Monday, November 13, 2023
In bed by 10, up at 5:05, after several odd dreams, immediately forgotten, let Lilly out, 42°, high of 54°, sunny day ahead, wind WNW at 11 mph, 5-15/25, wc= 36°, Sunrise at 6:41, sunset at 4:29, 9+47.
Treadmill; pain. Woke up with some back pain but no CPP. On the treadmill at 7:45 20:11 0.52
Trump goes full Hitler on the campaign trail. At a Veterans Day rally in New Hampsihire: "In honor of our great veterans on Veterans Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Faschists, and the Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie, and steal, and cheat on elections and will do anything possible,they'll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and the American Dream. The real threat is not from the Radical Right; the real threat is from the Radical Left, and it's growing every day, every single day The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within." Trump campaign response to WaPo re comparing "vermin" rhetoric to Hitler: "Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and their entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.
Arwa Mahdawi wrote an opinion piece in The Guardian yesterday titled "Is it too much to ask people to view Palestinians as humans? Apparently so." The second sentence in it is "I do not want to ever hear Western democracies lecture the rest of the world on human rights ever again." Then this:
As I write this, more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza – almost half of them children. One child is being killed every 10 minutes in Gaza. Those numbers, it should be noted, only count the kids who are dying as a direct result of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing. The kids who were “lucky” enough to die instantaneously in an airstrike. And the not-so-“lucky” ones: innocent children buried under rubble, dying painful and protracted deaths as they are suffocated by the eviscerated remains of their home.
Those numbers don’t count the kids slowly dying of hunger and thirst. The kids getting sick from drinking sewage and sea water. They don’t count the kids with cancer who will not be able to get any care now that the Israeli siege has forced the only cancer hospital in Gaza to suspend operations. They don’t count the kids who are going to die from entirely avoidable diseases because hospitals in Gaza are ceasing to function. They don’t count the kids who are so traumatized from being born in an open-air prison, so scarred from having their neighbourhoods and loved ones eradicated in an apocalyptic act of collective punishment, that their lives have changed for ever. . . .
Those numbers certainly don’t count to the president of the United States. The empathizer-in-chief; the man who likes to make a big song and dance about what a decent guy he is. Joe Biden came right out and said: we don’t believe Palestinians about the death toll. It would be funny if it wasn’t so fucking horrific, so fucking insulting. I’m sorry … what does Biden think is happening, exactly? . . . Does he think the pictures of entire neighborhoods being wiped out are some sort of AI deepfake? . . . .
I will absolutely condemn Hamas but I ask that the absolute condemnation goes both ways. And it doesn’t, does it? People demand that Palestinians denounce violence while screaming that Israel has the right to defend itself at the top of their lungs. Israel has the right to defend itself, you see, but Palestinians do not. Everything that the IDF does has some sort of justification, explanation; violence by a Palestinian is never justifiable.
As for non-violent resistance? That’s not allowed either. The US has long been trying to criminalize the peaceful boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. Calls to boycott the 2019 Eurovision song contest, which was held in Tel Aviv, was described as an “weapon of division,” and demonized. Going on a pro-Palestinian march is smeared as antisemitic – the UK home secretary, Suella Braverman, branded them as “hate marches” – even if half the people marching are brave Jews in organisations like Jewish Voices for Peace. Not even children’s art is tolerated if those children are Palestinian. Earlier this year a London hospital took down artwork by Gaza schoolchildren after UK Lawyers for Israel said that “Jewish patients … feel vulnerable, harassed and victimised by this display.” Those children some people felt so harassed by? There is a good chance they are now all dead.
So what are we supposed to do, I ask you? What are Palestinians supposed to do? That’s a rhetorical question because the last three weeks have made the answer to this crystal clear: we are supposed to shut up and die.
Indeed, Israel is not even being coy about its intentions for Palestinians right now. Craig Mokhiber, a top United Nations human rights official who stepped down last week, wrote in his resignation letter that what is happening is “textbook genocide.” In an interview with Al Jazeera, Mokhiber noted: “Usually the most difficult part of proving genocide is intent, because there has to an intention to destroy in whole or in part a particular group. In this case, the intent by Israeli leaders has been so explicitly stated and publicly stated – by the prime minister, by the president, by senior cabinet ministers, by military leaders – that that is an easy case to make.”
Tell that to the US government. Tell that to the cowardly and hypocritical US press. Twenty years from now, when it is far too late for journalism to make any difference, someone will win a Pulitzer for telling the truth about this moment. They’ll be celebrated for unequivocally and unapologetically using the words that people are currently losing jobs or being targeted by hate campaigns for saying: occupation, genocide, ethnic cleansing. Only when every single Palestinian is dead or displaced will it be acceptable to treat us as human.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist
Mahdawi was interviewed by Scott Detrow on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday and said, in response to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's comment that the US doesn't want to see firefights in hospitals:
It's not enough for the U.S. to say we do not want to see. The U.S. can pick up the phone and tell Israel to stop this. This is being done with U.S. taxpayer money. The U.S. government isn't just allowing this to happen. It's actively cheering it on, and it could stop it at any moment. This is why so many of us are so incensed - because not only is this horror unfolding, we're all complicit because our taxpayer dollars are paying for this. . . .
DETROW: As you wrote about, as we have seen over and over again, we have seen many Palestinian leaders and advocates be pressed in interviews to publicly condemn Hamas. And in your piece, you offer that condemnation. But then you say, you, quote, "ask that the absolute condemnation goes both ways." Can you explain what you're asking for there?
MAHDAWI: You know, it's always Palestinians are asked to condemn, condemn, condemn violence. Meanwhile, I never hear Israeli commentators being asked to condemn the occupation, to condemn the killing of Palestinians. I mean, I think, you know, what frustrates me is that the media attention is only ever when Israelis get killed. Like, the violence did not start on October 7. And obviously, what happened on October 7 was horrific, and I will condemn that. But I do ask that the condemnation goes both ways, and it does not happen. I think that people talk about the conflict being complex, but human rights, human dignity - you know, that is not complex. Anyone who has been to the occupied territory, anyone who has seen how Palestinians have to live, will realize that that's not complex. That is unfair.
David Ignatius: A silent desperation on the slow march out of Gaza City "This war has produced deeply horrifying images: Israeli children assaulted in barbaric ways by Hamas terrorists; Palestinian children left to die under Israeli bombardment. It’s a war in which we’ve all looked into the abyss."
Psalm 137: 7-9 "GOD, remember those Edomites, and remember the ruin of Jerusalem, That day they yelled out, “Wreck it, smash it to bits!” And you, Babylonians—ravagers! A reward to whoever gets back at you for all you’ve done to us; Yes, a reward to the one who grabs your babies and smashes their heads on the rocks!"
Hosea 13:16 "Samaria will pay the penalty for her guilt, Because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword, Their children will be slaughtered, And their pregnant women will be ripped open.
The Siege of Berlin by Alphonse Daudet. My reading while waiting for my meeting with Melinda, my Health Coach. An old colonel in Napoleon's army, in his apartment overlooking the Arch de Triomphe, fooled by his doctor and his granddaughter into thinking the French army was laying siege to Berlin instead of the reality of the Prussian army entering into Paris in the Franco-Prussian War. On the day he believes the French troops will march foen the Champs Ulysses, he pulls himself out of bed, gets dressed in his old military uniform with his sword, and stands on his balcony to salute the returning victorious heroes. He sees instead the Purssians, shouts "To arms! To arms!", collapses and dies.
Another one bites the dust; and then there were four on the stage. Tim Scott is out. Who's next?
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