by dozens of mitzvot (commandments) through which a Jew sanctifies him/herself and relates to the holiness of G‑d.  These include: prohibition against idolatry, charity, equality before the law, Shabbat, intimate morality, honesty in business, honor one’s parents, and the sacredness of life.

💩U.S. ARMS - THE JUSTIFICATION PHASE.. 

.. US State Department: We think that the Rafah operation will weaken Israel's position in the negotiations for the deal and its position in the world.  

.. The White House stated the United States provided Israel with alternatives for action against Hamas, and that Biden directed his team to continue working to inflict a "lasting defeat" on Hamas. (( Israel tried the U.S. suggestion, but was unable to convince the unicorns to enter the tunnels. ))

▪️LAG B’OMER IN MERON - CANCELLED.. due to the security situation and attacks by Hezbollah, Lag b’Omer celebrations by the Tomb of Rashbi are fully cancelled. 

▪️WEEKEND PRO-DEAL PROTESTS.. in Tel Aviv, much smaller than last week.  Still thousands, loud, fires (this time flares).  As has become the practice, the protestors also broke out of their protest zone and blocked and lit fires in additional areas.

▪️EUROVISION.. is a big cultural deal for Israel.  Israel’s contestant, Eden Golan, has made the finals!

▪️THE AID PIER STILL HELD UP.. CNN: many weather delays - the US humanitarian wharf for Gaza suffers from challenges regarding the manpower to operate it. Britain changed its mind and withdrew from a plan to station armed soldiers in Gaza to unload aid due to security concerns.

🔸DEAL ACTIVITY..  Egypt calls on the delegations of Hamas and Israel, which left Cairo, to "show flexibility" in the negotiations.

.. CNN: In talks in Cairo, Hamas demanded that Israel agree in advance to a ceasefire and a pause of 12 weeks, not 6 weeks.

⚠️NORTH TO GET HOTTER.. Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper, close to Hezbollah: Iran gave an order to Hezbollah to step up against Israel, even at the cost of starting an all-out war.

��️IDF ATTACKS.. IDF: during the last day the Air Force attacked and destroyed about 40 terrorist targets throughout Gaza including: military buildings, observation posts, terrorist squads and other military infrastructure.

♦️EAST RAFAH.. In east Rafah, troops located tunnel shafts, while the Armored Brigade killed gunmen in close-quarters combat and by calling in airstrikes in the area of the Rafah Crossing with Egypt.

♦️GAZANS EVACUATE.. Gazans: large numbers leaving Rafah, much more than what is reported on Al-Jazeera.  Gazans also leaving Rafah from areas not yet warned by the IDF, with the understanding that the operation would advance.

⭕ IRAQI THREAT FROM SYRIA.. the Iraqi Najabaa movement (a pro-Iranian Shiite militia) published that it will respond strongly to the Israeli attack this morning on its building in the Sayyidah Zaynab area in southern Damascus (Syria).

⭕ ANTI-TANK MISSILES.. fired into Israel, miss but started fires near Maayan Baruch.

⭕ HAMAS ROCKETS.. at Sufa, Holit.  It appears they have only short range from Rafah in recent attacks.

▪️BRAZIL CANCELS WEAPONS ORDER.. with Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit, because Israel bad.

▪️UNRWA: We decided to close our offices in East Jerusalem after Israelis set fire to the compound twice.

[notaplaceofhonour]

It’s very telling that Jews satirizing the antisemitism they’re received can literally just repeat the actual specific things that have been said to them—word-to-word with no exaggeration—while Anti-Zionists trying to satirize the supposed weaponization of antisemitism have to reach for ridiculously hyperbolic & fictitious situations like this.

There is nowhere in this world where a sweet little child is sitting innocently with her dear papa, asking with pleading eyes, “why, oh why, papa, are people starving in Gaza?” where the father must gaze mournfully into his child’s eyes and stamp out her curiosity with a “oh, how I wish I could tell you, but alas, to tell the truth would be antisemitic!” There are, however, an upsetting amount of people who literally believe that a cabal of Jews is manipulating the world to allow them to genocide and replace goyim with Jews—no need for exaggeration—and who will ask leading & loaded questions, not out of genuine curiosity and desire for discovery, but as a rhetorical device to lead people to the desired conclusion.

The framing this cartoon employs is so ubiquitous in conspiracy theories & bad faith arguments it has a name: “Just Asking Questions™️”

And it’s a tactic Jews are all-too-familiar with, due to antisemites packaging their antisemitism as “the Jewish Question”.

It isn’t antisemitic to actually try to understand the causes of a humanitarian crisis, and I have never seen a single person ever say it is. But sure, if you ask leading, loaded, and dishonest questions about a humanitarian crisis that implies it’s a conspiracy by a cabal or single political actor who’s pulling the strings to make it happen, or a plot out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or Jews replacing other populations like you’d see in a shooter’s manifesto or shouted at a Nazi rally, then yeah, those things are going to get called antisemitic, because they are.

So let’s ask that question: why are people in Gaza starving? Well, there are a lot of reasons that stack and compound each other. To begin with, it isn’t uncommon for war to displace people and destroy infrastructure, both of which impact food production and distribution. In fact, it was found that conflict and violence are the primary causes of hunger and famine around the world even before this war. The fact that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure as their bases and Israel deems the destruction of that infrastructure as an acceptable loss in rooting out Hamas hasn’t helped. On top of that, bandits robbing aid before it can reach hungry people—as well as Hamas having a penchant for doing the same and using aid to smuggle and hide weapons—has presented a lot of challenges to delivering aid. Because of these security issues, Israel blocked aid completely at the beginning of the war. However, Israel has been working with other countries to deliver aid in ways that will address those issues, and has since allowed aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel, the Rafah crossing from Egypt, and air drops. Nevertheless, these haven’t been efficient enough to fully address starvation.

In short: war often causes food insecurity, and the specifics of the logistical, geographic, and geopolitical issues in Israel & Palestine have created a lot of complications that exacerbate that humanitarian crisis, leaving the people of Gaza caught in the middle and starving.

See? Not antisemitic. It’s not that hard.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

47 Northwestern faculty

October 27, 2023

This letter is in response to the “Open letter on NU leaders’ responses to war in Palestine and Israel” published in the Oct.16 edition of The Daily.

The Oct.16 letter gave the impression that the reasons civilians were killed by Hamas and by the Israel Defense Forces were the same, but whereas Hamas murdered civilians intentionally, the IDF were defending their citizens and homeland. The original 1988 Hamas charter (Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement) and guidelines to mosque preachers from the Palestinian Authority last week — according to Palestinian Media Watch and Jihad Watch — specifically state that Hamas’ mission is the annihilation of Jews and the complete destruction of Israel and the establishment of a theocratic state based on Islamic law. While Hamas amended its charter in 2017 to remove explicit mention of annihilation of Jews, we believe that mission is still intrinsic to their movement.

In 2005, Israel withdrew all soldiers and civilians from Gaza to reduce friction and enhance security. Two years later, Hamas violently overthrew the Palestinian Authority and took over the territory. Since then, terrorists have fired over tens of thousands of rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians, according to the Associated Press. This has led to multiple wars, and both Israel and Egypt needed to maintain a blockade to prevent weapons smuggling into Gaza.

On Oct. 7 Hamas members intentionally slaughtered and eviscerated civilian men, women and children — as their 1988 charter and directives to preachers demand — and they raped women, according to the IDF. In the Oct. 16 open letter, the authors say the number of rockets Israel dropped in the first week of the war exceeded how many rockets terrorists had dropped, as if it was disproportionate. Based on a rule of proportionality, which is irrelevant in war, the IDF would be justified in committing as many horrific acts against Gazans as Hamas has against Israeli citizens. This is absurd.

The IDF has said it does everything possible to avoid killing Palestinian civilians, such as forewarning civilians to move out of a particular area by dropping leaflets, putting messages on social media and making phone calls. Yet, a significant number of Palestinian civilians are still killed. Why? The Washington Post has reported Hamas hides and fires its munitions in civilian areas, including hospitals, schools and homes, and uses civilians as human shields. Because of this, the IDF has diverted missiles. The IDF has also said Hamas is responsible for blocking civilians from traveling south to what the IDF said would be a safe zone.

The open letter’s depiction of “the blockade and humanitarian stranglehold on the Gaza strip since 2007” by Israel ignores the IDF’s assertion that a blockade is necessary to prevent terrorists from entering, which occurred prior to the blockade. The blockade is a way for Israel to protect its citizens from harm.

Gaza gets hundreds of millions of dollars each year for humanitarian purposes, but much of this money does not reach the civilian population, the Wall Street Journal reported. Hamas uses it for military purposes, which contributes to poverty among civilians. Hamas was named the third richest terror group in the world by Forbes Magazine in 2018. International aid “was designed to be humanitarian in nature, but money is fungible, and that also allows Hamas to divert money from providing for its people to support the war machine,” Alex Zerden, a former senior U.S. Treasury national security official, said in the Wall Street Journal. If Hamas had used this money to build infrastructure and support businesses, Gaza would be in a much better position.

Although we grieve for the loss of all innocent lives, the loss of life is on the bloodied hands of Hamas. There are not two sides to barbaric behavior. Hamas is displaying unimaginable evil that is unacceptable in any civilized society, and there is no justification for pure evil.

Richard B. Silverman, Departments of Chemistry, Molecular Biosciences, and Pharmacology Morton O. Schapiro, President Emeritus, Northwestern University Henry Bienen, President Emeritus, Northwestern University David N. Seidman, Department of Materials Science and Engineering James A Sauls, Department of Physics and Astronomy Philip Greenland, Department of Preventive Medicine Harris Perlman, Department of Medicine Raymond Glassenberg MD Department of Anesthesiology Jonathan B Ida, Department of Otolaryngology Richard J. Miller, Department of Pharmacology Michael R. Wasielewski, Department of Chemistry Rose Shoshanah Seidman, Selector and Cataloguer J. Samuel Tenenbaum, Pritzker School of Law Thomas Meade, Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences Brian M. Hoffman, Department of Chemistry Lewis J. Smith, Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Tobin J. Marks, Department of Chemistry Tamar Seideman, Department of Chemistry Ben Z. Katz, Department of Pediatrics Oren Lakser, Department of Pediatrics Mercouri G Kanatzidis, Department of Chemistry Julio M. Ottino, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering George C. Schatz, Department of Chemistry Lee P. Shulman, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology P. Hande Ozdinler, Department of Neurology Neil J. Stone, Department of Cardiology Kenneth Poeppelmeier, Department of Chemistry Chad A. Mirkin, Department of Chemistry Joseph L. Schofer, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Joel Shalowitz, Department of Preventive Medicine Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, Department of History William Klein, Department of Neurobiology Milan Mrksich, Department of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering Gary Saul Morson, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures Mark C. Hersam, Department of Materials Science and Engineering Elie Rekhess, Visiting Professor, Department of History Samuel I. Stupp, Department of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering William P. Halperin, Department of Physics and Astronomy Efraim Benmelech, Kellogg School of Management Joel Mokyr, Department of Economics and History Igor Jerome Koralnik, Department of Neurology Eddie Dekel, Department of Economics Martin Eichenbaum, Department of Economics William A. Muller, Department of Pathology Lauren S. Wakschlag, Department of Medical Social Sciences Irwin Benuck, Department of Pediatrics Benayahu Elbaz-Eilon, Department of Neurology

[workersolidarity]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚨

ZIONIST COLONIAL SETTLERS BLOCK THE ENTRANCE OF HUMANITARIAN AID INTO THE GAZA STRIP

📹 Scenes from the racist, Zionist colonial settlers blocking the transfer of aid into the Gaza Strip with the backing of the Israeli occupation army.

"The best way to end the war is to transfer them to Europe," an "Israeli" settler tells The Grayzone News.

"I don't think another million and a half refugees will make any difference for the Europeans," he added.

For once we agree!

Sending the Eastern and Central European colonists back to Europe would make little difference for the Europeans.

And so we propose sending these European colonial settlers back where they came from.

To leave the native Palestinian population alone, and, along with the smaller populations of Arab Jews and Christians, to form a single, secular Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Yes, plain and simple, we call for an end to the colonial ethno-apartheid-state of "Israel".

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Israel has published intel retrieved on Dec 18 from Hamas headquarters in Gaza, on how Hamas was using a network of fake Facebook profiles, pretending to be Israelis living abroad, and looking to hire Israeli Jews to make deliveries for them. First, they were meant to be innocent deliveries, in order to "groom" the Israelis for the moment when they will unknowingly be helping Hamas to deliver explosives. This was carried out by, among others, terrorists released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit hostage exchange deal (where Israel exchanged 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for the release of one captured Israeli soldier), who had a better knowledge of Hebrew and of Israeli due to their time in Israeli prisons. The terrorists released in the Gilad Shalit deal include Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers in Gaza have reached a cemetery for British soldiers who died there during WWI. The Brits usually buried their soldiers where they died. Among the British soldiers who fought and died in Gaza during that war were Jewish ones, too. I've seen people using the good state of their graves to claim that in Gaza, they are very respectful of Judaism itself, that it's evidenced by how they treat Jewish graves well, and it's only Zionists they have an issue with. What they leave out is that this cemetery was so well preserved because it's NOT a Jewish one, it's British. I found a pic where you can specifically see the grave of a Christian soldier, with a cross on the tombstone, buried next to the grave of a Jewish man, with a Star of David engraved. In comparison with this British cemetery, we can talk about the ancient Jewish synagogue in Gaza, that was appropriated and turned into a mosque (that they then used for terrorist activity, leading to its destruction in this war), or the modern synagogues left behind by Israel when it withdrew from Gaza in 2005, which were burned down by the Palestinians.

For several days now, protesters have been headed down south to where aid trucks pass from Israel to Gaza, in an attempt to block them. I wanna emphasize that they are NOT looking to deprive civilian Gazans of aid, they are just saying that humanitarian aid should be given in exchange for humanitarian aid making it to the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. On different days, the protesters have been sometimes more successful, sometimes less, but what's clear is that Israel is doing its best not to allow this, arresting protesters, and temporarily declaring the roads leading to the Gaza crossings as closed military areas.

In Sweden, a suspicious object was found next to the Israeli embassy, meaning they fear it was an attempted bombing. In an interview, the Israeli ambassador said that the staff is sure that's what it was, that the Swedish police is handling it, and they have no further information. The Israeli embassy in Sweden has recently been a target for Hamas' terrorists in Europe.

If you're interested, Reuters has uploaded the House Hearing on the future of US support of UNRWA. You can watch the whole thing here:

Sweden is now the 18th financier suspending their funding of UNRWA. In Germany, there are voices calling for the dismantling of it completely. I'm gonna attach a piece about that in Hebrew, but the Germans being interviewed are speaking in English, so it shouldn't be a problem to understand them. The first speaker is Uwe Becker, an amazing ally to Jews, who has been in charge of fighting antisemitism in the German state of Hessen, the rest belong to the democratic liberal party FDP, which is a part of the coalition.

Meanwhile, Norway, Ireland, Spain, Denmark and Belgium are continuing their funding to UNRWA, despite its ties to Palestinian terrorist organizations. Let it be remembered that Norway, Ireland, Spain, Denmark and Belgium have no issue with their money going to antisemitism and anti-Jewish terrorism.

The amount of pics and vids coming out of Gaza, showing weapons and rockets being hidden inside UNRWA schools, facilities and bags is insane, so I kinda stopped repeating myself with them at some point, but here's another one, fresh from today, explosives and mines found inside a bag with the UNRWA logo.

It only took several decades of people in the music industry knowing Roger Waters is an antisemite, and several very long years of the public starting to see it as well, for Waters to be fired by his music company, BMG. People are now connecting the news to an interview he gave back in November, in which he of course accused Jews for his firing.

This is 24 years old Ran Gevili.

On Oct 7, he was at a hospital, awaiting surgery. When he heard the news, he didn't hesitate and left for the area attacked by Hamas terrorists to help. At 10:50 in the morning, he sent his friends a message on WhatsApp that he's been shot twice in the leg. He was thought to be kidnapped, but today it's been confirmed that he had been murdered that day by Hamas, and his body is being held hostage in Gaza. May his memory be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[that-rad-jewish-girl]

Do you know anything about claims that Israel just blocked the 3 biggest organizations preventing famine in Gaza—UNWRA, ANERA and World Central Kitchen? Saw a friend share it online and it seemed pretty dumb and far-fetched, but I know you’re way more versed on what’s actually going on than myself, and also know most news outlets in Canada (where I am) are bent towards Gaza/against the Jewish People

Hello! Thank you for this ask. This is a lot, so bear with me.

Israel is not “blocking” these organizations - though there was a recent incident with World Central Kitchen (WCK). Very recently a WCK aid truck was hit by a military strike which resulted in 7 deaths. Israel did take full responsibility and accountability is underway. They’ve started with the firing of several top military officials responsible for the bad call. I imagine more is to come on this - possibly legal accountability as well. WCK is an unbiased third party to this war, so this is extremely tragic for all involved. They work to provide food for individuals affected by any type of conflict or disaster - they do amazing work.

UNWRA and ANERA are a separate story. To be clear, Israel is still not “blocking” these two organizations. Though Israel has stopped funding both organizations.

ANERA has been under scrutiny multiple times in the past for misusage of donation funds. They essentially gave a lot of money to Hamas and used their charity donations to help build terrorist centers in Gaza. They’ve admitted to donating funds to the Gazan fund for martyrs and their families (i.e. terrorists who attempted to kill or did kill Israelis). ANERA has also made several claims that Israel is responsible for ALL of the humanitarian suffering in the region. Even during the second intifada, ANERA was refusing to admit Palestinian involvement in terrorism and was actively funding terrorism. The second intifada saw parents strapping bombs to their children, sending them into Israel, and blowing up random civilian areas. The borders between Israel and Gaza were not anything like today before the second intifada. This is largely why people say if Palestinians cared about their children more than they care about killing Jews, the wars would end.

UNWRA has been repeatedly exposed for helping terrorism in the region. It is run by Hamas. Their schools openly teach children to become “martyrs for the cause”, and you can see videos of UNWRA school teachers chanting with their students “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be Arab”. Many of the hostages released and/or rescued from Gaza have said they were transported and held hostage by UNWRA associates. Several UNWRA teachers were seen in videos participating in Oct. 7th. After Oct. 7th, the UNWRA schools announced a day off to honor martyrs. Several UNWRA staffers posted on their socials about honoring the terrorists, celebrating the “great October massacre”, and Allah being great for allowing the massacre to happen.

Since you are from Canada, I’ll add in here that there are several Canadians families suing your government right now over the funding of UNRWA. Although Canada suspended their funding for UNWRA after their involvement in the 7th came out, they have recently resumed it. Several Canadian families of Canadian hostages held in Gaza still have come together to sue the Canadian government for funding terrorism. Funding the same orgs that participated in the murder, kidnapping, and rape of Canadians, as well as several other nationalities.

[shizuumi151]

Hala Alyan, Oct 25, 2023

Apologists for the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians will be blocked

Those that hurl accusations my way of anti-semitism by virtue of my advocating for the safety and liberation of Palestinians from Israel's apartheid state, choking Palestinians of their basic necessities and humanitarian aid, and subjecting them continual bombardment and heinous war crimes will be blocked

Those who conflate any criticism on Israel's genocidal actions with a criticism on Judaism and Jews will be blocked

🇵🇸 FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸