Saturday, December 30, 2023

Bypassing the US Congress, Joe ships more weapons to Israel

Israeli planes bombed refugee camps in Gaza on Saturday as its troops expanded ground operations and tens of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes, setting the stage for a new year as bloody and destructive as the last three months of 2023.

The threat of wider escalation also looms large over the region, as skirmishes on the northern boundary with Lebanon intensify, and Israeli officials have hinted that the “diplomatic hourglass” is running out to reach a negotiated solution.

For now there seems little hope of even a temporary break in attacks, even after Egypt hosted leaders for talks last week and pushed plans for a staged break in the war. 


That's from Emma Graham Harrison's "As Gaza death toll mounts, Israelis look in vain for any sign of victory" (GUARDIAN).  That's fairly straight forward.  Not so much with this from THE NEWSHOUR (PBS), "In our news wrap Saturday, Gaza residents say airstrikes hit two urban refugee camps a day after U.S. Secretary of State Blinken approved a $147 million emergency weapons sale to Israel,.

An unelected official of the US government "approved a $147 million" gift to a foreign country.  PBS considers that 'reporting'?  


THE WASHINGTON POST notes:


Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) criticized the State Department’s circumvention of Congress in approving a $147.5 million arms sale to Israel. Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, demanded a “public explanation of the rationale behind this decision — the second such decision this month.” In a Friday announcement, the State Department said the proposed sale of 155-millimeter artillery shells and related equipment is consistent with the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security and efforts to help it “develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability.”


That, PBS, is the story -- he bypassed Congress.  Here's another story:  All this money from the US government, taxpayer money.  We can't spend here apparently.  Can't have student loan forgiveness or universal health care or even needed infrastructure repairs.  But our government's more than fine giving millions and millions of dollars for killing.  

CNN notes:


Israel’s war against Hamas is at its “highest level and will continue for months,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday, according to Israel’s Army Radio.

His comments come as the death toll in Gaza rose to nearly 21,700 since Israeli military operations began on October 7, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza.

At least 165 people have been killed over the past day, and 250 others wounded, ministry spokesperson Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra said Saturday.


Gaza remains under assault.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is now well over  20,000. NBC NEWS notes, "The vast majority of its 2.2 million people are displaced, and an estimated half face starvation amid an unfolding humanitarian crisis."   THE NATIONAL notes, "At least 21,672 Palestinians have been killed and 56,165 wounded in Israeli strikes in Gaza since October 7, the enclave's Health Ministry said on Saturday."  In addition to the dead and the injured, there are the missing.  AP notes, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  And the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."  Max Butterworth (NBC NEWS) adds, "Satellite images captured by Maxar Technologies on Sunday reveal three of the main hospitals in Gaza from above, surrounded by the rubble of destroyed buildings after weeks of intense bombing in the region by Israeli forces."


As the death toll continues to increase, is another fatality in the near future?  Joe Biden's 2024 campaign?  ALJAZEERA reports:


US Muslim leaders have carried on a campaign launched earlier this month against President Joe Biden over his handling of the Gaza conflict.

The #AbandonBiden campaign was first launched by Muslim leaders from Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

Saturday’s plan to actively campaign against Biden in all 50 US states was announced in Chicago, Illinois at the end of a national convention organised by the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America.

The leaders say they intend to guarantee Biden’s loss in the upcoming 2024 election over his refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israeli attacks have killed more than 21,000 people, mostly children and women.

 Let's move to another topic.  And I don't feel good so this entry  is going to be short.  Ishmael Reed has long attacked Alice Walker and THE COLOR PURPLE.  He makes a fool of himself over this repeatedly and he's done so again this week.  COUNTERPUNCH published his uninformed attack on Friday.  It opens poorly and it never gets more factual.  Here's the opening:



When I informed some prominent Black men, among them Academic and Media stars, that convicted serial rapist Harvey Weinstein was co-producer of the musical version of the recently released film, “The Color Purple,” they were shocked. A couple disputed my report. I directed them to Bloomberg News, which reported Weinstein’s involvement. Was Alice Walker aware of his involvement? What about feminist Marsha Norman, who wrote the book for the musical?


The film THE COLOR PURPLE opened Monday.  Is that what he's talking about?  He wants you to think so.  He's dishonest.  He's talking about the Broadway production.  And not the 2015 production.  He's talking about the 2005 production.  And Harvey Weinstein "co-producer"?


Yeah, with 17 other people and entities, Harvey Weinstein was a producer.

Here's the full list of the producers -- in the order that they were listed on the playbill:  Oprah Winfrey, Scott Sanders, Roy Furman, Quincy Jones, Creative Battery, Anna Fantaci, Cheryl Lachowicz, Independent Presenters Network, David Lowy, Stephanie McClelland, Gary Winnick, Jan Kallish, Nederlander Presentations, Inc., Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Andrew Asnes, Adam Zotovich and Todd Johnson


In 2017, twelve years after THE COLOR PURPLE debuted on Broadway, allegations of assault began emerging.  Now I never liked Harvey, I never worked with him, I cut him off at any social function and, long before the allegations appeared in THE NEW YORKER, years before, we were noting them here because I know a number of women who were assaulted by him.


I do call out his apologists (Meryl Streep).


But a 2005 production credit, 12 years before the allegations were widely reported, is not an indictment of women, of Oprah or of THE COLOR PURPLE.


I'm really tired of liars but if Ishmael Reed told the truth, no one would care.  So he lies.  Go whisper in Louise Gossett Jr.'s ear -- he's the only friend you have left.  Oops!  Did I just spoil the secret of the African-American actor you're always quoting in your columns but never naming?  Oops.

He lies and misleads from the opening paragraph.  It only gets worse from there.  But time is too short to waste on Reed.


The following sites updated:








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