Israel is simply following the model that the settlers who came to this country used to ethnically cleanse the Native Americans. The weapons required to implement the cleansing in Gaza have changed, but otherwise the model remains the same. Netanyahu and his gang of criminals decided to follow the same model, knowing the US would provide diplomatic cover for the slaughter using its veto power on the Security Council and generously supply the weapons needed to make Gaza uninhabitable. Like father, like son.
Netanyahu's Likud Party Platform in 1977 is explicit, “between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”
Since an Old Testament Jewish Religious Establishment became the Israeli government in January 2023, this Gaza MASSACRE is that Jewish Religious Establishment implementing that 1977 Platform to establish those facts on the ground TODAY this World can see except for the Zionist Biden Administration.
This was the policy presented in the 1800s to the Britain's, 1939 to Hitler which he agreed with, but fortunately it sort of got lost as he execution the war and other 'things' and finally to the U.S.'s and all Western democracies' extreme cost in tax dollars, reputation and Palestinian and humanitarian lives, the Truman administration that agreed to it and proceeded to help them 'move' the indigenous peoples that for some reason rebelled against it (the nerve of them fighting for their own land).
Do you think the Allies saw what that agreement meant immediately and in the long run which is the moral destruction of the leaders of these enabling countries, the financial burden on tax payers and the invasion/infiltration of their own governments and any Main Stream Media outlets as well as all major institutions bending to AIPAC's will?
I don't think religion is the issue. The early Zionists wanted little to do with Judaism. In the first Zionist settlements speaking Yiddish was forbidden. Mainstream European Judaism rejected Zionism. The Zionists styled themselves proud "new Jews" who were manly, never again to submit meekly to go to their destruction as had happened in Europe not long before. David Ben-Gurion (born David Green in Poland) was not religious but agreed to allow the Haredim (orthodox Jews) to have control of social issues (marriage, deciding who is a Jew, exempt from military service) in Israel in return for their support of Zionism. HAMAS certainly is an Islamic organization but the conflict is over the land, not religion.
Now if the Israelis pull something off on the Temple Mount, as in destroying the Dome of the Rock, the golden dome, the third holiest site in Islam and what sticks in the throat of Zionists as a limitation on their sovereignty over all of Palestine, then religion will explode as an issue.
I have gone both ways on whether this current genocide in Gaza has a religious component. Some days I believe the prominent scribes who proffer that it's just an Israeli "land grab" having little to do with religion. Other days I think religion is the MAJOR factor for the hatred.
In this video Dr. Omar Suleiman, an American Muslim scholar, civil rights leader, and writer, (Suleiman was born to a Palestinian family in New Orleans in 1986) discusses whether the claims of Jesus being a Palestinian are correct? And how this factors into the current Israeli occupation of Palestine?
Being an atheist, I side with neither Jew, Christian or Muslim, however the sanity of this guy's words I think resonates with wisdom and knowledge not seen on today's mainstream news.
He claims that is important to distinguish that Israel in the Bible is NOT the same as "Israel" as a nation-state project. He thinks this is a simple effective point to make that destroys a lot of arguments of dehumanization against Palestinians. Huh? Above my pay grade I guess!
Watching Al Jazeera TV 24/7 I don't see how any sane thinking person can be pro-Israel.
EDIT: and then I read comments like this - typical of the comment threads in YouTube® videos, and cannot convince myself that religion is not a factor.
"Jesus of Nazareth is a priest in the order of Melchizedek, the Most High God. Religion is considered a divisive force in the world, but when you understand our Creator and the Most High God, religion unifies the religions."
Yeah right!!!
Take care Clif. I have enjoyed your contributions to BV's this past year.
The Israelis have modified the model, however. While Native Americans have been full citizens since 1935 and retain a small amount of land to call their own, Palestinians are a pestilence that will never qualify for any kind of citizenship except for the token 20% allowed by Israel (not one more allowed) so it can trumpet itself as a democracy. Palestinians are resented and as can easily be determined from the ratio of Palestinian deaths to Israeli deaths since 2009 (UN stats) of 20:1 do not have lives considered the equal of Israeli lives. Of course we see it right now in Gaza, as the US cooperates with Israel to try to bribe other countries to take the Gazans, certainly the "final solution" for Gaza in Israeli eyes.
We should be asking: do either of these men have a right to exist as leaders of State with the attrocities both are commiting as we ponder this very question. Their crimes against humanity warrent action not our contemplations. To the ICC to both. NOW. Both should be removed from the world stage before their bloody actions of killing, maiming, starving the oppressed with inhumane sociopathic actions continue unabated. Both should be tried and jailed for life.
I wrote to the White House weeks ago about the U.S.' unequivocal support for Israel, and got a vague, minimal reply. Of course. This travesty of foreign policy may indeed cost Biden the election, and if it does, he'll deserve it.
I was glad to read just now that South Africa has filed a case with the U.N., accusing Israel of genocide. I wouldn't be surprised if the U.N. takes up the case and rules against Israel. But that would be a moral victory only, naturally. What is the U.N. going to do to remedy the situation, especially in light of U.S. policy?
Denise, I have been working on my high school buddies trying to get them to escape the trance Israel has worked on Americans for our entire lives. They are intelligent and moral men but their stubborn favoring of Israel in spite of the history and facts has convinced me of the stubbornness of the mind. Emotion will trump reason easily, even in people who consider themselves quite unemotional and rational.
In this case there is always a knee-jerk reaction of "both sides are equally at fault, a pox on both, it's a mess they both made, there is nothing to be done" which is ignorance on parade in the face of sustained theft of land now reaching a crescendo. My friends think there is a balance (!!!) but our government has been all in for Israel for decades. I am gradually getting though to them that Uncle Sam is acting in their name when Biden says "we" stand with Israel. Let the zombie in chief speak for himself!
Fortunately, as lifelong friends they are receptive to my pleas and continue to listen. I give them nothing but facts. The worst thrown at me is that I am a "firehose" with which I must agree. I consider it a major victory that I have convinced them to write their reps calling for a ceasefire. My work is still in progress.
At the risk of sounding like your buddies, however, I do believe there is fault on both sides. Hamas (not to be confused with civilian Palestinians) was not right in carrying out a terrorist attack. Period. And Israel has been over-the-top wrong for decades in its unconscionable treatment of Palestinians. Ordinary Gazans are caught between a militia they don't want and can't control; and the Israeli juggernaut. Meanwhile, the U.S. refuses to parse the situation (hmmm....AIPAC?) and is doing very little to stand up for the Gazans, as they are obliterated.
Biden cautioned Israel---Netanyahu---not to react as the U.S. did after 9/11, but Bibi wants to save his own hide. Therefore, he's completely ignoring all pleas to cease and desist, while the U.S. abets and assists his viciousness. The Gazans are paying the ultimate price for what amounts to endless political maneuvering, with, of course, dollar signs attached.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — More than two months into Israel's war against Hamas, the militant group's popularity appears to be rising dramatically among Palestinians in the West Bank. Surveys conducted since Oct. 7 appear to reflect the surge of support for Hamas in the West Bank.
"Three months ago ... we had 12% support for Hamas in the West Bank, and today it is 44%, so that's more than tripled," says Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Research.
Public support for Hamas in the Gaza Strip also rose modestly during the same period, from 38% to 42%, according to the center's survey conducted from Nov. 22-Dec. 2. The survey, published Dec. 13, found less than half of Palestinians support Hamas as an organization, but respondents showed "wide public support for Hamas' offensive" against Israel. A previous poll conducted by the group Arab World for Research and Development in late October and early November found 68% of Palestinians in the West Bank supported Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.
They told NPR that years of negotiations between Palestinians, Israeli leaders and diplomats from the U.S. and other countries toward a two-state solution have brought Palestinians nothing — no independence and no relief from Israeli occupation. Pollster Shikaki says......in surveys of Palestinians, a majority now believe "if they want to become independent and free of Israeli occupation, they must resort to armed struggle." "And when they look around at who can deliver armed struggle, they look at what Hamas had done on Oct. 7," Shikaki says.
Even many moderates say the time has come for Hamas' militant, armed approach to resistance and confrontation with Israel.
I'm not a big believer in polls. Absent documentation on their methodology, vehicle for communication, targeted demographic (and process for determining same), wording of questions, and so on, they don’t mean much. As infrastructure in much of Gaza has been destroyed, it's not clear to me how polls could even be taken.
Here in the U.S., as just one example, polls conducted via landlines invariably reach almost exclusively elderly, stay-at-home people. And many people won't answer cell calls from unrecognized numbers. Meaning that any results therefrom are going to skew toward older people who are desperate to talk to someone.
And wording of questions---along with format (scale, either/or, multiple choice)---can produce any desired outcome.
And Netanyahu was on yesterday - "this is going to be going on for months!"
Smiling and laughing as he shook the hands of a bunch of his brave IDF soldiers who had probably just killed a few kids and women! Or bulldozing the Gazan's streets, graveyards, mosques, water supply, and sewage system!
And you are correct - Netanyahu will just tell the UN to fuck off! Again!
And the US will veto it.
Take care my dear.
EDIT: Speaking of this "travesty of foreign policy" did you see this short YouTube® video yesterday by Professor Jeffrey Sachs: "US Foreign Policy is a Corrupt Scam"
Well, we know going back to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), that those "chosen people," in order to stay in covenant with YHWH, were to love their neighbor as themselves. To read Joshua and other juicy (and murderous) texts without reading the rebuke of the prophets (Amos, Jeremiah, Micah, etc.) brings us to the murderous mindset that infects not only modern day Israel but our own "Christian nation" and clearly, our "devout Catholic" President.
And all those drawdowns of US military stores will have to be restocked - keeping the order books filled for US "defense" contractors; that seems to drive most US foreign policy - along with foreign ownership of Congress (most especially by AIPAC).
The recent photo of Zelensky with the grinning jackals from US military contractors would only have been better if Netanyahu would have been there too.
As long as we have a dictator in charge of this "Banana Republic", there will be no need for congressional approval. That's a thing of the past, like most of the Constitution now is. The spigot will remain open until they wipe Gaza off of the map!!!! Linking once again @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
Shhhh, we must not let the citizens know how far into dictatorship their countries have already gone. Funny to contemplate that the Republicans and their followers think they need the Project 2025 Plan. Well, I guess they want to feel they completed the transformation and in a far more public and quicker way. They also aspire to get the credit and there is the ,perhaps, spilled blood in the process which they have been itching for for nearly eight years.
Thanks, Dennis, and I have appreciated your thoughtful input over the past year as well. BV is an island of sanity in our crazy world with WJA setting the tone and the comments reflecting the respect I think we all have for each other's views.
Though many claim the situation with Israel/Palestine is impossible to solve, one must keep in mind that Israel has never had an incentive to look for a solution, being able to have its way against the opposition of the entire world, thanks to Uncle Sam right up to the present.
Power corrupts individuals, groups and nations including the US. If there is no restraint, awful things are certain to come accompanied by arrogance and self-righteousness, as Israel's behavior has and does so clearly demonstrate. That tiny country has no reason to cooperate and has been free to push toward its goal of taking all the land from the natives.
The only positive thing about the present outrage is the arrogant behavior is so transparent, the Israeli spokespeople, right up to the PM and President mouthing the same false accounts as they have previously only this time with outright horror contradicting them as they speak. While I would like to think that they are aware they are dissembling, I fear that they honestly believe what they are saying. When thinking of the countries that have nuclear weapons, I believe Israel the most likely to use one, even pre-emptively while calling it defense. That the slaughter in Gaza is called defensive only reinforces my anxiety.
Dennis, I heard of Christoper Hitchens a long time ago, but this video is the 1st time I saw him. I agree with him on the Israel situation as it was back then, as it is Today.
Interesting, he actually referred to "Original SIN" and modified that to the "original misconception" of placing Israel on other People's Land, and in his own words, "Zionism is a waste of Judaism!"
Here's your Atheistic role model acknowledging something good in Judaism, a Religion that begat Christianity and Islam. :)
And when he saw good things in any religion, he was not afraid to say so.
He was most interested in the truth.
Not the untruths written in old Holy books inspired by divine revelation.
BTW, Chrisopher always referred to himself as an anti-theist, not an atheist.
“I am not even an atheist so much as an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful. Reviewing the false claims of religion, I do not wish, as some sentimental materialists affect to wish, that they were true. I do not envy believers their faith. I am relieved to think that the whole story is a sinister fairy tale; life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually true.... There may be people who wish to live their lives under cradle-to-grave divine supervision, a permanent surveillance and monitoring. But I cannot imagine anything more horrible or grotesque.” - Christopher Hitchens
And i follow Ray in wishing You, Bill, and You, Ray, and Everybody here at BV a very safe, wonderful and Wonder Full, beautiful and Beauty Full New Year.
The EXPAND LIBERTY PAC has this to say about 2023 and 2024:
The corporate press and establishment pundits complained nonstop in 2023 about the “do-nothing” Congress.
If only we were so lucky.
The reality is that congressional leaders passed a lot of terrible, anti-liberty legislation in 2023, and they hope to pass even more in 2024.
They also did their customary year-end can-kicking, with both the House and Senate voting to extend current-level funding for some programs and agencies through January 19 and the rest through February 2, and voting to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA 702) through April 19.
Congress reconvenes the second week of January, and don’t be surprised when congressional leaders try to pull a fast one on the American people by ramming through more federal spending and unconstitutional surveillance under the guise of bipartisan “compromise.”
The speaker of the House and Senate majority leader understand well that these arbitrary congressional deadlines create an environment ripe for exploitation.
Establishment politicians and lobbyists regularly use “must pass” bills to sneak through unrelated (and often controversial) provisions that likely couldn’t pass on their own – at least not without a lot of publicity, scrutiny, and criticism.
But we’ll be watching them closely and reporting back on all their schemes and plans.
We’ll be paying especially close attention to what happens with FISA 702.
This notorious spying program – which in practice results in the vast collection and warrantless searches of Americans’ communications and other data – was set to expire at the end of 2023, but Congress extended it for four months by slipping its reauthorization into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
That means early 2024 will likely include debate on whether and how to reform this surveillance program as part of a longer-term reauthorization of FISA 702.
We’ll have a lot more to say about the surveillance debate in the weeks ahead, but out of the bills currently in circulation, the most pro-liberty one by far is the Government Surveillance Reform Act (S. 3234/H.R. 6262).
And there’s much more we’ll be watching, from how Speaker Mike Johnson runs the House, to the Treasury Department’s attempts to expand its reporting and surveillance regime to thwart currency competition, to debates about free speech and Section 230 – not to mention how our elected officials are coming down on these issues.
Btw Bill! Did you watch the interview with Ambassador Freeman posted yesterday?
I thought it was interesting enough to comment on the Gaza Slaughter House, almost the only House left standing without a cease-fire.
We can see the massive demolition of so many destroyed Palestinian Homes just so they wouldn't have a Home to return to, in the most blatant Ethnic cleansing like the World never saw happening in REAL TIME before the WAR.
"without Congressional approval" is meaningless in this context because Congress would certainly approve arms to Israel. Where the debate should be is about the underlying ideology which drives the conflcit: Zionism. But you can count on obscurantism and devious sophistrity instead of debate on this subject because there is one subject which Israel supporters know they cannot talk about: Zionism itself.
I've long admired Levy's truth telling. As you might expect, he has a 24/7 bodyguard. I also admire the Israeli newspaper Haaretz for giving Levy a home for his writing.
I just watched former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett claim in a BBC interview that "Palestinians teach their children that Jews are pigs" with no evidence given.
The just filed South African claim against Israel for genocide in the International Court of Justice is quite revealing. It quotes quite a few Israeli government officials including Netanyahu and President Herzog speaking of the total elimination of Gaza and all its residents. Below is the link to the document (PDF) go to page 64 where the quotes begin. It is breathtaking, but not surprising and remember the continual official Israeli statements that all precautions are being taken to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza.
Absolutely nothing has worked to stop the revolting ethnic cleansing of our lifetimes.
Lawfare, UN resolutions, non-violent protest across the globe, all of it has been an exercise in futility. Israel keeps on with its genocide. For months to come says Netanyahu!
Must Tel Aviv be attacked heavily?
Is this the only option left to prevent the total elimination of Gaza and all its residents?
But the Americans would not bomb Tel Aviv eh Clif. Not Biden.
why am i not allowed to view this gideon levy interview you have alerted us to, bill? when i was compelled to sign-in as ‘proof of my age’, a message popped up that i was denied from doing so due to my email’s having no validity, no account… in other words, i’m a non-entity like the palestinians. please be my cynosure and guide me to the interview at a site from which i will not be blocked.
You might try watching it with a different browser. For example, I use Safari, Google Chrome, and Firefox. Sometimes, one browser will work when another one doesn't.
Let me know if this works. Or perhaps you might try a friend's computer?
Israel is simply following the model that the settlers who came to this country used to ethnically cleanse the Native Americans. The weapons required to implement the cleansing in Gaza have changed, but otherwise the model remains the same. Netanyahu and his gang of criminals decided to follow the same model, knowing the US would provide diplomatic cover for the slaughter using its veto power on the Security Council and generously supply the weapons needed to make Gaza uninhabitable. Like father, like son.
Netanyahu's Likud Party Platform in 1977 is explicit, “between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”
Since an Old Testament Jewish Religious Establishment became the Israeli government in January 2023, this Gaza MASSACRE is that Jewish Religious Establishment implementing that 1977 Platform to establish those facts on the ground TODAY this World can see except for the Zionist Biden Administration.
This was the policy presented in the 1800s to the Britain's, 1939 to Hitler which he agreed with, but fortunately it sort of got lost as he execution the war and other 'things' and finally to the U.S.'s and all Western democracies' extreme cost in tax dollars, reputation and Palestinian and humanitarian lives, the Truman administration that agreed to it and proceeded to help them 'move' the indigenous peoples that for some reason rebelled against it (the nerve of them fighting for their own land).
Do you think the Allies saw what that agreement meant immediately and in the long run which is the moral destruction of the leaders of these enabling countries, the financial burden on tax payers and the invasion/infiltration of their own governments and any Main Stream Media outlets as well as all major institutions bending to AIPAC's will?
And folks get angry at Christopher Hitchens.....🤔🤔
'Religion poisons everything" - Christopher Hitchens
I don't think religion is the issue. The early Zionists wanted little to do with Judaism. In the first Zionist settlements speaking Yiddish was forbidden. Mainstream European Judaism rejected Zionism. The Zionists styled themselves proud "new Jews" who were manly, never again to submit meekly to go to their destruction as had happened in Europe not long before. David Ben-Gurion (born David Green in Poland) was not religious but agreed to allow the Haredim (orthodox Jews) to have control of social issues (marriage, deciding who is a Jew, exempt from military service) in Israel in return for their support of Zionism. HAMAS certainly is an Islamic organization but the conflict is over the land, not religion.
Now if the Israelis pull something off on the Temple Mount, as in destroying the Dome of the Rock, the golden dome, the third holiest site in Islam and what sticks in the throat of Zionists as a limitation on their sovereignty over all of Palestine, then religion will explode as an issue.
Happy New Year Clif,
I have gone both ways on whether this current genocide in Gaza has a religious component. Some days I believe the prominent scribes who proffer that it's just an Israeli "land grab" having little to do with religion. Other days I think religion is the MAJOR factor for the hatred.
In this video Dr. Omar Suleiman, an American Muslim scholar, civil rights leader, and writer, (Suleiman was born to a Palestinian family in New Orleans in 1986) discusses whether the claims of Jesus being a Palestinian are correct? And how this factors into the current Israeli occupation of Palestine?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I19RIDTc5n0
Being an atheist, I side with neither Jew, Christian or Muslim, however the sanity of this guy's words I think resonates with wisdom and knowledge not seen on today's mainstream news.
He claims that is important to distinguish that Israel in the Bible is NOT the same as "Israel" as a nation-state project. He thinks this is a simple effective point to make that destroys a lot of arguments of dehumanization against Palestinians. Huh? Above my pay grade I guess!
Watching Al Jazeera TV 24/7 I don't see how any sane thinking person can be pro-Israel.
EDIT: and then I read comments like this - typical of the comment threads in YouTube® videos, and cannot convince myself that religion is not a factor.
"Jesus of Nazareth is a priest in the order of Melchizedek, the Most High God. Religion is considered a divisive force in the world, but when you understand our Creator and the Most High God, religion unifies the religions."
Yeah right!!!
Take care Clif. I have enjoyed your contributions to BV's this past year.
The Israelis have modified the model, however. While Native Americans have been full citizens since 1935 and retain a small amount of land to call their own, Palestinians are a pestilence that will never qualify for any kind of citizenship except for the token 20% allowed by Israel (not one more allowed) so it can trumpet itself as a democracy. Palestinians are resented and as can easily be determined from the ratio of Palestinian deaths to Israeli deaths since 2009 (UN stats) of 20:1 do not have lives considered the equal of Israeli lives. Of course we see it right now in Gaza, as the US cooperates with Israel to try to bribe other countries to take the Gazans, certainly the "final solution" for Gaza in Israeli eyes.
We should be asking: do either of these men have a right to exist as leaders of State with the attrocities both are commiting as we ponder this very question. Their crimes against humanity warrent action not our contemplations. To the ICC to both. NOW. Both should be removed from the world stage before their bloody actions of killing, maiming, starving the oppressed with inhumane sociopathic actions continue unabated. Both should be tried and jailed for life.
I wrote to the White House weeks ago about the U.S.' unequivocal support for Israel, and got a vague, minimal reply. Of course. This travesty of foreign policy may indeed cost Biden the election, and if it does, he'll deserve it.
I was glad to read just now that South Africa has filed a case with the U.N., accusing Israel of genocide. I wouldn't be surprised if the U.N. takes up the case and rules against Israel. But that would be a moral victory only, naturally. What is the U.N. going to do to remedy the situation, especially in light of U.S. policy?
Denise, I have been working on my high school buddies trying to get them to escape the trance Israel has worked on Americans for our entire lives. They are intelligent and moral men but their stubborn favoring of Israel in spite of the history and facts has convinced me of the stubbornness of the mind. Emotion will trump reason easily, even in people who consider themselves quite unemotional and rational.
In this case there is always a knee-jerk reaction of "both sides are equally at fault, a pox on both, it's a mess they both made, there is nothing to be done" which is ignorance on parade in the face of sustained theft of land now reaching a crescendo. My friends think there is a balance (!!!) but our government has been all in for Israel for decades. I am gradually getting though to them that Uncle Sam is acting in their name when Biden says "we" stand with Israel. Let the zombie in chief speak for himself!
Fortunately, as lifelong friends they are receptive to my pleas and continue to listen. I give them nothing but facts. The worst thrown at me is that I am a "firehose" with which I must agree. I consider it a major victory that I have convinced them to write their reps calling for a ceasefire. My work is still in progress.
I applaud your efforts, Clif.
At the risk of sounding like your buddies, however, I do believe there is fault on both sides. Hamas (not to be confused with civilian Palestinians) was not right in carrying out a terrorist attack. Period. And Israel has been over-the-top wrong for decades in its unconscionable treatment of Palestinians. Ordinary Gazans are caught between a militia they don't want and can't control; and the Israeli juggernaut. Meanwhile, the U.S. refuses to parse the situation (hmmm....AIPAC?) and is doing very little to stand up for the Gazans, as they are obliterated.
Biden cautioned Israel---Netanyahu---not to react as the U.S. did after 9/11, but Bibi wants to save his own hide. Therefore, he's completely ignoring all pleas to cease and desist, while the U.S. abets and assists his viciousness. The Gazans are paying the ultimate price for what amounts to endless political maneuvering, with, of course, dollar signs attached.
"Ordinary Gazans are caught between a militia they don't want and can't control..."
December 21st:
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/21/1217758546/hamas-support-palestinians-west-bank
RAMALLAH, West Bank — More than two months into Israel's war against Hamas, the militant group's popularity appears to be rising dramatically among Palestinians in the West Bank. Surveys conducted since Oct. 7 appear to reflect the surge of support for Hamas in the West Bank.
"Three months ago ... we had 12% support for Hamas in the West Bank, and today it is 44%, so that's more than tripled," says Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Research.
Public support for Hamas in the Gaza Strip also rose modestly during the same period, from 38% to 42%, according to the center's survey conducted from Nov. 22-Dec. 2. The survey, published Dec. 13, found less than half of Palestinians support Hamas as an organization, but respondents showed "wide public support for Hamas' offensive" against Israel. A previous poll conducted by the group Arab World for Research and Development in late October and early November found 68% of Palestinians in the West Bank supported Hamas' Oct. 7 attack.
They told NPR that years of negotiations between Palestinians, Israeli leaders and diplomats from the U.S. and other countries toward a two-state solution have brought Palestinians nothing — no independence and no relief from Israeli occupation. Pollster Shikaki says......in surveys of Palestinians, a majority now believe "if they want to become independent and free of Israeli occupation, they must resort to armed struggle." "And when they look around at who can deliver armed struggle, they look at what Hamas had done on Oct. 7," Shikaki says.
Even many moderates say the time has come for Hamas' militant, armed approach to resistance and confrontation with Israel.
I'm not a big believer in polls. Absent documentation on their methodology, vehicle for communication, targeted demographic (and process for determining same), wording of questions, and so on, they don’t mean much. As infrastructure in much of Gaza has been destroyed, it's not clear to me how polls could even be taken.
Here in the U.S., as just one example, polls conducted via landlines invariably reach almost exclusively elderly, stay-at-home people. And many people won't answer cell calls from unrecognized numbers. Meaning that any results therefrom are going to skew toward older people who are desperate to talk to someone.
And wording of questions---along with format (scale, either/or, multiple choice)---can produce any desired outcome.
SURVEY's are different than anonymous POLL's Denise.
A lot of the methodology used here was interviewing representative people in the street. Mixing with the displaced people of Gaza.
Listening to the local scuttlebutt. Talking to folks in shelters, hospitals, and first responders.
If you want to know the truth - ask a Taxi driver! LOL
There's no documentation of what they did and exactly what they asked. Also, there's reference to a, "pollster."
Have you watched this YouTube® video Denise?
The detail in South Africa’s legal case against Israel is astonishing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTX7AAGr-0c
New acrynom: WCNSFM - Wounded child no surviving family members.
Israel has rejected the case at the UN court & says South Africa is collaborating with terrorists!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC2RxtRbfqQ
Israel is always the victims eh!
No, I haven't, for the same reason I don't watch ads soliciting donations for homeless animals---can't bear them.
Merry Xmas and Happy New Year Denise,
Hope you are copacetic.
I turned off my Al Jazeera TV this morning....
Can't handle it anymore.
And Netanyahu was on yesterday - "this is going to be going on for months!"
Smiling and laughing as he shook the hands of a bunch of his brave IDF soldiers who had probably just killed a few kids and women! Or bulldozing the Gazan's streets, graveyards, mosques, water supply, and sewage system!
And you are correct - Netanyahu will just tell the UN to fuck off! Again!
And the US will veto it.
Take care my dear.
EDIT: Speaking of this "travesty of foreign policy" did you see this short YouTube® video yesterday by Professor Jeffrey Sachs: "US Foreign Policy is a Corrupt Scam"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlKuQ3r3Mwk&t=1008s
"It's a sad, sad situation/And it's getting more and more absurd...."
- Elton John
Hope you are well, too, Dennis.
Elton John - "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYTOhFpiBDI
Well, we know going back to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), that those "chosen people," in order to stay in covenant with YHWH, were to love their neighbor as themselves. To read Joshua and other juicy (and murderous) texts without reading the rebuke of the prophets (Amos, Jeremiah, Micah, etc.) brings us to the murderous mindset that infects not only modern day Israel but our own "Christian nation" and clearly, our "devout Catholic" President.
And all those drawdowns of US military stores will have to be restocked - keeping the order books filled for US "defense" contractors; that seems to drive most US foreign policy - along with foreign ownership of Congress (most especially by AIPAC).
The recent photo of Zelensky with the grinning jackals from US military contractors would only have been better if Netanyahu would have been there too.
More honest, but too explicit at this time.
Biden is nothing more than a spineless jelly fish without an ounce ocourage to stand up to Netanyahu. Both disgust me.
As long as we have a dictator in charge of this "Banana Republic", there will be no need for congressional approval. That's a thing of the past, like most of the Constitution now is. The spigot will remain open until they wipe Gaza off of the map!!!! Linking once again @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
Shhhh, we must not let the citizens know how far into dictatorship their countries have already gone. Funny to contemplate that the Republicans and their followers think they need the Project 2025 Plan. Well, I guess they want to feel they completed the transformation and in a far more public and quicker way. They also aspire to get the credit and there is the ,perhaps, spilled blood in the process which they have been itching for for nearly eight years.
Thanks, Dennis, and I have appreciated your thoughtful input over the past year as well. BV is an island of sanity in our crazy world with WJA setting the tone and the comments reflecting the respect I think we all have for each other's views.
Though many claim the situation with Israel/Palestine is impossible to solve, one must keep in mind that Israel has never had an incentive to look for a solution, being able to have its way against the opposition of the entire world, thanks to Uncle Sam right up to the present.
Power corrupts individuals, groups and nations including the US. If there is no restraint, awful things are certain to come accompanied by arrogance and self-righteousness, as Israel's behavior has and does so clearly demonstrate. That tiny country has no reason to cooperate and has been free to push toward its goal of taking all the land from the natives.
The only positive thing about the present outrage is the arrogant behavior is so transparent, the Israeli spokespeople, right up to the PM and President mouthing the same false accounts as they have previously only this time with outright horror contradicting them as they speak. While I would like to think that they are aware they are dissembling, I fear that they honestly believe what they are saying. When thinking of the countries that have nuclear weapons, I believe Israel the most likely to use one, even pre-emptively while calling it defense. That the slaughter in Gaza is called defensive only reinforces my anxiety.
Christoper Hitchens on Zionism and Modern Israel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5Kszl_bpeA
Wasn't this interview 20-years ago?
Dennis, I heard of Christoper Hitchens a long time ago, but this video is the 1st time I saw him. I agree with him on the Israel situation as it was back then, as it is Today.
Interesting, he actually referred to "Original SIN" and modified that to the "original misconception" of placing Israel on other People's Land, and in his own words, "Zionism is a waste of Judaism!"
Here's your Atheistic role model acknowledging something good in Judaism, a Religion that begat Christianity and Islam. :)
Christopher was not a polemicist Ray.
He had a brilliant independent critical mind.
And when he saw good things in any religion, he was not afraid to say so.
He was most interested in the truth.
Not the untruths written in old Holy books inspired by divine revelation.
BTW, Chrisopher always referred to himself as an anti-theist, not an atheist.
“I am not even an atheist so much as an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful. Reviewing the false claims of religion, I do not wish, as some sentimental materialists affect to wish, that they were true. I do not envy believers their faith. I am relieved to think that the whole story is a sinister fairy tale; life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually true.... There may be people who wish to live their lives under cradle-to-grave divine supervision, a permanent surveillance and monitoring. But I cannot imagine anything more horrible or grotesque.” - Christopher Hitchens
Happy New Year Ray my friend.
And i follow Ray in wishing You, Bill, and You, Ray, and Everybody here at BV a very safe, wonderful and Wonder Full, beautiful and Beauty Full New Year.
The EXPAND LIBERTY PAC has this to say about 2023 and 2024:
The corporate press and establishment pundits complained nonstop in 2023 about the “do-nothing” Congress.
If only we were so lucky.
The reality is that congressional leaders passed a lot of terrible, anti-liberty legislation in 2023, and they hope to pass even more in 2024.
They also did their customary year-end can-kicking, with both the House and Senate voting to extend current-level funding for some programs and agencies through January 19 and the rest through February 2, and voting to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA 702) through April 19.
Congress reconvenes the second week of January, and don’t be surprised when congressional leaders try to pull a fast one on the American people by ramming through more federal spending and unconstitutional surveillance under the guise of bipartisan “compromise.”
The speaker of the House and Senate majority leader understand well that these arbitrary congressional deadlines create an environment ripe for exploitation.
Establishment politicians and lobbyists regularly use “must pass” bills to sneak through unrelated (and often controversial) provisions that likely couldn’t pass on their own – at least not without a lot of publicity, scrutiny, and criticism.
But we’ll be watching them closely and reporting back on all their schemes and plans.
We’ll be paying especially close attention to what happens with FISA 702.
This notorious spying program – which in practice results in the vast collection and warrantless searches of Americans’ communications and other data – was set to expire at the end of 2023, but Congress extended it for four months by slipping its reauthorization into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
That means early 2024 will likely include debate on whether and how to reform this surveillance program as part of a longer-term reauthorization of FISA 702.
We’ll have a lot more to say about the surveillance debate in the weeks ahead, but out of the bills currently in circulation, the most pro-liberty one by far is the Government Surveillance Reform Act (S. 3234/H.R. 6262).
And there’s much more we’ll be watching, from how Speaker Mike Johnson runs the House, to the Treasury Department’s attempts to expand its reporting and surveillance regime to thwart currency competition, to debates about free speech and Section 230 – not to mention how our elected officials are coming down on these issues.
In liberty,
The Team
Expand Liberty PAC
https://www.expandlibertypac.com/
Happy New Year Bill et al!
https://www.funimada.com/assets/images/cards/big/ny-459.gif
Thanks Ray! Same to you.
Btw Bill! Did you watch the interview with Ambassador Freeman posted yesterday?
I thought it was interesting enough to comment on the Gaza Slaughter House, almost the only House left standing without a cease-fire.
We can see the massive demolition of so many destroyed Palestinian Homes just so they wouldn't have a Home to return to, in the most blatant Ethnic cleansing like the World never saw happening in REAL TIME before the WAR.
excelsior! that youtube site you proffered worked seamlessly. tnx, bill.
"without Congressional approval" is meaningless in this context because Congress would certainly approve arms to Israel. Where the debate should be is about the underlying ideology which drives the conflcit: Zionism. But you can count on obscurantism and devious sophistrity instead of debate on this subject because there is one subject which Israel supporters know they cannot talk about: Zionism itself.
I've long admired Levy's truth telling. As you might expect, he has a 24/7 bodyguard. I also admire the Israeli newspaper Haaretz for giving Levy a home for his writing.
I just watched former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett claim in a BBC interview that "Palestinians teach their children that Jews are pigs" with no evidence given.
The just filed South African claim against Israel for genocide in the International Court of Justice is quite revealing. It quotes quite a few Israeli government officials including Netanyahu and President Herzog speaking of the total elimination of Gaza and all its residents. Below is the link to the document (PDF) go to page 64 where the quotes begin. It is breathtaking, but not surprising and remember the continual official Israeli statements that all precautions are being taken to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza.
South African filing is at: https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf?__cf_chl_rt_tk=iBIBh3KtFnlEIzGzB8Cd_Fa925iS2qa.0lnxUeqN_zo-1703999282-0-gaNycGzNC9A
Absolutely nothing has worked to stop the revolting ethnic cleansing of our lifetimes.
Lawfare, UN resolutions, non-violent protest across the globe, all of it has been an exercise in futility. Israel keeps on with its genocide. For months to come says Netanyahu!
Must Tel Aviv be attacked heavily?
Is this the only option left to prevent the total elimination of Gaza and all its residents?
But the Americans would not bomb Tel Aviv eh Clif. Not Biden.
So who will do this? Probably nobody.
why am i not allowed to view this gideon levy interview you have alerted us to, bill? when i was compelled to sign-in as ‘proof of my age’, a message popped up that i was denied from doing so due to my email’s having no validity, no account… in other words, i’m a non-entity like the palestinians. please be my cynosure and guide me to the interview at a site from which i will not be blocked.
I'm not sure, Jeanie. This is the link I have: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5h1bO51tco
You might try watching it with a different browser. For example, I use Safari, Google Chrome, and Firefox. Sometimes, one browser will work when another one doesn't.
Let me know if this works. Or perhaps you might try a friend's computer?