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The horrors of the Gaza war have penetrated US political discourse. They’ve aroused tempers, provoked violence, and threatened personal safety and gotten people fired. In addition, disinformation peddled mainly by Israeli sources has poisoned the environment with unvetted reports regarding Hamas atrocities (more on this below).
Warning: graphic content. Video given to us shows clash between Israeli and Palestinian protesters in #Kirkland following Hamas attack on Israel pic.twitter.com/IxagI5k3A9
— Jackie Kent (@JackieKentNews) October 9, 2023
Last Sunday, local Seattle pro-Palestinian students mounted a protest in Kirkland against Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. They were confronted around 50 counter-demonstrators who were mostly Israeli (see video tweet above and a second video here). The latter were draped in Israel and American flags. They assaulted the students, threw punches, screamed F-bombs, ripped Palestinian flags from the hands of protestors, and a a woman even brandished a knife with which she slashed the flag of Palestine. Police were summoned, both sides were separated after tear gas was fired at them. It was sheer mayhem. Similar violence happened at other rallies, including one in New York.
Jason Rantz, a local shock jock infamous for his “Rantz Rants,” stoked such hatreds against the student organizers. He is known for his Islamophobia and fact-free MAGA tirades. In this case, he was provoking hatred and violence against a group of college students standing up for Palestine.
There is an atmosphere of hate and violence reminiscent of the January 6th insurrection. It is far more than holding strong opinions. It is hostility and violence that could cause far more damage than mere irritated eyes from police tear gas. I know this at first-hand because I received a death threat via e-mail. It said that Israel would “take care of Hamas and then deal with the internal Leftist Scum we have here.”
Death threats and disinformation
I have received similar death threats before. In 1985, after Palestinian-American activist, Alex Odeh, was assassinated by the JDL, I received a death threat warning that the group I worked for, New Jewish Agenda, would suffer the same fate as “that dead sand-n*. But threats I got since I began Tikun Olam I chalked up to the venting of disgruntled deranged individuals. However, in this political environment nothing is normal. Everything is possible, including the worst.
I can understand the need to dramatize one’s suffering. God knows there is plenty to go around in Gaza and Israel. But peddling lies in order to do so does a disservice and demeans that suffering. Global media: do NOT report rumors peddled to you without authenticating them. pic.twitter.com/tgWqvnjdtC
— Tikun Olam (@richards1052) October 12, 2023
Israel and its allies have fed the media massive doses of disinformation, meant to dramatize the suffering of Israelis and incite hatred for Palestinians. I reported that Israel planted the leak reported by the Wall Street Journal, in which it falsely claimed that Iran ordered the Hamas attack against Israel. US officials including Secretaries Blink and Austin have been debunking that rumor over the past few days.
3/5 Soldiers I spoke with in Kfar Aza yesterday didn’t mention “beheaded babies”. The army’s spokesperson stated: “We can not confirm at this point… we are aware of the heinous acts Hamas is capable of” pic.twitter.com/enXnHID66A
— Oren Ziv (@OrenZiv_) October 11, 2023
Beheaded babies hoax
The IDF has also peddled lies to the Israeli and global media. The most incendiary one claims that Hamas fighters beheaded 40 Israeli babies during their attack (see above tweet). This was first reported by an Israeli search and rescue officer, Yossi Landau, on CNN. It was repeated by IDF spokesperson, Maj. Libby Weiss also on CNN. From there it was reported by the Independent, the Los Angeles Times and other outlets.
The apparently cognitively impaired President of the United States, 79 year old Joe Biden, even repeated the calumny, stating he’d seen “confirmed photographs” documenting the incident. After which, his press officers “clarified” that he had not actually “seen” the photos, but was basing his statements on “Netanyahu and Israeli media.” On the other hand, Israeli journalist, Oren Ziv, visited the southern Israel communities attacked and repeatedly asked IDF officers if they could verify the story. They told him they had seen no evidence supporting these claims (see tweet above).
Such disinformation demeans the real suffering of real people, including Israelis. It deflects from the suffering Israel is inflicting on Gaza. It incites violence. It poisons human discourse. During crises, it is most likely people will fall prey to their worst fears and act on them. That is when people most need news that is properly and accurately reported. Rumors fly and tempers flare. That’s when facts are vital.
Disinformation inflames. It moves people to violence. People will die due to the outrage incited by such lies. It would even provoke a wider conflict than the one confined now to Gaza.
Meanwhile, actual pogroms in which Judeo-terrorists murder actual Palestinians are barely reported, including this one in the Palestinian village of Qusra:
4 Palestinians were murdered by Judeo-terrorists in Palestinian village of Qusra. This is the announcement of their plan for murder: “To all the stinking rats of Qusra. We’re ready for you and will show no mercy. The Day of Vengeance approaches. The IDF knew & aided the killers pic.twitter.com/eaW7BCZgwU
— Tikun Olam (@richards1052) October 12, 2023
Billionaires for ‘free speech’ except on Palestine
I am 100% in support of free speech. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I do however object to students putting out a statement holding Israel ‘entirely responsible’ for terrorists’ heinous and despicable acts, but doing so anonymously under a corporate veil while leveraging… https://t.co/jzYzSntDRP
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) October 11, 2023
Pro-Israel billionaires have done the same. Bill Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital, responded by a tweet (see above) by a political scientist concerning a statement by dozens of Harvard pro-Palestinian student groups saying: “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all the unfolding violence. ”
Ackman was outraged, calling on his fellow CEOs to establish a blacklist of students who are members of the groups. He dared them to out themselves so they could be held up for shame. He declared that he would refuse to hire any student affiliated with the statement and urged the other business leaders to do the same. The optics of a billionaire bullying colleges students is just not good.
He claimed to support free speech, while this statement was somehow was exempted. He missed the entire purpose of such Constitutional protections. They were meant to protect precisely such speech. Expressing a political view about a subject of public interest is a hallowed American right.
An NYU law school student has already been fired by a law firm for writing a message in her law school newsletter supporting Palestine. The school is attempting to remove her as president of the law school student association as well.
Such punitive behavior by entitled white male billionaires provokes fear in young people just beginning their careers. It teaches them not to stand out, not to express dissenting opinions about anything. It teaches them conformity. A truly democratic society enjoys diverse opinions and debating ideas. Otherwise, what are we worth?
Silencing pro-Palestinian voices in Congress
Reps. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, and Ilhan Omar, a Somali-American Muslim, have been viciously attacked by Democratic House members for their calls for an end to violence against Palestinians. Republicans have filed a motion to censure her. Media reports have noted that those attacking them are heavily funded by Aipac, and that it has put a bullseye on the backs of Congress members insufficiently loyal to Israeli interests. It is no accident that both are Muslim American women whom mainly white Christian men are seeking to silence.
At the Democratic caucus meeting, an AIPAC-funded, enraged Rep. Josh Gottheimer, said all Muslims are guilty for the Hamas attack. A statement redolent of racism and Islamophobia.
The new “Red Scare” blacklist
In the 1950s we had blacklists and loyalty oaths. There was the cry of: “are you now or have you ever been a Communist?” People talked of the”McCarthyite “red scare.” Today, we substitute Muslim and Palestinians for “Communists.” Israel’s allies at home and abroad stoke fears and incite violence. They do so to deflect from the horrors and genocide of carpet-bombing, levelling entire neighborhoods, turning Gaza into “rubble,” as Netanyahu threatened. These are crimes against humanity. People must see them clearly and call them by their name.
Israel knows that the world will detest such carnage. So it muddies the waters and confuses people. It makes them think that the subject is too complicated to understand. That lessens their willingness to take a stand or hold Israel accountable for its actions. It makes it less likely the International Criminal Court will ever prosecute Israel (and Hamas, for that matter) for these heinous crimes.
America is a tolerant society … permitting loud protest for both sides …
EU states are so damn pro-Israel biased (Re: racist and Islamophobic) waving a Palestinian flag will get you arrested and/or fined …
France bans all pro-Palestinian demonstrations
Dutch former FM Uri Rosenthal (VVD) is a warmonger calling for an attack on Iran … complicit in Hamas attack on Israel.
Excellent post. Similar things are happening in Britain and Europe where governments are tying support for Palestinians with support for terrorism. I shall be shamelessly plagiarising this post for my next blog (with credits of course!)
@Tony
Can you verify that The Telegraph has published photos of Israeli babies beheaded and burned to death?
Richard isn’t so sure.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/12/photo-baby-dead-hamas-israel-palestine-blinken/
@Yellow: you apparently can’t read or comprehend. The false claim was that babies were beheaded. They weren’t. Did babies die? Of course they did. I never said otherwise.
The article says babies died. It does not say they were beheaded. So either you can’t read or you’re a liar.
But for every dead Israeli baby there are 10 dead Palestinian babies. But only dead Israeli babies matter to you. 300 children have died in Gaza in the last 6 days.
You are sickening.
[comment deleted: calling the murder of Palestinian babies “collateral damage is not only offensive, but racist and genocidal. You are moderated and further comments containing similar views will lead to banning.]
Yellow Palestinians could show tens if not hundreds of equal pictures of their bloody dead babies killed by “Israelis” from the past years and decades. By the way Yellow the baby in the Telgraph’s picture is not beheaded and burned. Nor one baby is not 40 beheaded babies. Of course even one killed is a tragedy.
Do you Yellow know what shooting phospor and rubber ammunition to Gaza causes to babies? It burns with temperature of 1300 Celsius and can not be stopped. That is why Israel is destroying the communication and press in Gaza so that pictures of those hundreds of soon to be killed babies will not be on the front pages of the world. Israel has commanded ONE MILLION people in Gaza to move to the south. Egypt has said no to taking refugees.
UNICEF (13.10.2023 in Finnish news): At least 447 children killed in Gaza by Israeli bombings.
(If Israel in your strange nationalistic religious minds has the right to its revenge, what do you believe is the world’s opinion to Palestinians rights of revenge?)
Obama: “Don’t do stupid things.”
Israel 75 years of ill conceived policy in Arab neighborhood of ME. Read the UN Charter and commitment to strive for peace, not colonizing Palestinian land.
Israel releases images of slain children to rally support … | Reuters |
Unverified! Images are selected from social media and terror sites from untraceable sources in a composite video. Deep fake … who knows … technology unlimited.
Lesson from 1990 … when contemplating war, beware of babies in incubators.
The thing that could make this a big problem for the US and the west is the protests across the world for Palestine. Some places, like in France, Germany and the UK, have already either tried to criminalize aspects of the protests (waving Palestinian flags) or outright banned them all together. These aggressive attacks on freedom of speech and assembly are likely going to provoke bigger marches and possibly riots if police continue to use heavy handed tactics to repress them. That kind of destabilization, similar to what we saw during the George Floyd uprising of 2020, is probably one of the only things that may force Biden and other EU leaders to put Bibi on a leash in regards to his ethnic cleansing plans for Gaza. That and potentially seeing the entire Middle East unite against Israel. Higher odds if both happen at the same time.
”Bibi on a leash in regards to his ethnic cleansing plans for Gaza”
You know the history of the State and all its leaders well enough, that will never come to pass.
The humiliation to the extreme has destroyed the false image if invincibility … the legacy of Netanyahu as a security leader is now seen for what it really was … (antics) tactics of self-destruction. Bibi knows history of Israel will not be kind to him. He failed as a son of Benzion, lost the battle with his older brother Yoni long ago.
This siege of Palestine (and the Middle East) will be his last act as a politician. Poor Joe Biden in the White House looks distraught with so many wars and so many losses. He will and has given Netanyahu war cabinet a free reign as if that was needed. Only a weapons boycott would have a meaning although the global arms market is well stocked.
For Joe’s re-election the victory in Ukraine and the superficial normalization of ties between Bibi and MBS were the big prizes … both are slipping away.
On the global stage America has already lost clout and gives China an opportunity for a quick gain … the long waiting game plays off.
Islamic “David” slaying Israel “Goliath” with a sling.
My goodness! so soon to write these conclusions! The impatience for victory in Ukraine has been or should be tempered. This is possibly a long war; both sides are preparing for such. I don’t know how much control Biden or rather the US has in it’s diminished role as a single superpower in a multi-power world and that goes for either with re Ukraine or Israel. The US support of those wars on principle are morally contradictory it seems to me. The Jewish people, represented by Israel, ( which does not represent us all) get to usurp victimhood now for a while and that may change now as the death tolls climb to the usual higher numbers on the Palestinian side as Israel retaliates. This give us all a chance to examine “the situation” with the Holocaust (notice) very much still in the mix.
Notice too that WW2 comes up with the Russian war on Ukraine.
Today one analyst ( there are so many) was sure that the Saudi-Israel /US deal was very much still wanted by the Saudis. They’ll figure out how to play it. So very disappointing especially with regards to proliferating weapons. Will the Saudi’s turn away from the Palestinians?
The Saudi Iranian steps towards rapprochement give me more hope.
Now, when the sores are open, is such a good time to have some grand bargain between all the players and victims. But people have to see out of their tribalism and we must have the leaders like Sadat and Rabin.
@richard silverstein
“They were meant to protect precisely such speech. Expressing a political view about a subject of public interest is a hallowed American right”.
And an old fashioned Boycott is also a hallowed American right. A Boycott is no less an exercise in free speech than is signing a petition.
@ Miroslav: If you’re supporting Ackman, you’re misguided. When CEOs blacklist young people seeking employment and reject them based on political principles that is not a “boycott.” In fact, it is a tort by which damage has been inflicted on the victim.
Richard. Would you hire a neo-Nazi?
Well, I wouldn’t hire a neo-Nazi or a White supremacist whether he was a student or not, because his political views are a anathema to me, These CEO’s feel similarly about people who condone brutal, bloody terrorism.
It is a tort to discriminate against people’s sex, religion, age or skin color. It is not a tort to discriminate against another person’s political views.
@ Miroslav: Anti-Zionists or Arabs critical of Israel are NOT neo-Nazis or white supremacists. Your attempt to suggest such a comparison is offensive and Islamophobic. I do not tolerate either one here. Make similar arguments here in future and you will be moderated or banned.
As for torts. you have no idea what it is. It is “damage” of any kind, financial, physical, etc. Denying someone employment for political reasons having nothing to do with abilities is a tort. Employment discrimination is another thing entirely.
Right now the terror reactions are still reverberating. History is being distorted a lot, one sided and pro-Israel. Our leadership is full force sympathetic to Israel. Maybe the story will change as Gaza gets flattened, the people in super dire conditions, more deaths and videos of blood and rubble.I don’t hear much caution about what worse may very well happen next if we keep this up.
I happen to really like Blinken, but he’s all in the terror reaction mode now and that Israel must respond. He expresses the sympathy that Israelis need and want from us. He is careful with his words though. I don’t know how long it will take or what will pass before people begin to see the fuller longer, larger, picture, if they do at all, and what brought us to this point. Surely Israelis must at some point be soul searching about the causes Israel is responsible for: the death of the peace process ( with al manner of blaming and distortion) the complacency and impunity that grew with attendant “mowings”, the move to the venomous Arab-hating right in government b/c of Netanyahu ( Netanyahu has single handedly almost destroyed Israel) , the increasingly now obvious goal of Israel taking(stealing) land river to sea ( by some right) leaving Gaza festering in a blockade, the “apartheid” within Israel, occupation often brutal dividing Palestinians from each other including the long blockade on Gaza), relations with Arab countries improving leaving Palestinians out in the cold in exchange for economic and military benefits. Did I leave out anything? This attack did not come out of the blue. But don’t say that now; you cannot. Right now Israel’s vengeance ( which is what it is) and “need to maintain deterrence” prevails with our help, unconditional and very unfortunate.
Showing such support for Israel however may help Democrats and Biden in 2024 and keep us from Trump and the far right support he has.
Showing such support for Israel however …
Not by sacrificing innocent lives of more Palestinian children, mothers and fathers. It must end!
It takes courage to undo decades of hypocrisy from every US administration from JFK forward.
yes of course…not at the expense of Palestinians. I think Biden/Blinken are trying to walk this difficult line. Support for Israel (existentially) does not preclude support for Palestinians.
Israelis killing Palestinians does not help Israel either. It makes more terrorists in fact.
It does take a lot of courage to make our support of Israel conditional. That depends on the Jewish constituency here and everyone getting to understand this. Israel wins the propaganda war here. Netanyahu has worked the politics of hate. There are more and more who do understand this cycle though.
So I think that Jewish support of Biden here, such as it must be shown Biden’s support of Israel for some, is important politically if we we are to avoid Trump in a very close race. Trump vied for that vote and got enough of it.
Antony Blinken’s mindset on approach to the Islamic Republic of Iran is from the 1980s.
History of US diplomacy American hostages taken in Tehran, Beirut and Middle East
William Buckley was a good friend of US State Department diplomats Antony Blinken and William Burns. Never forget, never forgive. Clouds his mindset on the Shia global community, especially Hezbollah and the Mullahs in Iraq and Iran.
Today as Israel’s traveling salesman, Blinken is facilitating ethnic cleansing of Gaza. The “humanitarian” corridor is an exodus into the Sinai Peninsula. Just be happy.
This negativism is not helpful. I don’t think we (certainly not Blinken himself) can stop Israel from doing what it is doing. We do not know what is going on behind the scenes with regard to US and Israel. Israel (the government, Netanyahu, the right wing especially) has had it’s method of force that has made things worse for Israel ultimately time and again. We, the US, could be more conditional, much more than we have been, in our support. But this would come at a political cost especially now at a fragile time emotionally and politically, unfortunately, here. (I don’t know where you reside).We don’t want Trump again, a talented opportunist amongst all else really bad that can be said and that he brings.
I object to weapons given to Israel that will be used against civilians in Gaza. We are complicit if so, have blood on our hands. The line maybe false between defense and retaliation/vengeance and the disproportion that Israel consistently shoots itself with. Israel’s method of dealing for many years has not served Israelis at all making the worse.
The headline here “Chickens Come Home to Roost” is so apt. Blinken is the LEAST person to be blaming now. I do think because he is a 2nd generation from the Holocaust personally that he has that secondary trauma affect and is very emotional now. But he’s smart enough ( it seems to me) to understand the deep roots of this conflict (should be) and wise enough ( hopefully) to allow for the possibilities that are ahead (positive, negative). I believe in the possibility that people can evolve. This is the only hope- more people slowly waking up to this madness and it does not need to be.This is an opportunity to end this cycle OR to continue it. Biden maybe more worrisome but he has good qualities and can ( or does) get it.The shock of the attack will wear to become a moral issue about the result with re the Palestinians. The blame has to be spread, but concentrated as well. I blame Netanyahu. I blame Israelis for devolving, going backwards regarding what they want Israel to be.. But here, now, for many of us, no one is more worrisome than the looming Trump and Trump support.
The Palestinian people have been traumatized repeatedly. Israel was settled by traumatized people. The sickness is that they keep triggering each other, remembering, adding to the baggage. It has to stop.
Resided ten forming years in the US returned to the old country to make a living since. Been blogging since my retirement mainly on US foreign policy with focus on the greater Middle East. I witness the changes in society in America and its effect especially on the EU. Bush-Cheney and divisiveness New and Old Europe … policy shift is a success, we’re all from Mars now.
Digest the speech of Dutch caretaker PM Mark Rutte a few days ago. Rutte is a xenophobe to keep his electorate from voting for Geert Wilders, former colleague at the conservative party VVD as was Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Rutte turned into a leader pro-NATO and a Russophobe riding the tide in the EU.
Dutch Islamophobic caretaker PM Mark Rutte talks NATO politics at Sobibór Memorial and on Gaza he spoke with Bibi Netanyahu who ascertained the IDF Army always abides by the rule of law. The Israel flag flies high at his office Het Torentje in The Hague and across the nation.
Across the EU, led by EC president VDL, the Israel talking points are promoted as just and Palestinians seen as terrorists. No criticism here, glad there are protests across the US.
Thanks. I wondered. What is your “old country”? Moi aussi re “forming” years in NYCity.
I am forthright about my views obviously. I have a lot of family in Israel now..One just called up. Maybe more cousins that I have not heard about. I differ from them, but they are family and I love them.
I have been watching this debacle for decades, since before ’67. David Grossman’s “The Yellow Wind” in the New Yorker many years ago, which turned into his book made a huge impression on me (Death as a Way of Life https://www.amazon.com/s?) . I do think I begin to understand what pushes the situation, what that makes it go on and on, sadly.
Richard. Did you attend the pro Palestine rally in Kirkland?
@ Miroslav: where were you last night? Intrusive and offensive, right? I don’t answer such questions.
If yours insinurates that because I wasn’t there I don’t know what happened, it’s a stupid argument. The videos don’t lie. I now has 3 of them. And I will publish even more granular footage of actual kicking & punches from the Israeli thugs in a future post. I’ve also interviewed the protestors who were assaulted and saw their physical injuries. It’s called journalism. We do it all the time.