MONDAY, JANUARY 1, 2024
The New York Times gets it right: Four days ago, it appeared online.
Yesterday morning, it topped the front page of the print edition of the Sunday New York Times.
It's a profoundly important news report. With apologies, and with respect for the dead and the viciously abused, the news report appears online beneath this pair of headlines:
‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7
A Times investigation uncovered new details showing a pattern of rape, mutilation and extreme brutality against women in the attacks on Israel.
We apologize for publishing those unspeakable words. That said, this news report is exactly what major newspapers like the Times should be all about.
In various ways, this was certainly one of this past year's most instructive news reports. With that in mind, we'll take this occasion to recommend the Ruth Marcus column again.
As we said at the time, it was one of the most humane "opinion columns" we can remember reading. In late November, the column appeared in the Washington Post under this headline:
A troubling split at my Thanksgiving table—and the nation's
By dint of her upbringing, Marcus is inclined to favor Israel at the present time to a degree, and in a way, that her daughters are not.
Marcus is Jewish; so are her daughters. Her column described the painful ways she and her daughters were trying to come to terms with their different perspectives about Israel and Gaza.
We thought her column was deeply humane. A few weeks later, a news report in the New York Times described a similar generational split within an American / Israeli family.
We never managed to cite that front-page report, and so we cite it now:
Jewish American Families Confront a Generational Divide Over Israel
Gen Z and young Millennials often see Israel as an occupying power oppressing Palestinians—a shock to their parents and grandparents, who tend to see it as an essential haven fighting for survival.
Online, that profile appeared on December 5—a busy day this year. On that same day, three college presidents were devoured in Washington by Rep. Elise Stefanik, and those new PISA scores appeared.
We think that December 5 report was also deeply humane. It's another example of the type of work a big newspaper should be providing.
At this point, we return to a basic question:
Why might members of a younger generation view this conflict in a way which separates them from their elders? As we suggested at the time, here's one possible answer:
In some cases, the younger people may be aware of certain things their parents and grandparents may not know much about. (In other cases, possibly not.)
We're speaking here of possible knowledge about events in Gaza in the aftermath of October 7, but we're mainly thinking about the remarkable state of affairs which has obtained in Gaza over the past many years.
(As a matter of basic diplomacy, we'll blame "world powers" for that state of affairs before we'll blame Israel all by its lonesome. We'll agree with what Barack Obama said: None of us has done enough.)
On occasion, the children may know things their elders don't! As the famous song advises, "Teach your parents well"—but also, "Teach your children." Along the way, it may help to show some respect for the people you may otherwise turn into Others.
With respect to life inside Gaza, this morning's New York Times offers another front-page report. Headline included, that news report starts like this:
Half of Gazans Are at Risk of Starving, U.N. Warns
Walaa Zaiter’s four children have been hungry for weeks, but she can barely find them food.
They ask for sandwiches, fruit juice and homemade Palestinian dishes like she used to cook before the war began. In a fleeting moment of internet access, she said, she once caught the children huddled around her phone to watch a YouTube video of someone eating French fries.
The most they can hope for these days, she said in a recent telephone interview, is a can of peas, some cheese and an energy bar distributed as a family’s rations by the United Nations once a week in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where they fled to in early December to escape Israeli bombardment farther north. It is not nearly enough to feed her family of seven.
“It’s a daily struggle,” said Ms. Zaiter, 37, whose children range in age from 9 months to 13 years. “You feel you are under pressure and hopeless, and you cannot provide anything.”
Israel’s war in Gaza has created a humanitarian catastrophe, with half of the population of about 2.2 million at risk of starvation and 90 percent saying that they regularly go without food for a whole day, the United Nations said in a recent report.
And so on from there. As the second voice in that famous song asks, "Can you hear? Will you care? Can you see...?"
That second voice continues from there, all through the song's second verse.
One final point might be addressed in the wake of yesterday's report. With apologies, we're going to post a bit of flawed reporting by a young employee at Fox.
David Schwimmer read the Times report. In a badly flawed report, Fox News records his reaction:
'Friends' star David Schwimmer calls out skeptics of Hamas sexual assaults: 'Where is their outrage?'
"Friends" co-star David Schwimmer wrote a blistering critique aimed at activists who ignore or question Hamas terrorists' sex crimes towards Israelis on Oct. 7.
Schwimmer, who is Jewish, wrote on Instagram Friday that he has been an advocate against sexual violence for nearly 30 years.
Referencing the New York Times' recent investigation of sexual assaults at the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, Schwimmer emphasized the importance of believing survivors.
"There are incredible organizations and individuals that I count as allies in this work," he wrote. "Who for years have stood up and fought for survivors of rape and sexual assault, demanding justice—many of whom are survivors themselves. And yet…"
"Why do so many REFUSE TO BELIEVE—despite all the evidence on camera and in testimony—the women, children and men brutally assaulted by terrorists on Oct. 7th?" he continued.
The "Band of Brothers" actor argued that many advocates for sexual assault survivors will "fight like hell for ALL victims of sexual violence—unless they’re Jews."
With all due respect to the self-congratulatory Schwimmer, who are the incredible organizations who have allegedly REFUSED TO BELIEVE the reports about sexual violence? Who are those people and groups?
As you can see by reviewing his post, Schwimmer forgets to name the people and organizations he is accusing. He forgets to offer any evidence in support of his charges.
At Fox, they take this sort of thing and run. In the individual case, this may all be done with the best of intentions.
Still, it's all part of that organization's war against the blue tribe Others, who are now being cast as antisemites. For the record, the reporter in this case is four years out of college (Rutgers, class of 2019).
In fairness, the morally outstanding Schwimmer isn't alone (and we're sure he's completely sincere). As we read through the comments to last week's New York Times report, we noted something about our imperfect human nature:
We noted how easy it is, at times of high emotion, to script people with talking points about the evil of everyone else. (In this case, about the evil of those alleged international groups.)
Many commenters repeated the claims about the silence—even about the alleged denials—of the unnamed organizations and individuals against whom Schwimmer lodges his charges.
We saw no commenters saying who they were actually talking about, or stating the basis on which they were making their claims. Some may have mentioned "The Squad," while perhaps failing to mention what "The Squad" had allegedly said.
Beyond that, we've seen no serious reporting about the outrage Schwimmer alleges. Perhaps that reporting does exist. If so, Schwimmer should have cited it, or he should have named names on his own.
Yesterday's report is deeply important. Attention should be paid.
The journalism of humans: What do "pro-Palestinian" college students actually think about what has happened in Gaza? About what has happened in the past three months, or perhaps in the "open-air prison" of the past many years?
We haven't seen that reporting yet; we hope the Times will provide it. It seems to us that our big news orgs aren't strongly inclined to go there.
We'd also like to see reporting about the groups to which Schwimmer alludes. Who is he actually talking about? What reporting can he provide?
Finally, here's a news report you won't ever hear discussed. The report appeared in the New York Times on Sunday, December 17:
The Overlooked Crisis in Congo: ‘We Live in War’
Six million have died, and more than six million are displaced after decades of fighting and the ensuing humanitarian crisis in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, drawing in neighbors, mercenaries and militias.
In print editions, that report appeared on page A14. You won't hear that report discussed by the moral exemplars who crowd the stage of our blue tribe's cable channel, examining the only topic they seem to care about—Trump Trump Trump Trump Jail.
Viciousness is deeply troubling—depending on where it's aimed. This is what we're like as a species. Once in a while, it might be helpful to come to terms with our own limits as (imperfect) beings, along with the limits of Others.
ReplyDelete"Who are those people and groups?"
They are pretty much everybody. Hardly anyone in the whole world is impressed by western media accusing indigenous anti-imperialist resistance of various evils. Just leave the indigenous people alone, get out of their lands, and that'll be the end of it. It's that simple.
Rape and sexual mutilation are wrong, even when perpetrated by the indigenous anti-imperialist resistance.
DeleteMatthew 7:3
DeletePalestinians are no more indigenous to Israel than anyone else. They are Arabs who moved into a sparsely populated Palestinian Mandate from nearby territories at the same time as Jews did. And 48% of Israelis are sephardic Jews (also Arabs) who moved into an area they were as indigenous to as the so-called Palestinians.
DeleteFraming this as indigenous people versus colonialists is PR intended to sway support toward Hamas and those living in Gaza. But how can they claim support after committing the atrocities of 10/7? Only by denying the documented atrocities, as Somerby is doing today.
How does Somerby deny them? He says we are all vicious under the skin, we would all do what Hamas did because humanity is terrible. Then he equates innocuous acts of complaint and the desire to pursue justice against Trump with brutal acts of rape and murder and calls us all guilty.
Somerby will say anything to support his Soviet sugar-daddy, including suggesting that rape, murder, baby-killing, hostage-taking, and torture didn't really happen while calling those who oppose such behavior "morally outstanding" as if it were wrong to oppose unspeakable brutality. And he throws in Trump as if the indictments of Trump were part of the baseless libels against Hamas, all arising from the vicious nature of humanity.
If you are playing tit-for-tat, it matters who struck the first blow. It was not Israel.
Delete10:44 - Why are you being deceptive? You tell us that Somerby “suggests” that “rape . . . didn’t really happen,” but you know that’s not what Somerby SAID at all. (And what he “suggests” is that rape DID happen - read the first six paragraphs.)
DeleteThis is an example of the bad-faith “evidence” you offer to support your absurd accusation that Somerby is funded by Putin.
He suggest the denial of those rapes by pro-Palestinians is not happening.
Delete12:07 - Not true. Why defend one lie with another?
DeleteDisagreeing with dogface is not lying.
DeleteGeorge used to be green.
DeletePlease consider by checking out my profile by clicking on my name above!
DeleteThank you!
"As a matter of basic diplomacy, we'll blame 'world powers' for that state of affairs before we'll blame Israel all by its lonesome."
ReplyDeletePerhaps we should examine the policy of the greatest world power, Israel's weapon supplier and diplomatic defender.
"Viciousness is deeply troubling—depending on where it's aimed. This is what we're like as a species. "
ReplyDeletePutting Trump in jail is in no way equivalent to the brutal rape and murder of Israeli women by Hamas. Nor is caring deeply about such atrocities, as Schwimmer does, on the same moral plane as committing such atrocities.
Somerby's use of such terms as "self-congratulatory" and a sarcastic "morally outstanding" to describe Schwimmer, who argues that rape survivors should be taken seriously, even when Hamas has raped Israeli women, is deeply offensive to me because of the callous disregard of the treatment of women displayed by Somerby as he criticizes Schwimmer. Somerby calls for proof when that proof is right in front of him in the reaction of pro-Palestinians of all stripes, many of whom have denied the accusations of rape. One cannot support Hamas and Palestinians without minimizing those rapes, which is what they have certainly been doing. Calling for "proof" will not disappear those acts by Hamas and the Palestinian people who support Hamas, and the pro-Palestinian supporters in the US and elsewhere who turn the other way and refuse to admit what happened, including Somerby.
Somerby has previously defended men who have been accused of rape (Brock Turner comes to mind, as does Trump and Roy Moore). Today he defends Hamas and attacks Schwimmer, mocking him for caring about the sexually assault of women who were raped (then murdered) for being Israeli.
Somerby's tone is offensive but unsurprising given how he feels about women accusing men. He holds up Marcus as an example of a "good" woman's reaction. And what does Somerby think young people know about the rape of Israeli women that their elders do not? Is Somerby hinting that those rapes did not occur, as various pro-Palestinians HAVE asserted? He won't come out and say so, but what can his coy hints mean in this context, along with his mockery of Schwimmer?
And no, we do not all share the savagery of Hamas. That is not our legacy as a species. These are impermissible acts in our culture and most others. War is no excuse. The PR campaign whipped up on behalf of Hamas will be the shame of future years.
But do they? Perhaps it is that older people don't consider that oppression as a justification for the Hamas atrocities. I haven't heard any Israel supporters claiming that those living in Gaza have it good, are well off. I hear them saying that Israel must protect themselves from the Palestinians, and then the Hamas attack seems to support that view.
DeleteI also hear the older Jewish people saying that the young people do not understand the long history of Jewish oppression, of which this latest Hamas attack is one in a long series of threats to Israel's existence. One could as easily say that it is the young people who do not know what their elders know. I doubt Marcus meant what Somerby says he hears in her essay.
10:31 - “Today [Somerby] defends Hamas”
DeletePlease read his first six paragraphs and explain to us how this is a defense of Hamas. Somerby praises the NYT (a rarity for Somerby) for a “most instructive” news report about Hamas killing and “viciously abus[ing]” Israeli women. In his view, these acts are “unspeakable.”
10:31 - “Today [Somerby] . . . attacks Schwimmer, mocking him for caring about the sexual assault of women”
DeleteNot true. Somerby criticizes Schwimmer for making unfounded accusations against unnamed organizations.
You can’t know the accusations are unfounded if he hasn’t named names.
Delete10:31 - “Somerby has previously defended men who have been accused of rape (. . . Roy Moore)”
DeleteHere’s Somerby’s “defense” of Moore: “Back in 1979, Moore molested her, [Leigh] Corfman said, when she was 14 years old. . . . We know of no reason to doubt Corfman’s accusation.” 11/30/17.
The rest of what Somerby said matters too. I quoted it here for dogface but he persists.
DeleteHere’s Somerby’s “defense” of Brock Turner: “Chanel Miller *was* the victim of a sexual assault. We base this upon the unanimous verdict of a duly constituted jury.” 10/25/19.
DeleteYes, and then he said that if Chanel Miller didn't want to be assaulted she shouldn't have drunk so much. Thus blaming the victim.
DeleteWith Roy Moore, he asserted that it is natural to go after young girls, that Roy Moore was considered a "catch" by the mothers of those girls, that in other cultures marriage at 14 is normal, that the movies idealize may-december relationships and so on... giving all the excuses that men who molest young girls give.
Somerby always gives his pro forma correct statements and then goes on to contradict and deny them. Dogface chooses to believe that the pro forma part is his actual opinion, but then why would he say the rest of what he DOES go on and say? He devotes considerable time to discussing how much Chanel Miller drank. That is irrelevant to whether she was molested. Why does Somerby go on about it? He discusses the way the verdict ruined Brock Turner's prospects. No sympathy for Miller who was the person assaulted.
As usual, no quotations or citations to support your accusations. You say how much Miller drank is irrelevant, but you’re wrong. First, she was blackout drunk for an hour before the assault and so couldn’t testify to what actually happened. Second, the fact that she was blackout drunk is relevant to whether she had the capacity to consent.
DeleteI provided the quotes and you claimed they did not say what they clearly did say. I am done providing you with anything. You seem to understand that Miller's condition was irrelevant to Brock Turner's conviction. Somerby does not. Similarly, the mama's consent to her 14 year old "dating" Roy Moore is also irrelevant. She cannot give Moore permission to molest her daughter and the daughter is too young to give consent. Somerby doesn't see that either.
DeleteToday, Somerby mocks Schwimmer for relating the attacks on Israeli women to other women who are raped or assaulted. Schwimmer does not need to list the pro-Palestinian groups denying the horrific and brutal nature of the Hamas attack before he can claim that disbelieving women is wrong, in both situations. Progressives who support the need to investigate fully when women are attacked, and now unwilling to take the claims that Israeli women were raped seriously, calling them Israeli propaganda, false, made up. I have heard those claims that Hamas did not brutalize its victims myself on the internet. I know they exist. Somerby's sophistry that Schwimmer needs to name the groups or he cannot complain about this is wrong, but is also a slap in the face to the idea that women should be believed when they are attacked, something Somerby does not agree with. Somerby is the guy who has called Stormy Daniels a grifter and con artist, refusing to believe her description of Trump's behavior (no, she was not raped). This puts Somerby on the wrong side of this discussion about what Hamas did to the women it attacked on 10/7.
Somerby is wrong about this for taking the Palestinian side against Israel, but he is also wrong for mocking Schwimmer when he says women should be believed (and investigated not dismissed) whenever they claim assault, not just when they are important to some political conflict you do or do not support.
I'm not paying any attention at all to your paraphrases of what Somerby supposedly said because you just aren't credible.
DeleteYou don’t have to agree with me or anyone else here. You should stop calling other people liars for disagreeing with you. It makes you sound intolerant and a bit unhinged. “Not credible” is another form of “liar”.
DeleteIf people are concerned that Palestinians are starving, then this comes under the category of "too bad". I do not want people to starve, but when it is a consequence of their actions, I have little sympathy. Palestiniands have mostly sabotoged potential peace agreements since 1948 when Israel was created (Yes, with the help of Bibi Netanyahu). They work hand in hand to prevent peace from breaking out and they refuse to accept their responsibility that they do not have a homeland.
ReplyDeleteIn Pearls Before Swine today (Stephen Pastis), pig asks "...can't you at least be a little optimistic about people at the start of a new year?" I would ask Somerby that same question. Today's rant ends with this familiar refrain:
ReplyDelete"Viciousness is deeply troubling—depending on where it's aimed. This is what we're like as a species. Once in a while, it might be helpful to come to terms with our own limits as (imperfect) beings, along with the limits of Others."
This blames people for:
1. Being vicious
2. Only seeing and caring about certain viciousness
3. Being all the same, as a species full of viciousness
4. Not coming to terms with our own imperfections (among them viciousness, presumably)
5. Not recognizing the limits of Others
There is a bit of a muddle as we try to figure out who the Others are, if we are all alike as a species. And if we are blaming others for their viciousness (which is easier to recognize than our own or our preferred group's presumably) why do we not recognize the "limits" of those Others? Isn't viciousness one of their limits? Do they have other weaknesses that we are not seeing, despite our propensity to blame Others and not ourselves?
This is very Catholic of Somerby. He has incorporated the notion of original sin and the flawed nature of humanity along with our continuing failure to "be best" (as Melania puts it) and blames us for our suffering. Of course, in Catholocism, man's only hope is in Christ's sacrifice and the forgiveness of sins, which we must confess to a priest in order to receive absolution. The Church ranks orders the sins, but Somerby does not. He thinks we're all rotten as shit. And there's nothing we can do about it except be humble in the knowledge of our nature as sinners.
Fuck that! We get several chances each year to make a new start in our lives. Today is one of them. I prefer to look toward the New Year as a chance to take action to right our wrongs. I will of course do that by eating better, exercising more, etc., but we as a country can join together to make our lives better too. Here are my suggestions:
1. Stop farting around and lock up Trump.
2. Elect responsible candidates (regardless of party)
3. Stop persecuting the weak, troubled, those in distress, including pregnant women, trans children, homeless people, immigrants (who, like the Palestinians are plagued by violence and intolerable conditions in their homelands), members of minority groups, etc.
4. Donate to charities, work for the causes you believe in, be nice to those around you who are just living their lives.
That's a start. We will all feel a lot better if we do this stuff instead of Somerby's agenda.
There are no responsible Republican candidates. Do not vote for any Republican.
DeleteHere is a candidate I would consider:
Deletehttps://www.facebook.com/fanny.farts.7
ReplyDeleteWriting for The Intercept, Judith Levine notes the bungling of the reporting on current accusations against Hamas fell to Israel’s triage system, the problem was Israel’s “forensic triage, which prioritized identifying the dead, burned, and decaying bodies.”
To put it another way, the Israeli system itself de-prioritized the very evidence it is claiming to have, and it is difficult to confirm using even its own sources.
There is a deeper conversation to be had about why the system failed, and it’s not that people don’t like Israel enough. There is almost always a sexist interplay between empire and fundamentalists over violence and in Palestine it is no different. It follows a formula of power negotiation.
Step 1: The colonizer pacifies the indigenous people to attempt to conquer the territory.
Step 2: The colonizer demands from the world a free hand to put down the blowback it incurs with this violence
Step 3: The colonizer fails to put out the fires of resistance and instead molds ongoing resistance into a fundamentalist society that it controls via proxy
Step 4: The women of the resistance experience double erasure, of their own fundamentalist society, and the oppressor’s
The French terrorized Algerian women wholesale, there were thousands arrested and often raped and electrocuted. During the first violent battles to conquer Palestine, women were routinely raped by Jewish soldiers by the dozens (Benny Morris, 2003), and women were raped and held as bargaining chips by Jewish Israeli men in the Khaim facility in South Lebanon, presumably to recover some successful bargaining position from Lebanon’s largely successful uprisings to maintain its power against Israeli provocations. (Human rights watch 1997). Even today, Palestinian women aren’t allowed to slap a Jewish colonist on the face without facing international outcry.
The fundamentalists in Pakistan and Algeria who resisted colonialism were eventually ceded power, overtly and covertly, by French and British imperialism with negotiated legal codes, including such tasty treats as death penalty for blasphemy and the retreat into the "family politics" of hardline conservative agendas. Similar agendas can be seen in Saudi and Taliban giveaways.
Until late 2023 it was only rumor that Israel handpicked and groomed Islamic fundamentalists in Gaza over the years much like the British did in Pakistan.
Fundamentalist agendas serve as a release valve for the grudge against power and continuing desire for full freedom among the people. The occupier fights this half enemy publicly while supplying assistance behind the scenes, talking out of both sides of its mouth.
The colonial priority is never to protect women, regardless of what they are saying. Israel has failed to show it knows how to create peace or its own security because it is too interested in divide and conquer politics, and how it appears in the media, which US politicians use for their own needs, and the cycle continues across the world.
Citations:
- For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas (Times of Israel Oct 8 2023, Politico Nov 28, Haaretz Oct 20, The Nation Dec 11, The Hill 2023)
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/the-role-of-women-in-the-algerian-independence-movement-37868
- Finkelstein Beyond Chutzpah, op cit Benny Morris, The Road to Jerusalem (New York, 2003) page 208 Blasphemy law of Pakistan; a critical analysis of
- Pakistani legal system: https://ijldi-cgrn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023-30-2-5.pdf
- https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/anthos/vol5/iss1/5/
- https://theintercept.com/2023/12/24/feminism-sexual-violence-hamas-israel/
"...about why the system failed"
DeleteWhat the "system" entails is just endlessly repeating the usual hazbara bullshit. Thus, the "system" as such didn't fail. It just does what it always does. Hardly anyone is listening anymore.
Talking about Israel and Palestine in terms of colonialism makes no sense when Israel was not a colonial power nor a colony. It was established as a nation by the United Nations in order to provide a homeland for Jews, who were a major refugee group after WWII.
DeleteThere is no reason why Palestinians couldn't now be living peacefully alongside Jews in Israel, or in their own separate territory (something they have repeatedly rejected). There is no reason why the Arab nations should have banded together in 1948 to attack Israel, nor why they should have launched each of the subsequent attacks and wars (or intifadas) since then. The actions of Palestinians make no sense except as troublemakers given extravagant promises by enemies of Israel and the US. This latest outrage makes that clear.
That makes sympathy for Palestinians impossible. The success of pro-Palestinian propaganda is appalling, but so are a lot of aspects of politics these days.
and your pro-Israeli propaganda is appalling when it conflates Hamas with all Palestinians, including the thousands of Palestinian children and women Israel has killed
DeletePalestinians and pro-Palestinian groups conflate Hamas with Gazans.
Delete"The antecedents of the Jewish Colonial Trust can be traced to Herzl's visionary tract "Der Judenstaat" (lit. "The Jewish State"), detailing his vision of how the Jewish State would be created. A major role was assigned in this vision to a huge body, to be called "The Jewish Company", which would be "founded as a joint stock company subject to English jurisdiction, framed according to English laws, and under the protection of England".
Deletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Leumi
Yes, someone financed Jewish settlement. Who financed the Palestinians? Their financial needs as settlers were no different than the Jews. Why did those Arab nations join the Palestinians who attacked Israel on the day after it became a nation? Wars are expensive. And why do negative statements about Jews always involve finance conspiracy theories?
DeleteThat doesn’t make Jews settling in the Palestinian mandate “colonialists” but colonists. Not all Jews came from Europe. Some were ethnic Arabs already in the area.
Delete"Culturally they are 500 years behind us. ...They feel at least the same instinctive jealous love of Palestine, as the old Aztecs felt for ancient Mexico, and the Sioux for their rolling Prairies... The native populations, civilised or uncivilised, have always stubbornly resisted
Deletethe colonists, irrespective of whether they were civilised or savage."
Zionist propaganda 1923 "The Iron Wall"
https://tikvahfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Jabotinsky-Iron-Wall.pdf
Leading Zionist agitator, V.Z. Jabotinsky
"The Governments of all countries scourged by anti-Semitism will be keenly interested in assisting us to obtain sovereignty we want.”
- Theodore Herzl 1896
The Jewish Colonization Association was established and funded through the efforts of Baron Maurice de Hirsch, in 1891, for the purpose of settling Palestine with Jews, largely migrating from Eastern Europe. The Palestinians were displaced by them. Any retelling of this history that has Palestinians as the nonindigenous faction is nonsense.
DeleteThe original point of racism is to make money. States need money. Powerful people lie to you. This is not difficult math. It's true across history.
DeleteUnamused, the Palestinians were not displaced by them. The area to which both Jews and Palestinians migrated was sparsely populated. When Israel was established, a Palestinian territory was also created. The Palestinians rejected this by joining the Arab nations who attacked Israel in 1948, one day after its formation. Declaring that no one from Europe can settle elsewhere in the world is ridiculous, especially when that settlement occurred with the concurrence of those in charge of the area at the time (hint: that was not the Palestinians). How could the Palestinians have been indigenous to the Palestinian mandate when they were never in charge of that territory, ever. It was ruled by the Ottoman Turks, followed by the British, not Palestinians. Then Palestinians rejected every effort to set up a Palestinian territory.
DeleteWhen the UN divided up Palestine in 1948 there were roughly 1.3 million Palestinians to 600 thousand Jewish colonists. The territory was divided in such a way that the per capita allocation of land given to Jews was nearly twice that given to Palestinians.This is fact. Exactly why should the indigenous population have accepted those terms?
DeleteThe expectation was that more Jews would come to Israel once a homeland for Jews was established. That did happen when roughly 800,000+ Jews were expelled from surrounding Arab countries. Are you counting them?
DeleteThe point in such a situation is not who gets the bigger territory, but whether Palestine wanted to become a nation. They declined by joining the immediate war against Israel. Wars take time to plan and launch. The timing makes it pretty clear that the Arabs and Palestinians had no intention of accepting the new Jewish state. Pretending this is about square feet per person is dishonest.
1:12 The 1948 war was lost in large part because the Palestinians were disorganized and did not have a coherent leadership. To characterize it as a well planned and coordinated effort is not accurate historically. At least you admit to the colonial aspirations of the Jews at the time. The single unifying theme of all settler/colonists, irrespective of place or time, is the displacement or eradication of the indigenous population. It is no different for the Israelis and Palestinians than Western settlers and Native Americans or Australians and Aborigines. Pretending that the division of Palestine by the UN should have been acceptable to the Palestinians, and that the amount and quality of land allocated them was not an issue for them is ignorant.
Delete"I research what I say" is well done.
DeleteTwo Israeli foreign ministers have now called for the permanent relocation of Gaza Palestinians. The game plan all along.
DeleteThe Oct. 7 attack featured rape, sexual harassment, religious intolerance, murder of innocents, torture, and kidnapping. These acts flagrantly violated principles that liberals believe in. In fact, the attackers were proud of what they did. They took videos and-made them public.
ReplyDeleteYet, many liberals did not immediately denounce the attackers and call for the strongest possible action against them. The question of why not requires explanation. Here are some theories: (Note these theories would not apply to all liberals, only to a subset.):
1. They are wussies. They can't face a situation that calls for strong action.
2. Antisemitism
3. They don't really have absolute belief in their alleged principles. What they really believe in is using these alleged principles as a way to criticize conservatives.
4. They don't really have moral beliefs. Regardless of what happens, they mostly just follow opinion leaders on any given issue.
BTW note how #1 and #2 can work together. One can safely denounce Jews or Israelis in public, but denouncing Muslims or Islam might lead to being murdered. Also #2 and #4 also can work together. Going against a prevailing narrative on campus can lead to social and academic repercussions.
A 5th ides would be the "strong horse" theory -- that people will follow the side that seems strongest. That might account for the surprisingly widespread support expressed for the Hamas attack. One might have expected all of Hamas's liberal supporters to desert them, because of the immoral actions. Instead, a number of people and organizations publicly endorsed Hamas's actions. Were they inspired by Hamas's unembarrassed commitment to their awful beliefs?
DeleteThis is how you know that Dick in Cali is just an Ann Colter-like shit disturber, not a serious interlocutor. "Many liberals" . . . "a number of people." Lol. This is the very bullshit Somerby calls out in today's post - making incendiary accusations but never naming names or providing any evidence. Biden of course is the most powerful and important liberal in the country at the moment, was elected by liberals, and he immediately denounced Hamas' actions and has supported a strong response. The other bullshitty thing about Davey's dumb post: just because someone doesn't make a public denouncement of some OBVIOUSLY heinous thing and call for a "strong" response, that doesn't mean jack shit. If we had to do this every time someone committed some OBVIOUSLY heinous act, we would have no time left in the day for anything else. Expressing something so obvious is kind of like saying, "Hey, child rape is wrong and its perpetrators should be punished." Well yeah, no shit, Sherlock. Was there any real question about that? Hey Davey, do you and every other right-wing kook immediately denounce every OBVIOUS wrong thing that someone does and call for their punishment? Every time Russian soldiers murder or rape or torture Ukrainian citizens, do you and Trump immediately denounce such obvious crimes against humanity and call for "the strongest possible action against them?"
DeleteMike -- you want examples of liberals who failed to condemn Hamas,? Here are 31 examples:
DeleteThirty-one Harvard organizations blame Israel for Hamas attack: ‘Entirely responsible’ https://nypost.com/2023/10/09/thirty-one-harvard-organizations-blame-israel-for-hamas-attack/
Also,. Harvard President did NOT forcefully condemn the Hamas attack right away. She spoke up only after the backlash from the 31 student organizations' statement.
Amid fierce national backlash, Harvard President Claudine Gay forcefully condemned the Hamas attack on Israel and distanced the University from a group of student organizations who signed onto a statement that called Israel “entirely responsible” for the ongoing violence in the region.
https://preview.thecrimson.com/article/2023/10/11/president-gay-condemns-hamas/
Other campuses has demonstrations defending the Palestinians, despite (or because of) the Oct. 6 attack. See
Full List of US Universities Staging Pro-Palestinian Protests
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/full-list-of-us-universities-staging-pro-palestinian-protests/ar-AA1i2YZ2
BTW were there any liberal demonstrations criticizing Hamas after their attack?
You can see why Davey didn't name names in his original post. If instead of "many liberals" he had said "a relatively small number pro-Palestine college students who probably make up less than 1% of the student body at their schools and who make up an even smaller percentage of the over 81 million people who voted for Joe Biden," he would have a much harder time smearing liberals with his right-wing propaganda. How ironic that someone who accuses others of blindly parroting political talking points does exactly that day after day.
DeleteIn the event that I miss a news item in the future that requires a full throated response of condemnation, let me take this opportunity to emphatically state that I am against bestiality, lynching, human trafficking, drunk driving, bank robbery, elder abuse, cockfighting, puppy mills, and the four team NCAA college football playoff scheme. I will fully support any other atrocities not listed here, so that DIC's well thought out complaints about liberals can remain intact.
DeleteLaziness is the Right's super-power.
DeleteDavid,
DeleteWhy are the Israelis allowing Benjamin Netanyahu to remain in power? Here is my list of theories.
1. They are wussies. They can't face a situation that calls for strong action.
2. Racism towards Palestinian people
3. They don't really have absolute belief in their alleged principles.
4. They don't really have moral beliefs. Regardless of what happens, they mostly just follow opinion leaders on any given issue.
What are your thoughts?
A dopey, bullshit headline in the Posr is meaningless to us adults, DIC.,
DeleteMike -- Do you have any sources or cites to show that liberal support for Hamas was less than 1% or that it was restricted to college campuses?
DeleteUnamused -- glad to hear that you oppose Hamas's barbaric acts. Question:
Do you support Israel's efforts to totally wipe out Hamas, even if many other Palestinians are killed or wounded in the effort?
David, your question is vague. Why don't you tell us how many women and children can be killed before you find the numbers unpalatable.
DeleteBeing neither Jewish nor Muslim, I prayed to Jesus who counseled against dropping 5,000 bombs on civilian targets. Talk about wussies.
Delete"With apologies, and with respect for the dead and the viciously abused, the news report appears online beneath this pair of headlines:
ReplyDelete‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7
A Times investigation uncovered new details showing a pattern of rape, mutilation and extreme brutality against women in the attacks on Israel."
We apologize for publishing those unspeakable words. "
It is very odd that Somerby thinks he should apologize for acknowledging the extreme violence used against women by Hamas. These women are not harmed by telling the world what happened to them. They did nothing wrong. They are not to blame for their own torture and deaths. They are not owed an apology and it is not wrong to speak of them.
It would be wrong to deny that they were harmed, to ignore what happened to them, to pretend it didn't happen. It would be wrong to pretend they were combatants or willingly gave up their lives or are martyrs to anything or any cause. They are victims and they were wronged by what Hamas did to them.
The oddity of Somerby's apology strikes me as strange. Does he similarly think that women in other circumstances who are raped or murdered, should be whispered about but not acknowledged or spoken out loud? Does he think these other deaths and assaults should be ignored, not spoken of out of respect for the injured? If so, that is how men get away with rape/murder/sexual assault. Society cannot and must not look the other way, and doing so only allows the perpetrators of crimes against women to continued what they do.
The apology must be for the crimes against women, not for speaking about those crimes. Women don't want whispers behind their backs. They want ohers to know what was done and to be HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR IT.
Hamas did horrible things to women, children and men, perhaps still going on with hostages to this day. Hamas needs to be held accountable because these are not routine acts of war but expressly forbidden by international rules of warfare. There is no exuse for what they did on 10/7.
Perhaps Somerby offers his apology as feigned respect because he doesn't know how to treat such cases with due respect. He needs his pro forma acknowledgement that such treatment was horrible before he can go on to mock David Schwimmer for demanding that we take such acts seriously, along with other assaults against women, even if we are pro-Palestinian instead of pro-Israeli, because mistreating women is not only wrong, it is not a legitimate act of war.
Anonymouse 6:16pm, I entirely agree with your take on Hamas and on the hideous violence perpetrated by those thugs upon women.
DeleteThat said, it’s utterly disgusting to see you use this horror as just one more avenue of attack against Somerby.
You have no shame.
Somerby attacked Schwimmer. Somerby has no shame.
DeleteIs that how you read this?
Delete“As you can see by reviewing his post, Schwimmer forgets to name the people and organizations he is accusing. He forgets to offer any evidence in support of his charges.
At Fox, they take this sort of thing and run. In the individual case, this may all be done with the best of intentions.
Still, it's all part of that organization's war against the blue tribe Others, who are now being cast as antisemites. For the record, the reporter in this case is four years out of college (Rutgers, class of 2019).”
Yes. There is no reason why Schwimmer needs to include names when we have all heard the accusations that these attacks were made up Israeli propaganda. Schwimmer’s point was that all women deserve to have their claims believed enough to investigate no matter what the context. Somerby evades that by implying pro-Palestinian groups were not doing that becaus Schwimmer didn’t name them, then he derides Schwimmer for not writing to Somerby’s specifications.
DeleteI think Somerby’s attempted hit job on Schwimmer is no worse than what he claims Fox might do.
You can easily find reports about specific groups that have doubted that Hamas raped Israeli women:
Delete“How feminists have failed Israeli victims of sexual violence”
https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/amp/rcna126047
And this is from November 25. Somerby could have pointed his readers to this, but he would rather attack David Schwimmer for some reason.
No, there’s every reason for Schwimmer to ID the organizations that he is accusing of abetting Hamas.
DeleteThe people that he says he has been resisting for years.
He should be shouting that from the rooftops. Otherwise, he might as well be handing the torch off to Rep. Elise Stefanik and any suggestion that she wishes to instill in the public.
Is that what you want?
Probably not, but hey, what does any of this really matter when it’s just one more device to go after a blogger for fun and profit.
Goddamn you guys are utter frauds.
We get it that you and Somerby are joined at the hip. Others of us have the right to express a different opinion. You are the only one calling pro-Palestinian groups “pro-Hamas” here.
DeleteAnonymouse 9:35pm, so who is Schwimmer accusing of what? Who is MSNBC pointing the finger at?
DeleteSchwimmer is saying that the Israeli women who were raped and murdered deserve to have their assaults taken seriously and investigated, just as all women do, regardless of political affinities.
DeleteToday Cecelia is making more sense than David. I am Scorby.
ReplyDeleteOperation 30:
ReplyDeleteRecruit civilian Fanny Feathers
Operation 31:
ReplyDeleteDebrief liaison Fanny Klapper
ReplyDeleteBeing settler-colonist is a lucrative but dangerous occupation. Also dangerous: having drinking & dancing parties next to the biggest death camp in the world.
Houthis have been attacking shipping in the Red Sea, in support of Gaza. Now Iran has moved a battleship to the Red Sea to support the Houthis. This is for those of you claiming that Iran (with Russian support) is not involved in the latest Palestinian antics.
ReplyDeleteNot a battleship. A destroyer.
DeleteOh, that's different then -- NOT.
DeleteFrom Rawstory: 'Grievance machine': Psychoanalyst pulls apart Trump tactic that keeps MAGA fans so angry
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump's claims that he's victimized by America’s institutions are part of a carefully plotted scheme that was pulled apart by a psychoanalyst Tuesday.
Michael Bader wrote in Salon that Trump and others on the right had devised a “grievance machine” that lets them anger their supporters — and justify their actions.
Bader, who's been in clinical practice for 40 years and has written several books, explained it as a classic manipulation of the victim mentality.
“There is another, darker side to the victim mentality — the belief in one’s own victimization is the ultimate rationale for striking out at others without guilt or remorse,” he wrote. “It is like a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card, justifying heinous actions by reframing them as revenge, retaliation or even a form of twisted self-care, because the “right” to fight back is now morally justified.”
And that justification, he said, now has a “central role in social, political and cultural discourse in the U.S.”
When Trump announced his latest presidential run, he did so by telling people he was righting a grievance.
"Trump, of course, is the ultimate victim," he said. "When announcing his third presidential run, he said, 'We will be attacked. We will be slandered. We will be persecuted, just as I have been.'"
He added that turning on Fox News gives a clear example — talking heads are constantly reminding Americans that they “are victims of ruthless, power-hungry and uncaring liberal elites. They present to their audience some version of 'They want to replace you with immigrants and people of color. They don’t care about you.' ... So when [Tucker] Carlson tells people that evil Democratic elites are ruthlessly trying to replace them, the resulting sense of victimization that he evokes easily becomes a justification for right-wing violence."
Bader added that this kind of thinking is what led to the violent attack on the United States Capitol nearly three years ago.
“Why would storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 be 'bad' if those doing the storming were fighting against an insidious plot to take away their freedoms? If the election was stolen, then stealing it back makes moral sense. If brown people are being given unbridled access to our borders, benefits and jobs — as part of a sinister plot by liberal Democrats to replace hard-working white Americans — then putting immigrants in cages and breaking up their families can easily seem morally legitimate.”
-------------
This is the dynamic at work in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as well. Palestinians express a sense of grievance that they use to justify even the most brutal attacks on Israel (like that on 10/7). Amplifying that sense of grievance gains supporters in the countries where they propagandize justifying anything they do, even baby killing and rape, torture and murder, hostage taking and the use of human shields among those in Gaza. Anything is justified because of their sense of grievance, without any sense of proportionality. That the Palestinians have provoked a similar sense among Israelis should be no surprise, and that perpetuates an endless circle of violence with seemingly no end.
Zionists and Israelis have been attacking Palestinian Arabs for a century.
DeleteAnd vice versa. That's the point. Israel did not attack the Palestinians in 1948. The Arabs attacked Israel. Everyone knows this. Palestinians have been responsible for each of the conflicts since then, initiating them and refusing reasonable negotiated settlements, including two-state solutions. Palestinians need to stop their violence if they care about the people of Gaza. That includes the West Bank, Hezbollah, the Howthis and anyone else helping them continue their violence against Israel. Simply throwing the word Zionist around doesn't explain why Palestinians don't want peace. 100-year old grievances are maintaining this conflict. Stop the fighting!
DeleteAs described at Digby's blog, the 14th Ammendment also provides a remedy for extreme gerrymandering in Section 2. A lawsuit on that basis is pending. Gerrymandering is a way to deprive members of the opposing party, not just racial groups, from having representation by voting. Section 2 is about denying people their right to vote.
ReplyDeletehttps://digbysblog.net/2024/01/02/meet-section-2/
Now, while Republicans are pretending they believe the people should decide elections, is the time to pass an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution making it so.
ReplyDeletePlease read @12:21. The 14th Amendment already has the means to do this. It just needs to be enforced.
DeleteThe bipartisanship to do so is available now, but it is a limited-time offer.
Delete"A profoundly important news report!"
ReplyDeleteIn the context of Somerby's ongoing attitude about women, especially claims of assault lodged by women, this headline sounds a little sarcastic.
If we look at this philosophically (as Somerby pretends to do occasionally), making war on the weakest members of a society seems wrong because it is the act of cowards and does not show the strength a person or nation is trying to display in order to compel compliance by those they are attacking .
Just as Hamas attacked the weak, not those prepared to defend themselves on 10/7, they are attacking the weak in Gaza by proxy, seeking to evoke sympathy. Israel has chosen to protect its own innocents instead of those living in Gaza, whose safety has been forfeited by Hamas.
Nations have joined together to agree that making war on the weak is not a legitimate tactic. There is no question that what Hamas did on 10/7 was against international law. But what about Israel? Its retaliation is resulting in deaths of those used as human shields by Hamas, as they hide among the Palestinians in Gaza who cannot do anything to protect themselves. Hamas thereby uses the deaths of those innocents to its PR advantage, using them to hide behind in a similar manner to the Israeli hostages taken in its 10/7 attack.
We should not be pressuring Israel to stop defending itself by attacking Hamas. we should be pressuring the Palestinians to give up Hamas and stop fighting a war that they lost the minute they attacked women and children.
So, regardless of Somerby's feelings about women who complain about rape, this IS actually a profound issue because it is at the heart of how Palestinians try to assert their claims. This heinous tactic cannot be appeased without placing the world's innocents at greater risk. It is time for the Palestinians to stop killing children (and yes, starvation is killing as much as more violent methods) by agreeing to discuss a setllement to this crisis. Remember that it was Hamas that broke the last ceasefire, and they are the reason the Israeli retaliation is continuing.
The new adjective being applied to Trump is "feral." Seems right to me.
ReplyDeleteGay is gone.
ReplyDeleteStefanik should resign, too.
Delete
ReplyDeleteThe US is a net exporter of oil now, which makes maintaining the shitty little colony in Palestine counterproductive. A whole lot of troubles with no upside at all.