"Pundits are predicting disaster for Joe Biden because his unfavourability ratings are increasing in response to his steadfast support for Israel." Pundits write a lot of silly stuff because they have to crank out columns and grab attention. Biden challenges them because he just goes about doing his job without making many stupid mistakes. Instead of recognizing and applauding that, which would run counter to the herd mentality, they seize whatever straw is handy and go with it. Pundits, like pollsters and consultants, are a distraction rather than a contribution to our political system and are best ignored in the interest of sanity.
Happy Halloween. Mike Johnson is going as a Speaker of the House. I'm betting that the party and his costume are gone by Thanksgiving.
What is interesting is the Biden Administration keeps delivering and executing across multiple fronts and demographics and the Republicans keep tripping over themselves and you would think people would notice. My belief is they do. The alternative is frightening
I'm firmly convinced that people notice, and that they'll vote what they see. I also don't think that most people respond to random phone calls which is what a pollster would look like on caller ID.
My guess is that this 2023 election will give us some insights and inspiration. In particular, I have good feelings about the abortion vote in Ohio even as the Republicans have aggressively lied and distorted the information.
I hope so too, because the alternative is unacceptable, even if we end up having to endure it.
I think you're quite right about the underlying motive for GOP behavior, and I'm hoping that, at some point, maybe after a couple more sanctions or a conviction, rationality will invade the minds of at least a dozen or so of the more vulnerable Republicans and they'll decide in favor of self-preservation instead of immolation.
Agree. I think most people just hang up on these phone calls or launch into verbal tirades. I also think it has gotten WAY too dangerous to canvas neighborhoods. Too many guns and bad attitudes out there.
But people who reply are a self-selecting, skewed group. We should largely ignore polls, especially after 2022. They distract and deflate. Things are not as close as they look in polls on issues or with Biden. The people are more aligned with Democratic values and policies. There are more of us than Them. The problem is how power is proportioned via the "wisdom of the Founders". There is outsourced power for small states and a minority of White Christian patriarchal, misogynist, racist, homophobe theocrats. These people may be over-represented in polls. How can one know? Media organizations benefit from things looking hotly contested. I say - - be very skeptical.
I'm not sure that believe is quite right, hopeful gut feeling is closer. I do think though that it's in keeping with the mess that we've had in the last month and wouldn't be out of place.
We also need to note when keeping track of events in Gaza that the Kach krazies - the American fundamentalists in the West Bank - have killed 100 Palestinians and are running an ethnic cleansing campaign in the West Bank - 80% of Palestinian herder communities have had their livestock killed by these theocratic fascists, and they are out attacking Palestinian villages every night - supported by IDF units that either stand aside while they commit their atrocities or actively participate. They are supported by Interior Minister Gvir - a terrorist in charge of the police! - who is now passing out heavy weapons to them. These actions have increased since October 7, since the world's attention is on Gaza.
Fortunately conventional wisdom right now in Israel is that as soon as this is over, that whole group will get theirs. The thinking is that it is hard enough to defend the actual borders of the state without these guys playing out some Cowboys and Indians fantasy the IDF and Shin Bet are constantly needing to save them from.
Sadly, TC, I have to give your you a “like.” Not sad ‘cause it’s you, but because what you say is true, and it makes me ashamed of my fellow Jews. Netanyahu and his co-conspirators must be brought down, and Israel must chart a course toward a lasting peace with Palestinians, even as it works to eliminate the Hamas virus. Just as sad, my fragmentary knowledge of Israeli politics does not give much cause for hope.
I feel the same way, Jon. I've always thought of Judaism - from the Jews I have been privileged to know and be friends with - as the one religion that has a purpose in this life of teaching people to live in integrity. That the people whose history is littered with events like these shattering their own communities are the perpetrators of this stuff is really discouraging. Fundamentalism fucks up everything.
Just as Christian fundamentalism screws up what goodness there is in Christianity. As my mother used to say, “Jesus is looking down at these people and spinning in his grave.” She was a devout Catholic.
In 2007 Christine Amanpour presented a 3 night special on CNN, “God’s Warriors.” There were some negative reviews of the show but it seemed to me a courageous effort to highlight fundamentalists from different religious affiliations including the Jewish Fundamentalists. Here’s a link:
"I know that some readers will respond that the cause of the war is not limited to the terrorist attack on October 7." What was distinctive about the October 7 attack is that Hamas demonstrated how they behave when they are victorious. They committed atrocity after atrocity. While they did create terror about their future behavior, they committed war crimes for which they should be tried and convicted. Hamas exhibits no shame for the events on October 7. Instead, Hamas exhibits exultation.
We know nothing about what the Gazan Palestinians have gone through in the 56 YEARS Israel has run their concentration camp. The rampant poverty, hopelessness, and insecurity that the Gazans suffer everyday is beyond, MAY BEYOND anything I can even imagine. Put me and most other Americans in that camp for 56 years, give us automatic rifles and we might do something similar to what Hamas did. Hamas didn't come from nowhere; it was manufactured, lock, stock, and barrel, from Israeli government policies.
Joe Biden has been a wonderful President and Senator. He has navigated the turbulent tides of Washington fabulously but now he has made a second glaring mistake. He has given Netanyahu carte blanche to destroy Hamas while he should have known that the slimy Netanyahu would use this ethnic cleansing of Gaza as a ticket to return to the good graces of the Israeli population. Biden should have never promised the first dollar of US aid until he saw solid progress in humanely solving the problem of the Palestinians. Sending aircraft carrier groups and US Marines to the area only compounded his error. At present he is still light-years ahead of the garbage the other side will present but he again proved that he is human.
I'm not sure I agree that what Hamas displays as anti-Semitism is the same anti-Semitism as was behind the Holocaust. European anti-Semitism was a Christian response to a long line of myths involving stereotypes of greed, of "Christ-killers" and the accompanying blood libels, of (in latter days) the world-controlling Cabal of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was not particularly territorial. Jews weren't expelled from Spain or England because someone coveted their lands, because most of them didn't HAVE lands to begin with. In fact, Jews were treated better by the Ottomans and earlier caliphates than they ever were in Europe.
Had the allies of WWI, victorious against the Ottoman Empire, decided to settle some OTHER group--say the Armenians--in Palestine, the territorial upset would have been as much hated by the Arab Nations as settling Jews there.--and we might have seen a terrorist attack on them. The same would have been true had the settlement been of Shia in Sunni "homeland" or vice versa.
Hamas is playing on European style-antisemitism, but the root issue is territory. For both sides, the cry is "This land is my land, NOT your land." None of this means that (Lord, how often does one have to say it) that anyone should condone or support Hamas's means OR its territorial rhetoric used to justify it. Or that people in the US who misguidedly DO praise Hamas out of a tendency to love the underdog are necessarily anti- Semitic. The problem is terrorism and its use of long-standing stereotypes to support its agenda. Again, we see this use in Shia vs Sunni, in Hindu vs Muslim, back in the day of Catholics vs Protestants, and today in Evangelical Christian vs secular multiculturalism.
There certainly has been a recent rise in the openness of native-grown Anti-Semitism in the US, in rhetoric and action--and that native growth arises in large part from the European tradition and its myths. There is also a strong anti-Muslim sentiment in rhetoric and action. Both of these rises antedate the events of Oct 7. Basically, too many people here have been given permission by trump and others to hate Others--that much is only too obvious.
The history of the region is in fact key to understanding this difference between territorial dispute, with a difference in religion thrown in, and a campaign based on abhorrent tradition without even territory as an excuse.
Hi, Susan. Thanks for taking the time to explain the different origins in the Nazi and Hamas versions of antisemitism. Considering Hamas's territorial imperative may be necessary when attempting to craft a post-war peace, but for Jews around the world worried that Hamas and its sympathizers are using the Nazi playbook, there is substantial grounds for that concern. I recommend readers to an article in The Atlantic (which may be behind a paywall) entitled, "Understanding Hamas’s Genocidal Ideology." See https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/
The article compares the 1998 and 2017 "charters" issued by Hamas. It quotes the 1998 charter at length, which I excerpt below. The language used in the 1998 charter could have been written by Hitler, even though the aim of the 1998 charter is the destruction of Israel rather than the purification of the "Aryan" race. Here is a quote from Hamas's 1998 charter, as provided in The Atlantic article above. (Note, the "they" in the passage below refers to "Jewish people.")
"They strived to amass great and substantive material wealth which they devoted to the realization of their dream. With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there."
"You may speak as much as you want about regional and world wars. They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it."
"The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion. It does not refrain from resorting to all methods, using all evil and contemptible ways to achieve its end. It relies greatly in its infiltration and espionage operations on the secret organizations it gave rise to, such as the Freemasons, The Rotary and Lions clubs, and other sabotage groups. All these organizations, whether secret or open, work in the interest of Zionism and according to its instructions. They aim at undermining societies, destroying values, corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and annihilating Islam. It is behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds so as to facilitate its control and expansion."
Of course they are using the Nazi playbook. Any terrorist worth his salt would, whether or not the target were Jews or some other feared people. Freemasons? Rotary? The kitchen sink?
Does anyone actually think that the aim of the Hamas massacre was to destroy Israel by military attack? They know their limits, militarily. The POINT of terrorism is to spread, well, terror. European grown Anti-Semitism is a useful tool to that end--it sends millions into quaking deja vu. Hamas is RELYING on that. One way to spread terror is to provoke overreaction such that the attacked country, whether us or Israel or someplace like Sweden takes measures that promote the victim side of the terrorist cause
Too many people have a vision--probably from movies--of terrorists as a ravening bunch of psychopathic and irrational monsters. The planning behind October 7 gainsays that utterly. Hamas is perfectly capable, perhaps with the tutoring of Iran, of playing the long con--of convincing "the world" that Israel is the actual aggressor. (The "world" in case anyone hasn't noticed, is a lot bigger than Western civilization and attitudes). Quite apart from the plight of Gazan civilians, actions going on in the West Bank right now by the Israeli far right does nothing but do some of that convincing for them.
That is the same long con started by the 9/11 terrorists with a too successful world reaction to our own over reaction. Invading another country, killing its civilians, to make the "world safe for democracy" makes too many people mistrustful of democracy.
By simply spouting labels, rather than asking WHY these tools are being used, we do nothing but slow down understanding of what the best course of action is. We underestimate the sophistication of terrorism at our peril.
My beloved Palestinian teacher from 55 long years ago -- with whom I still keep in touch -- responded to two girls at my Lutheran boarding school, when they said, "Miss Ghawi, I'm antisemitic" (expecting praise), were taken aback when Katy surprised them by saying, "Too bad! I'm semitic, too!"
There is much truth in what you say, but Hamas is playing on that age-old anti-Semitism, which is not limited to Christianity. Ironically, even as pro-Palestinian mobs scream against Jews in this country, Jews and Muslims are in the same boat so far as “traditional” anti-Semites are concerned, and not for the first time. Jews and Muslims here should join hands, and in the Middle East, Israelis and Palestinians should recognize that what unites them is more than what divides them, and join hands as well.
of course it is playing on that. It's using all the tools it can, since its war is at root a propaganda one. I'm not trying to say there is no anti-Semitism going on in the Middle East. I'm just trying to point out that it has different origins from that which produced the Holocaust. "Whadd'about the Holocaust" is no more an excuse for indiscriminate killing of civilians than "Whadd'about" the blockade. Emphasis on indiscriminate.
This difference in origins HAS to be considered by the Israeli government--and other governments on either side--or there can never be peace.
Please be aware of Replacement Theology. Christians believe they have the new convenant because Jews did not accept Jesus as the Messiah. Muslims believe that Abraham's son Ismael is the correct heir to Abraham, not Isaac. They believe the Quran is a correction of the Torah. Thus, Islam is the replacement theology of Christians, and by default Judaism. It is just not territorial. This is direct from the Iman who built the Mosque at Ground Zero.
I never tried to argue it was "just" territorial. I am saying it has a territorial ROOT that wasn't present in European/Western anti-Semitism and that needs to be addressed along with the religious differences. And if you don't consider the roots of a problem any solution will not last.
This conversation just reinforces my very strong belief that religion is THE biggest source of hate and destruction on the planet. And, always will be.
I agree. When it is combined with actual "nationalism" about whose land is whose, it becomes even more deadly. We are seeing this right here, right now.
As I noted originally, back in the very back day, Muslims and Jews actually coexisted pretty amicably in the Muslim dominated parts of the world. ALL other religions were "second class citizens" without the all the rights Muslims themselves had (we won't get into women here!) but they were still given a certain autonomy. Islam was way more tolerant in general than Christianity was in the same era.
I'm not sure it is simply religion that is the problem. It is fundamentalism, and the attitude of "only I am right and everyone has to fall in line" that causes the problem. When that attitude gains power, or even prominence, things start to get much, much worse. Again, we are seeing this right here, right now. It isn't confined to the 141 square miles of Gaza.
Put a lion, lamb, tiger, sheep, dog, and rabbit in a cage and as long as you feed them all they will live in peace. Do the same with a Christian, Jew, Muslim, and Hindu and before long they will resort to killing each other to see whose god is stronger. Twain helped cure me of religion. I'm forever thankful for that.
How many voters do you really think know that the Republicans in the House tried to tie funding to supporting Israel around defunding the IRS and not providing funding to Ukraine.? How many voters know and appreciate the fact that President Biden who stood on a picket line with members of the UAW have received significant increases in benefits and wages that the Biden Administration supported. Do you think these same autoworkers would be happy if they knew that defunding the IRS means many top 1% of the richest tax payers will not pay their fair share of taxes. How many voters realize that only legislators whom-truly care about their well being are Democrats. The answer is not enough voters know what is being accomplished for them everyday in many ways. We need to make sure we let them know what has been delivered by this administration vs. the unfulfilled promises of the Republicans
This is unfortunately true. We have to use every opportunity to nicely tell the facts to those who aren't paying attention, perhaps because they are overwhelmed or listening to/watching/reading sources which are not reliable. However, I believe that when the time comes, there will be no choice for most reasonable people but to vote for Democracy and a functioning government. I am not including the MAGA Republicans in this group! or other Republicans who will just vote Republican out of habit!
Mike Johnson is a Christo-fascist, and I am hoping that he does not get anything done. I am terrified to think of him in place two in the line of succession. I wish Biden and Harris continued good health, more than I have been conscious of doing so before.
I have said that Trump's best defense would be that his lawyers would declare him incompetent to stand trial either because of mental illness or perhaps because of dementia. It has seemed more and more apparent that he should be checked for that, if he has not been already.
I am currently in Berlin and visited an exhibit at the House of Cultures of the World (HKW) called, "As Though We Hid the Sun in a Sea of Stories: Fragments for a Geopolitics of North Eurasia." A docent discussed the first piece I saw, a mesmerizing film, as being an intersection of myth, anthropology and introspection. My interpretation of it, which was then heightened by other pieces we saw was that it was a psychic cry for healing from the wounds of occupation. Who occupied these countries? Well, Russia as it formed the Soviet Union. From a Buryatian young women singing almost crying and shouting a song that was a mixture of her disappearing language knowledge of her own Buryat language mixed with Russian to pieces on the Holodomor that were powerful and painful to view, it made one think about the psychic pain that occupation causes an indigenous peoples. So, when I read this morning about the Dagestani rampage against the plane from Israel, I saw it in a context of having seen this exhibit, read about Native genocide and seen the recent Killers of the Flower Moon, read many articles in Meduza about the psychic pain and the radicalization of many of the Caucasus youth in countries that were formerly Muslim as they reclaimed their Islamic heritage after the end of the Soviet Union. It is a painful transition. Not only have I read stories of young women who are gay, and being disowned if they do not enter forced marriages and deny their sexuality, but also the embrace of ISIS of youth who are rebelling from the Soviet imposition of atheism as an attempt to reclaim their cultural identity. There are gaps in knowledge that cannot be regained either, which if filled, might lead to a different outcome. So, I would see this as anti-semitism that is actually being pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel. I don't think it is about the Jewish religion so much, as the idea that their fellow Muslims are being eradicated, and they are smarting from the attempts to do this to their own cultures by the Russians.
Netanyahu's leadership is not helping Jews around the world to live safer lives. There are 15.3 million Jews with around 7 million in Israel, and 5-6 million in the USA. The rest are spread around the world. There are 2 billion Muslims in the world. There is a lot of corruption and poverty in the Muslim world and it has not helped the people. This has led to a lot of radicalized youth, who see themselves as having nothing to lose when they join groups such as ISIS. Again, it is a search for identity that gives them a sense of agency.
I would say the Ukrainians are struggling for the same thing. A need to piece together lost identity that helps them with the psychic misery of the long occupation by Russia. It is different to be an immigrant than an occupied people. Immigrants often know where they come from and what their culture home is. They can blend in as much as they need to to get along, but can hold onto their home culture. Occupied people do not have the same choices when the occupying culture determines their lives. It is important to understand that one effect of the bombing of the Palestinians now will be the radicalizing of some of the youth in the Muslim world. We need to have diplomats in the region trying to calm things down. Sane Americans need to be turning on the Republicans responsible for not allowing military and diplomatic appointments to go through, as well as the aid that is needed. A much bigger deal should be made. We cannot take care of ourselves or be a good ally without getting these appointments through and getting our budgets passed. Bravo to the IRS for making inroads on the billionaires who are acting like enemies of the state. I am glad some of the press is discussing how awful Mike Johnson really is, but I don't think most people can process it, because Trump has worn them down. Thank you for pointing out resources to fund people who can make a difference in the next election.
Joe Biden was a child, during the heart of World War II, and in the uncertainty of the early Cold War. Mike Johnson was born as the VietNam War was grinding to a halt and knew only relative peace, for the first twenty-nine years of his life. Their experiences inform their perspectives-and Biden's is the perspective most closely tied to our present reality as a species.
Reading Judd Legum's post about Johnson is enlightening, disconcerting, and head-smacking. "The bill would grant every "preborn human person" equal rights under the 14th Amendment from "the moment of fertilization." But every postborn human person doesn't get those equal rights? And the duplicity of the corporate donors is sickening; they're not putting their money where their mouth is - perhaps another orifice?
"Joe Biden is our oldest president, as everyone keeps saying, but he’s also—despite and possibly because of his age—an unusually forward-looking president." Looking seven generations forward!
A friend of mine said she was turning off the news/commentary because it was so hard to see all the dead children in Israel/Gaza. This made me think of Emmett Till and how his mother insisted on an open casket to show what had been done to him when he was tortured and lynched by several white guys. It started a movement toward justice and civil rights. Wish we could have the same thing with gun safety and have parents willing of children gunned down like at Uvalde show their children's bodies for all to understand the horror. Children so mutilated that it took DNA evidence to identify them. Would that finally get gun safety laws and an assault weapons ban through Congress! When are we going to realize that the founding fathers were thinking of the responsible use of guns with the words "Well-regulated" in the 2nd amendment. Gun ownership and gun safety should go hand in hand. Why shouldn't the gun manufacturers be held liable for the unsafe use of their guns? Then just like car ownership insurance would be required. Everyone can own and drive a car but they have to use it safely. Time for a movement against gun violence. We, the People, all of us this time!
Robert, it's grosser than what you said. Tying international aid to curry campaign donations from the richest 1% is gross. Especially when it is beyond doubt that spending money to support IRS audits pays for itself 3-4 times over. No - - what gets me riled up is that Mike Johnson's first move is to cut the IRS to save his cheating billionaire donor class a few bucks that they actually owe for the privilege of living in our country and enjoying its manifest benefits. GROSS.
What I love about President Biden is that he does his job without watching his polls. He is grounded and masterful, a true statesman and patriot. He is comfortable in his own skin and experienced. I have a thought, off topic, (I apologize) - of the PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES. We know they are a farce; a ludicrous show of memorized paragraphs and, as we saw with he who remains nameless, hovering over Hillary Clinton (where Anderson Cooper remained silent as Clinton was harassed.) and his showing up with Biden having tested positive for COVID. From the press, we will get endless blather, all with serious expressions, with the inevitable 'who one' question. A solution would be to have each candidate interviewed ALONE with no audience to distract and recorded. The interviews would then be shown in prime time side by side. That would be useful and informative.
I know. I positively itched for Hilary to simultaneously step back and throw her arms out widely as if gesticulating during an expressive moment in her response, thus smacking the creep soundly... she could then "apologize" with "but why were you standing so close up behind me in my personal space?". Most women know the maneuver - that, or a firm backwards stomp when creep breath raises the hairs on their neck...
Okay now, scuttling back from the off-topic brrr... but that was viscerally disgusting and an obvious physical bullying to which he would never have subjected a male.
This bears repeating: IMHO, Biden is (however inadvertently) channeling Jesse Jackson.
Let me explain: near the end of his ill-fated bid for the Presidency, Jackson spoke at a news conference (here, I paraphrase);
If I walked on water tonight, tomorrow's tabloid headlines would read "Jesse Jackson can't swim".
Biden has exactly that sort of clarity about himself.
So true. We need to change this.
For sure!!
"Pundits are predicting disaster for Joe Biden because his unfavourability ratings are increasing in response to his steadfast support for Israel." Pundits write a lot of silly stuff because they have to crank out columns and grab attention. Biden challenges them because he just goes about doing his job without making many stupid mistakes. Instead of recognizing and applauding that, which would run counter to the herd mentality, they seize whatever straw is handy and go with it. Pundits, like pollsters and consultants, are a distraction rather than a contribution to our political system and are best ignored in the interest of sanity.
Happy Halloween. Mike Johnson is going as a Speaker of the House. I'm betting that the party and his costume are gone by Thanksgiving.
(;<{) "Mike Johnson is going as a Speaker of the House."
What is interesting is the Biden Administration keeps delivering and executing across multiple fronts and demographics and the Republicans keep tripping over themselves and you would think people would notice. My belief is they do. The alternative is frightening
I'm firmly convinced that people notice, and that they'll vote what they see. I also don't think that most people respond to random phone calls which is what a pollster would look like on caller ID.
My guess is that this 2023 election will give us some insights and inspiration. In particular, I have good feelings about the abortion vote in Ohio even as the Republicans have aggressively lied and distorted the information.
I'm betting that most people are also not responding to "polls" received via text because they are always thinly disguised attempts at soliciting $.
Sure hope our right. I think the R’s are behind this to prop up Trump
I hope so too, because the alternative is unacceptable, even if we end up having to endure it.
I think you're quite right about the underlying motive for GOP behavior, and I'm hoping that, at some point, maybe after a couple more sanctions or a conviction, rationality will invade the minds of at least a dozen or so of the more vulnerable Republicans and they'll decide in favor of self-preservation instead of immolation.
Agree. I think most people just hang up on these phone calls or launch into verbal tirades. I also think it has gotten WAY too dangerous to canvas neighborhoods. Too many guns and bad attitudes out there.
Unfortunately, you're quite correct. Even Trick or Treating has gotten dangerous.
But people who reply are a self-selecting, skewed group. We should largely ignore polls, especially after 2022. They distract and deflate. Things are not as close as they look in polls on issues or with Biden. The people are more aligned with Democratic values and policies. There are more of us than Them. The problem is how power is proportioned via the "wisdom of the Founders". There is outsourced power for small states and a minority of White Christian patriarchal, misogynist, racist, homophobe theocrats. These people may be over-represented in polls. How can one know? Media organizations benefit from things looking hotly contested. I say - - be very skeptical.
Let's hope so, Stephen!
Teri Kanefield just began an interesting series regarding just this. This is part 1 of 3 done thus far, links for the remaining sections follow each post. https://terikanefield.com/can-democracy-work-in-america-part-1-there-are-no-yankees-here/
Thanks Tracy. It's an interesting premise, and will be equally interesting to see how Ms. Kanefield develops it.
This is a great comment. May your guess come true!! Then Thanksgiving will be that much more enjoyable.
If only! Why do you believe this?
I'm not sure that believe is quite right, hopeful gut feeling is closer. I do think though that it's in keeping with the mess that we've had in the last month and wouldn't be out of place.
Makes sense. Fingers crossed! ALL of them!
We also need to note when keeping track of events in Gaza that the Kach krazies - the American fundamentalists in the West Bank - have killed 100 Palestinians and are running an ethnic cleansing campaign in the West Bank - 80% of Palestinian herder communities have had their livestock killed by these theocratic fascists, and they are out attacking Palestinian villages every night - supported by IDF units that either stand aside while they commit their atrocities or actively participate. They are supported by Interior Minister Gvir - a terrorist in charge of the police! - who is now passing out heavy weapons to them. These actions have increased since October 7, since the world's attention is on Gaza.
Hi, TC. A reader below asked for sources on this story. The issue has become so urgent that President Biden condemned the attacks by the "extremist [Israeli] settlers," saying that "they are pouring gasoline onto the fire." He also said, "It has to stop. They have to be held accountable. It has to stop now." See https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/biden-condemns-retaliatory-attacks-by-israeli-settlers-against-palestinians-in-the-west-bank
Fortunately conventional wisdom right now in Israel is that as soon as this is over, that whole group will get theirs. The thinking is that it is hard enough to defend the actual borders of the state without these guys playing out some Cowboys and Indians fantasy the IDF and Shin Bet are constantly needing to save them from.
Plus, it seems that the Saudis today indicated that they are still open to the OG deal that Hamas tried to squelch: https://www.axios.com/2023/10/31/saudi-megadeal-normalization-israel-biden# [Barak Ravid is worth following. He is an Israeli reporter who knows things well before anyone else does. Like this, from yesterday, also a hopeful sign: https://www.axios.com/2023/10/30/hamas-gaza-hostages-mossad-barnea-war-israel ]
And part of any deal with the Saudis will be the pulling back of most of the settlements.
Sadly, TC, I have to give your you a “like.” Not sad ‘cause it’s you, but because what you say is true, and it makes me ashamed of my fellow Jews. Netanyahu and his co-conspirators must be brought down, and Israel must chart a course toward a lasting peace with Palestinians, even as it works to eliminate the Hamas virus. Just as sad, my fragmentary knowledge of Israeli politics does not give much cause for hope.
I feel the same way, Jon. I've always thought of Judaism - from the Jews I have been privileged to know and be friends with - as the one religion that has a purpose in this life of teaching people to live in integrity. That the people whose history is littered with events like these shattering their own communities are the perpetrators of this stuff is really discouraging. Fundamentalism fucks up everything.
Wow! You got it right TC, “Fundamentalism fucks up everything!”
Just as Christian fundamentalism screws up what goodness there is in Christianity. As my mother used to say, “Jesus is looking down at these people and spinning in his grave.” She was a devout Catholic.
In 2007 Christine Amanpour presented a 3 night special on CNN, “God’s Warriors.” There were some negative reviews of the show but it seemed to me a courageous effort to highlight fundamentalists from different religious affiliations including the Jewish Fundamentalists. Here’s a link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/arts/television/21warr.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Fundamentalism fucks up everything. Truer words were never spoken.
Yes, and as we now see, decades of insidious, determined border encroachment by the settlers has systematically undermined the peaceful order.
I know nothing of what you mention. Please give me your source(s).
"I know that some readers will respond that the cause of the war is not limited to the terrorist attack on October 7." What was distinctive about the October 7 attack is that Hamas demonstrated how they behave when they are victorious. They committed atrocity after atrocity. While they did create terror about their future behavior, they committed war crimes for which they should be tried and convicted. Hamas exhibits no shame for the events on October 7. Instead, Hamas exhibits exultation.
Their exultation is an atrocity.
Similar to Republicans on J6th
We know nothing about what the Gazan Palestinians have gone through in the 56 YEARS Israel has run their concentration camp. The rampant poverty, hopelessness, and insecurity that the Gazans suffer everyday is beyond, MAY BEYOND anything I can even imagine. Put me and most other Americans in that camp for 56 years, give us automatic rifles and we might do something similar to what Hamas did. Hamas didn't come from nowhere; it was manufactured, lock, stock, and barrel, from Israeli government policies.
Joe Biden has been a wonderful President and Senator. He has navigated the turbulent tides of Washington fabulously but now he has made a second glaring mistake. He has given Netanyahu carte blanche to destroy Hamas while he should have known that the slimy Netanyahu would use this ethnic cleansing of Gaza as a ticket to return to the good graces of the Israeli population. Biden should have never promised the first dollar of US aid until he saw solid progress in humanely solving the problem of the Palestinians. Sending aircraft carrier groups and US Marines to the area only compounded his error. At present he is still light-years ahead of the garbage the other side will present but he again proved that he is human.
I'm not sure I agree that what Hamas displays as anti-Semitism is the same anti-Semitism as was behind the Holocaust. European anti-Semitism was a Christian response to a long line of myths involving stereotypes of greed, of "Christ-killers" and the accompanying blood libels, of (in latter days) the world-controlling Cabal of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was not particularly territorial. Jews weren't expelled from Spain or England because someone coveted their lands, because most of them didn't HAVE lands to begin with. In fact, Jews were treated better by the Ottomans and earlier caliphates than they ever were in Europe.
Had the allies of WWI, victorious against the Ottoman Empire, decided to settle some OTHER group--say the Armenians--in Palestine, the territorial upset would have been as much hated by the Arab Nations as settling Jews there.--and we might have seen a terrorist attack on them. The same would have been true had the settlement been of Shia in Sunni "homeland" or vice versa.
Hamas is playing on European style-antisemitism, but the root issue is territory. For both sides, the cry is "This land is my land, NOT your land." None of this means that (Lord, how often does one have to say it) that anyone should condone or support Hamas's means OR its territorial rhetoric used to justify it. Or that people in the US who misguidedly DO praise Hamas out of a tendency to love the underdog are necessarily anti- Semitic. The problem is terrorism and its use of long-standing stereotypes to support its agenda. Again, we see this use in Shia vs Sunni, in Hindu vs Muslim, back in the day of Catholics vs Protestants, and today in Evangelical Christian vs secular multiculturalism.
There certainly has been a recent rise in the openness of native-grown Anti-Semitism in the US, in rhetoric and action--and that native growth arises in large part from the European tradition and its myths. There is also a strong anti-Muslim sentiment in rhetoric and action. Both of these rises antedate the events of Oct 7. Basically, too many people here have been given permission by trump and others to hate Others--that much is only too obvious.
The history of the region is in fact key to understanding this difference between territorial dispute, with a difference in religion thrown in, and a campaign based on abhorrent tradition without even territory as an excuse.
Hi, Susan. Thanks for taking the time to explain the different origins in the Nazi and Hamas versions of antisemitism. Considering Hamas's territorial imperative may be necessary when attempting to craft a post-war peace, but for Jews around the world worried that Hamas and its sympathizers are using the Nazi playbook, there is substantial grounds for that concern. I recommend readers to an article in The Atlantic (which may be behind a paywall) entitled, "Understanding Hamas’s Genocidal Ideology." See https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/
The article compares the 1998 and 2017 "charters" issued by Hamas. It quotes the 1998 charter at length, which I excerpt below. The language used in the 1998 charter could have been written by Hitler, even though the aim of the 1998 charter is the destruction of Israel rather than the purification of the "Aryan" race. Here is a quote from Hamas's 1998 charter, as provided in The Atlantic article above. (Note, the "they" in the passage below refers to "Jewish people.")
"They strived to amass great and substantive material wealth which they devoted to the realization of their dream. With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there."
"You may speak as much as you want about regional and world wars. They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it."
"The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion. It does not refrain from resorting to all methods, using all evil and contemptible ways to achieve its end. It relies greatly in its infiltration and espionage operations on the secret organizations it gave rise to, such as the Freemasons, The Rotary and Lions clubs, and other sabotage groups. All these organizations, whether secret or open, work in the interest of Zionism and according to its instructions. They aim at undermining societies, destroying values, corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and annihilating Islam. It is behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds so as to facilitate its control and expansion."
Of course they are using the Nazi playbook. Any terrorist worth his salt would, whether or not the target were Jews or some other feared people. Freemasons? Rotary? The kitchen sink?
Does anyone actually think that the aim of the Hamas massacre was to destroy Israel by military attack? They know their limits, militarily. The POINT of terrorism is to spread, well, terror. European grown Anti-Semitism is a useful tool to that end--it sends millions into quaking deja vu. Hamas is RELYING on that. One way to spread terror is to provoke overreaction such that the attacked country, whether us or Israel or someplace like Sweden takes measures that promote the victim side of the terrorist cause
Too many people have a vision--probably from movies--of terrorists as a ravening bunch of psychopathic and irrational monsters. The planning behind October 7 gainsays that utterly. Hamas is perfectly capable, perhaps with the tutoring of Iran, of playing the long con--of convincing "the world" that Israel is the actual aggressor. (The "world" in case anyone hasn't noticed, is a lot bigger than Western civilization and attitudes). Quite apart from the plight of Gazan civilians, actions going on in the West Bank right now by the Israeli far right does nothing but do some of that convincing for them.
That is the same long con started by the 9/11 terrorists with a too successful world reaction to our own over reaction. Invading another country, killing its civilians, to make the "world safe for democracy" makes too many people mistrustful of democracy.
By simply spouting labels, rather than asking WHY these tools are being used, we do nothing but slow down understanding of what the best course of action is. We underestimate the sophistication of terrorism at our peril.
My beloved Palestinian teacher from 55 long years ago -- with whom I still keep in touch -- responded to two girls at my Lutheran boarding school, when they said, "Miss Ghawi, I'm antisemitic" (expecting praise), were taken aback when Katy surprised them by saying, "Too bad! I'm semitic, too!"
There is much truth in what you say, but Hamas is playing on that age-old anti-Semitism, which is not limited to Christianity. Ironically, even as pro-Palestinian mobs scream against Jews in this country, Jews and Muslims are in the same boat so far as “traditional” anti-Semites are concerned, and not for the first time. Jews and Muslims here should join hands, and in the Middle East, Israelis and Palestinians should recognize that what unites them is more than what divides them, and join hands as well.
of course it is playing on that. It's using all the tools it can, since its war is at root a propaganda one. I'm not trying to say there is no anti-Semitism going on in the Middle East. I'm just trying to point out that it has different origins from that which produced the Holocaust. "Whadd'about the Holocaust" is no more an excuse for indiscriminate killing of civilians than "Whadd'about" the blockade. Emphasis on indiscriminate.
This difference in origins HAS to be considered by the Israeli government--and other governments on either side--or there can never be peace.
I disagree
Please be aware of Replacement Theology. Christians believe they have the new convenant because Jews did not accept Jesus as the Messiah. Muslims believe that Abraham's son Ismael is the correct heir to Abraham, not Isaac. They believe the Quran is a correction of the Torah. Thus, Islam is the replacement theology of Christians, and by default Judaism. It is just not territorial. This is direct from the Iman who built the Mosque at Ground Zero.
I never tried to argue it was "just" territorial. I am saying it has a territorial ROOT that wasn't present in European/Western anti-Semitism and that needs to be addressed along with the religious differences. And if you don't consider the roots of a problem any solution will not last.
This conversation just reinforces my very strong belief that religion is THE biggest source of hate and destruction on the planet. And, always will be.
I agree. When it is combined with actual "nationalism" about whose land is whose, it becomes even more deadly. We are seeing this right here, right now.
As I noted originally, back in the very back day, Muslims and Jews actually coexisted pretty amicably in the Muslim dominated parts of the world. ALL other religions were "second class citizens" without the all the rights Muslims themselves had (we won't get into women here!) but they were still given a certain autonomy. Islam was way more tolerant in general than Christianity was in the same era.
I'm not sure it is simply religion that is the problem. It is fundamentalism, and the attitude of "only I am right and everyone has to fall in line" that causes the problem. When that attitude gains power, or even prominence, things start to get much, much worse. Again, we are seeing this right here, right now. It isn't confined to the 141 square miles of Gaza.
I paraphrase Mark Twain.
Put a lion, lamb, tiger, sheep, dog, and rabbit in a cage and as long as you feed them all they will live in peace. Do the same with a Christian, Jew, Muslim, and Hindu and before long they will resort to killing each other to see whose god is stronger. Twain helped cure me of religion. I'm forever thankful for that.
That’s the bomb! thx
How many voters do you really think know that the Republicans in the House tried to tie funding to supporting Israel around defunding the IRS and not providing funding to Ukraine.? How many voters know and appreciate the fact that President Biden who stood on a picket line with members of the UAW have received significant increases in benefits and wages that the Biden Administration supported. Do you think these same autoworkers would be happy if they knew that defunding the IRS means many top 1% of the richest tax payers will not pay their fair share of taxes. How many voters realize that only legislators whom-truly care about their well being are Democrats. The answer is not enough voters know what is being accomplished for them everyday in many ways. We need to make sure we let them know what has been delivered by this administration vs. the unfulfilled promises of the Republicans
This is unfortunately true. We have to use every opportunity to nicely tell the facts to those who aren't paying attention, perhaps because they are overwhelmed or listening to/watching/reading sources which are not reliable. However, I believe that when the time comes, there will be no choice for most reasonable people but to vote for Democracy and a functioning government. I am not including the MAGA Republicans in this group! or other Republicans who will just vote Republican out of habit!
You always put forth a perspective that I usually do not think of which never fails to broaden my own perspective. Thanks so much, Robert!
My thoughts exactly.
Mike Johnson is a Christo-fascist, and I am hoping that he does not get anything done. I am terrified to think of him in place two in the line of succession. I wish Biden and Harris continued good health, more than I have been conscious of doing so before.
https://www.usa.gov/presidential-succession
I have said that Trump's best defense would be that his lawyers would declare him incompetent to stand trial either because of mental illness or perhaps because of dementia. It has seemed more and more apparent that he should be checked for that, if he has not been already.
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/dementia-early-signs#ten-warning-signs-of-dementia
I am currently in Berlin and visited an exhibit at the House of Cultures of the World (HKW) called, "As Though We Hid the Sun in a Sea of Stories: Fragments for a Geopolitics of North Eurasia." A docent discussed the first piece I saw, a mesmerizing film, as being an intersection of myth, anthropology and introspection. My interpretation of it, which was then heightened by other pieces we saw was that it was a psychic cry for healing from the wounds of occupation. Who occupied these countries? Well, Russia as it formed the Soviet Union. From a Buryatian young women singing almost crying and shouting a song that was a mixture of her disappearing language knowledge of her own Buryat language mixed with Russian to pieces on the Holodomor that were powerful and painful to view, it made one think about the psychic pain that occupation causes an indigenous peoples. So, when I read this morning about the Dagestani rampage against the plane from Israel, I saw it in a context of having seen this exhibit, read about Native genocide and seen the recent Killers of the Flower Moon, read many articles in Meduza about the psychic pain and the radicalization of many of the Caucasus youth in countries that were formerly Muslim as they reclaimed their Islamic heritage after the end of the Soviet Union. It is a painful transition. Not only have I read stories of young women who are gay, and being disowned if they do not enter forced marriages and deny their sexuality, but also the embrace of ISIS of youth who are rebelling from the Soviet imposition of atheism as an attempt to reclaim their cultural identity. There are gaps in knowledge that cannot be regained either, which if filled, might lead to a different outcome. So, I would see this as anti-semitism that is actually being pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel. I don't think it is about the Jewish religion so much, as the idea that their fellow Muslims are being eradicated, and they are smarting from the attempts to do this to their own cultures by the Russians.
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/10/30/the-provocations-found-fertile-ground
Still, it is terrifying and here is a story that I read from the point of view of someone on that plane.
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/10/30/it-could-have-all-ended-with-us-getting-killed
Netanyahu's leadership is not helping Jews around the world to live safer lives. There are 15.3 million Jews with around 7 million in Israel, and 5-6 million in the USA. The rest are spread around the world. There are 2 billion Muslims in the world. There is a lot of corruption and poverty in the Muslim world and it has not helped the people. This has led to a lot of radicalized youth, who see themselves as having nothing to lose when they join groups such as ISIS. Again, it is a search for identity that gives them a sense of agency.
I would say the Ukrainians are struggling for the same thing. A need to piece together lost identity that helps them with the psychic misery of the long occupation by Russia. It is different to be an immigrant than an occupied people. Immigrants often know where they come from and what their culture home is. They can blend in as much as they need to to get along, but can hold onto their home culture. Occupied people do not have the same choices when the occupying culture determines their lives. It is important to understand that one effect of the bombing of the Palestinians now will be the radicalizing of some of the youth in the Muslim world. We need to have diplomats in the region trying to calm things down. Sane Americans need to be turning on the Republicans responsible for not allowing military and diplomatic appointments to go through, as well as the aid that is needed. A much bigger deal should be made. We cannot take care of ourselves or be a good ally without getting these appointments through and getting our budgets passed. Bravo to the IRS for making inroads on the billionaires who are acting like enemies of the state. I am glad some of the press is discussing how awful Mike Johnson really is, but I don't think most people can process it, because Trump has worn them down. Thank you for pointing out resources to fund people who can make a difference in the next election.
Thank you for this excellent and informative comment.
Off topic today, but still out there are concerns about Biden’s age. I want to encourage folks to watch this from Politics Girl:
“Can we stop talking about Biden’s age now? He’s a damn good leader and we’re lucky to have him.” - Politics Girl.
https://youtu.be/tC6yVEXfVcI?si=Npq8ahcJVcJTJfcz
Thanks, Kathleen. I really like Politics Girl.
Joe Biden was a child, during the heart of World War II, and in the uncertainty of the early Cold War. Mike Johnson was born as the VietNam War was grinding to a halt and knew only relative peace, for the first twenty-nine years of his life. Their experiences inform their perspectives-and Biden's is the perspective most closely tied to our present reality as a species.
Reading Judd Legum's post about Johnson is enlightening, disconcerting, and head-smacking. "The bill would grant every "preborn human person" equal rights under the 14th Amendment from "the moment of fertilization." But every postborn human person doesn't get those equal rights? And the duplicity of the corporate donors is sickening; they're not putting their money where their mouth is - perhaps another orifice?
"Joe Biden is our oldest president, as everyone keeps saying, but he’s also—despite and possibly because of his age—an unusually forward-looking president." Looking seven generations forward!
Amen!
Biden = wisdom in action
A friend of mine said she was turning off the news/commentary because it was so hard to see all the dead children in Israel/Gaza. This made me think of Emmett Till and how his mother insisted on an open casket to show what had been done to him when he was tortured and lynched by several white guys. It started a movement toward justice and civil rights. Wish we could have the same thing with gun safety and have parents willing of children gunned down like at Uvalde show their children's bodies for all to understand the horror. Children so mutilated that it took DNA evidence to identify them. Would that finally get gun safety laws and an assault weapons ban through Congress! When are we going to realize that the founding fathers were thinking of the responsible use of guns with the words "Well-regulated" in the 2nd amendment. Gun ownership and gun safety should go hand in hand. Why shouldn't the gun manufacturers be held liable for the unsafe use of their guns? Then just like car ownership insurance would be required. Everyone can own and drive a car but they have to use it safely. Time for a movement against gun violence. We, the People, all of us this time!
Robert, it's grosser than what you said. Tying international aid to curry campaign donations from the richest 1% is gross. Especially when it is beyond doubt that spending money to support IRS audits pays for itself 3-4 times over. No - - what gets me riled up is that Mike Johnson's first move is to cut the IRS to save his cheating billionaire donor class a few bucks that they actually owe for the privilege of living in our country and enjoying its manifest benefits. GROSS.
What I love about President Biden is that he does his job without watching his polls. He is grounded and masterful, a true statesman and patriot. He is comfortable in his own skin and experienced. I have a thought, off topic, (I apologize) - of the PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES. We know they are a farce; a ludicrous show of memorized paragraphs and, as we saw with he who remains nameless, hovering over Hillary Clinton (where Anderson Cooper remained silent as Clinton was harassed.) and his showing up with Biden having tested positive for COVID. From the press, we will get endless blather, all with serious expressions, with the inevitable 'who one' question. A solution would be to have each candidate interviewed ALONE with no audience to distract and recorded. The interviews would then be shown in prime time side by side. That would be useful and informative.
I know. I positively itched for Hilary to simultaneously step back and throw her arms out widely as if gesticulating during an expressive moment in her response, thus smacking the creep soundly... she could then "apologize" with "but why were you standing so close up behind me in my personal space?". Most women know the maneuver - that, or a firm backwards stomp when creep breath raises the hairs on their neck...
Okay now, scuttling back from the off-topic brrr... but that was viscerally disgusting and an obvious physical bullying to which he would never have subjected a male.
I am heartened by so much of Biden’s efforts, work, and policies. I am beyond discouraged by the human toll of the wars and the political and ethical questions and dilemmas they pose. I’m sharing a Robert Reich link for anyone interested. https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/an-overwhelming-tragedy?r=64w29&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Trust R R to see past the straw men and the forced teaming this issue seems to have provoked.