Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude: 05/12

5/18/2024

nina simone and judy collins

i'm pumped with energy. just finished working out. wish i had c.i.'s dedication. i work out 3 days a week. and 1 of those is just a walk on the beach. i'll walk down to the shore and just walk for an hour with the dogs. but i actually did some aerobics. which really means it's late at night, the week's almost over, i've only got 2 workouts under my belt for the week and i want to listen to music.

c.i. will crawl out of bed, hit the treadmill and then get on the stepper if she's at home. if she's on the road, she'll crawl out of bed and go for a run.

anyway. i was in the mood for nina simone so i put on her 'here comes the sun' album (expanded edition). i love that album. and her version of 'o-o-h child' really is the best version of the song.

the whole album is wonderful - including the title track which is featured in bridget fonda's 'point of no return' movie (her character's a big nina simone fan). i think another must hear track is 'mr. bojangles.'

i love nina's albums. my top 5?

5) 'nina simone at town hall'

4) 'here comes the sun'

3) 'nina simone

2) 'baltimore'

1) 'to love somebody'

by the way, 'baltimore' is considered by some to be nina's worst album. i think they need to give it a re-listen. i really love what she does on the album including with hall & oates' 'rich girl.'

stream it for yourself and enjoy just how great her version is.

she also does a great cover of 'my father.'

judy collins wrote that song. judy didn't write a lot of songs - or hasn't, she's still recording. but that's 1 of her finest.

10) 'since you asked'

9) 'my father'

8) 'born to the breed'

7) 'houses'

6) 'shoot first'

5) 'checkmate'

4) 'i choose love'

3) 'mountain girl'

2) 'the fallow way'

1) 'the blizzard'

here's 'the blizzard' from 'the essential judy collins' but i believe it's the same recording used on 'fires of eden' (an album not available for streaming on amazon music, by the way).

judy would probably do better in terms of sales and applause if she'd return to playing piano. an album of her voice and piano. yes, she can play guitar. and has for years. but she's actually a trained pianist.

let's close with c..i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

Friday, May 17, 2024. The International Criminal Court hears more about the slaughter in Gaza, aid workers continue to be targeted, students continue to protest, and much more.

Amy Goodman (DEMOCRACY NOW!):

The International Rescue Committee is warning the scale of the crisis in southern Gaza “defies imagination” as Israel intensifies its attack on Rafah while key border crossings remain shut down. More than 600,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah despite having no safe place to go. Another 100,000 Palestinians have fled in the north. Overnight, Israel deployed an additional commando brigade to Rafah. This is a Palestinian woman in Rafah who is in mourning after Israel killed her husband and son.

Afaf al-Halqawi: “My son was beautiful as a moon. He was a groom. He went inside to his bride, thank God. … There’s no safe place, not in Rafah, not in Khan Younis. They slaughtered Jabaliya, they slaughtered al-Nuseirat, and they slaughtered Rafah. Safety is only with God. May God have mercy on us.”

On Wednesday, Israel shelled a clinic in Gaza City run by the U.N. aid agency UNRWA, killing at least 10 displaced Palestinians, including children. Earlier today, Israeli forces targeted residential buildings and an ambulance in Jabaliya, killing multiple Palestinians, including a pregnant woman. Separately, five Israeli soldiers were killed Wednesday in Jabaliya when they were shelled by an Israeli tank. Seven other Israeli troops were injured in what’s being described as a friendly fire incident.

As appalling as that news is -- and it's disgusting -- grasp that this news is from yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW! and the White House has no response and the Israeli government continues to assault Gaza -- with US approval and weapons. Jeffrey St. Clair (COUNTERPUNCH) observes this morning:

The US has long been Israel’s largest arms merchant. For the last four years, the US has supplied Israel with 69% of its imported weapons, from F-35s to chemical munitions (white phosphorous), tank shells to precision bombs. Despite this, the Biden administration claims not to know how these weapons are put to use, even when they maim and kil American citizens.

Since the start of the latest war on Gaza, the US has had both defense department and CIA officials in Israel helping the Israelis with intelligence, logistics, targeting and bomb damage assessment. Still, the Biden administration claims not to have any hard evidence that the weapons it has transferred to Israel have been used to slaughter civilians, torture detainees or restrict the flow of humanitarian aid to starving, dehydrated and sick Palestinian civilians.

Under pressure from Bernie Sanders, Chris Van Hollen, Jeff Merkeley and other congressional Democrats, in February, President issued National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20, or “National Security Memorandum on Safeguards and Accountability With Respect to Transferred Defense Articles and Defense Services”), which directed the State Department to “obtain certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments receiving [U.S.] defense articles and, as appropriate, defense services” that they will abide by U.S. and international law. NSM-20 also requires the Departments of State and Defense to report to Congress within 90 days on the extent to which such partners are abiding by their assurances. “assessment of any credible reports or allegations that defense articles and, as appropriate, defense services, have been used in a manner not consistent with international law, including international humanitarian law.” The NSM-20 report also required the Biden administration to assess whether Israel has fully cooperated with United States Government-supported and international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance in the area of conflict. They missed the 90-day mark by two days, likely to push the release of the report to late on a Friday afternoon, a traditional dead zone for news you’d like to bury.

Since October 7, the Biden administration has approved more than 100 Foreign Military Sales arms transfers to Israel. Two of the shipments used an emergency authority to circumvent Congressional review. The surge of weapons transfers to Israel began in early October and so much material was being shipped that the Pentagon had a difficult time finding enough cargo aircraft to deliver them. While the Pentagon regularly details weapons sent to Ukraine, it has only issued two updates on the kind and amount of weapons sent to Israel. But those two reports, both issued in December, suggest that the weapons included artillery shells, tank rounds, air defense systems, precision-guided munitions, small arms, Hellfire missiles used by drones, 30-mm cannon shells, PVS-14 night vision devices and disposable (though probably not biodegradable) shoulder-fired rockets. In late October, one sale to Israel including $320 million worth of JDAM kits for converting unguided “dumb” bombs into GPS-guided munitions. This was in addition to a previous sales of $403 million worth of the same guidance systems. From October 7 to Dec. 29 alone, US weapons shipments to Israel included 52,229 M795 155-millimeter artillery shells, 30,000 M4 propelling charges for howitzers, 4,792 M107 155-mm artillery shells and 13,981 M830A1 120-mm tank rounds.

For over seven months, this genocide has been allowed to continue. At TRUTHOUT, Sharon Zhang reports:

In an emergency hearing furthering South Africa’s genocide case on Thursday, South Africa warned the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel has begun a new stage of genocide in Gaza that the court must move against with “extreme urgency.”

South Africa’s legal team is seeking provisional measures from the ICJ for Israel to immediately withdraw from Rafah and take every action possible to surge humanitarian aid into Gaza, on top of orders for Israel to comply with provisional orders the court issued in January and March.

“Israel is escalating its attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, and in so doing, is willfully breaching the binding orders of this court,” South African ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela said in opening remarks.

“South Africa had hoped, when we last appeared before this court, to halt this genocidal process to preserve Palestine and its people,” Madonsela continued. “Instead, Israel’s genocide has continued apace and has just reached a new and horrific stage.”

In oral arguments, the South African delegation stressed the profound danger that Israel’s invasion of Rafah poses for the future of all Palestinians in Gaza, citing Israel’s near-total aid blockade and violent dismantling of nearly all basic infrastructure, including the region’s medical system.

Molly Quell (AP) points out, "It was the third time the International Court of Justice held hearings on the conflict in Gaza since South Africa filed proceedings in December at the court, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, accusing Israel of genocide." John Bacon and Jorge L. Ortiz (USA TODAY) note, "Israel will provide a response in court Friday. Israeli officials have previously denied in court claims the country's military campaign violates the 1949 Genocide Convention, arguing that it stepped up efforts to provide humanitarian aid for Gaza in accordance with previous court orders." The hearing continued this morning. ALJAZEERA notes:

The main argument Israel was bringing today was that the fact that South Africa says that there is at least not enough humanitarian aid coming into Rafah is basically a lie, according to Israel.

And also they said that South Africa’s claim that Rafah is this last refuge for the people in Gaza is untrue. They say they acknowledge that there are a lot of civilians there, but they also say it’s a Hamas stronghold and they have to continue this military operation.

So basically rejecting South Africa’s request to the court to order Israel to stop its military offensive in Rafah and also withdraw from Gaza altogether.

It was an interesting hearing this time, because in the beginning Israel said it didn’t have enough time to prepare – there was far too short notice.

That hearing has completed for today and the court hears testimony again tomorrow.

And the assault continues and many in the media try to spin the 'pier' as good news when the reality remains that aid is just not getting in. Cindy McCain spoke about the crisis to SKY NEWS.

Starving children and adults in Gaza are dying after being reduced to the "size of a skeleton", according to the World Food Programme boss.

Cindy McCain, executive director of the UN agency, said her staff describe it as "a complete disaster" and there are serious problems getting trucks in safely and in sufficient numbers.

Israel's offensive following the Hamas attack on 7 October has displaced much of Gaza's population, many of whom are fleeing again as Israel escalates attacks in the southern city of Rafah.

Hundreds of thousands are starving and desperate, and Mrs McCain told Sky News the reality is devastating.

She told Yalda Hakim: "Imagine a child wasting into the size of a skeleton - and of course passing from it - and an adult doing the same thing. That's what we're seeing on the ground.

"If we could get in now we might be able to fend off a hardcore famine, but we're not there yet and we're not getting in."

Cease-fire would be the best, Cindy told SKY NEWS, but she doesn't see it happening any time soon.

The Israeli government continues to block aid. That is not by chance. A pattern emerges, as Owen Jones notes, if you pay attention.

The pattern has been attacking aid workers -- such as murdering the 7 World Central Kitchen workers, the continued attacks by Israeli 'civilians' on aid convoys -- attacks that result in no legal consequences.

From yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Aid agencies are running out of food in southern Gaza amid Israel’s ongoing offensive in Rafah. The World Food Programme says it’s run out of stocks in Rafah and has suspended food aid distributions there for several days. No food has entered the two main border crossings in southern Gaza for more than a week, since the Israeli assault on Rafah began and Israeli forces seized control of and closed the border crossing with Egypt. Some 1.1 million Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, according to the U.N., while a full-blown famine is taking place in the north. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said today, quote, “The impact is devastating for over 2 million people.”

AMY GOODMAN: This comes just days after Israeli settlers blocked aid trucks headed to Gaza through the occupied West Bank from Jordan. Footage of the incident shows settlers raiding the aid trucks, throwing food into the road and setting fire to vehicles at the Tarqumiyah checkpoint near Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian truck drivers say they fear for their lives after the attack.

ADEL AMER: [translated] We went to the checkpoint, and after the check, we were surprised to see settlers on the roundabout of the checkpoint. They damaged the cars. They tore the tires off the trucks. They threw the contents of the truck on the ground. We gathered some of the products and sent some of those products on to a bulldozer and sent them to sheep farms. Around 15 trucks were damaged. Their haul was damaged. Windows of the trucks were broken. Some drivers were beaten. Some of the products were thrown away, and the whole loss for Hebron is around $2 million.

AMY GOODMAN: At a White House press briefing Monday, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan was asked by reporters about the attack on the aid convoy.

JAKE SULLIVAN: It is a total outrage that there are people who are attacking and looting these convoys coming from Jordan, going to Gaza to deliver humanitarian assistance. We are looking at the tools that we have to respond to this, and we are also raising our concerns at the highest level of the Israeli government. And it’s something that we make no bones about. This is completely and utterly unacceptable behavior.

AMY GOODMAN: The attack on the aid convoy was the culmination of weeks of Israeli settlers attempting to block aid trucks from reaching Gaza.

For more, we’re going to Tel Aviv to speak with Sapir Sluzker Amran, an Israeli human rights lawyer and peace activist who documented the attack on the aid convoy right near Hebron. She’s the co-director of Breaking Walls, an intersectional feminist grassroots movement.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Sapir. It’s so good to have you with us. If you can describe exactly what took place, how you ended up there when the Israeli settlers attacked the aid convoy, and what exactly they did to the convoy and to you?

SAPIR SLUZKER AMRAN: Thanks, and thank you so much for having me. Before we get into details, just to say from Tel Aviv that we are calling for ceasefire and safe return of the hostages, and hope to see this war ending as soon as possible and not seeing another one.

So, I came on Monday. It was after a few months where they’re organizing those kinds of actions, those looting actions. Settlers and their supporters, they are organizing in those WhatsApp groups, getting notifications from inside information, actually, to know where the trucks are going and coming from, and then trying to block them or to loot and destroy the entire food on the trucks. And when I came on Monday, it was to — I wasn’t sure. It was trying to document — it was after seeing those footages, those videos that they published a few months now, trying to organize groups. But people were afraid. And they should be afraid, because they’re coming with guns and knives and axes even. And the police and the IDF is totally on their side and not protecting us. But when I was there, I came to document and to understand a bit what’s going on.

And then, after they had this, like, first round of looting the convoy there, they started to go to another crossing in order to see if there was more trucks there, because they got an inside information again that there might be other trucks a few minutes’ drive from that crossing. I was there with another activist, and we went to the drivers of the trucks to see if we can help. And they were very surprised. They didn’t understand why there were Jewish people, Israelis, that want to help them. It took them a minute to understand that we are Arabs, but not Palestinians, we are Arab Jews, and we are with them. So, we started to pack everything again on one of the trucks. And we almost finished, and then they came back, more people — I think there were around few dozens, and then it became almost 150 people. At that time, they did whatever they want.

So, I want to be specific. This event, I got a message on WhatsApp that this event’s starting, and they’re asking people to come around 9:30 in the morning. They were there on their way. So they were there at 10 a.m. I came at 12:00. I left, though, for my own safety. Around 3 p.m., there were dozens of people, and people kept coming. So, it happened for hours. There were a few soldiers there without a supervisor. They didn’t know what to do. They were just going around, maybe two policemen, and that’s it. And what the settlers did is tearing up the entire food that was there. There were bags of rice, bags of sugar and instant noodles in bags. And they did it in a way that we cannot repair it. They did it in a way that they were tearing everything down, jumping on the instant noodles so we cannot save it. And, yeah, that was the situation.

We saw a lot of families there. I think that the youngest person that was there was maybe 3 years old, a kid with his father, like it was like a fun day, a festival day, and more teenagers that were there. And they did whatever they want. They laughed, they enjoyed, and they said it was the best action that we had 'til now. It was in Tarqumiyah crossing. And I think many came because it's in the area of the settlers, so it was very easy for them just to be first and to hold those trucks.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Sapir, could you talk about what the settlers did specifically to you, what happened to you? And then explain who the settlers are and what their justification is for doing that, for disrupting the aid convoys and destroying all the aid. They say that the aid is helping Hamas, and they want to obstruct its delivery until the hostages are released. Who are the settlers? And do they have any connection to the government?

SAPIR SLUZKER AMRAN: Yeah. So, I think, just to say, I’m not the story here. Yes, I will share that I was injured. One of the settlers — so, I was — I’m not sure how, but I couldn’t stand aside when I saw them running again, going on the trucks with sugar bags, going on the trucks with their knives and weapons and axes and all kinds of sharp objects and tearing down everything. And I couldn’t. And I started to run towards them and document it and tell them, “Please, stop. Stop. What are you doing? This is food. This is food. Like, you have to understand, inside of ’48, inside Israel, we have more than 2 million people that are under the poverty line. This is food. We have, an hour from now, people that are hungry. They can be your family that are hungry an hour from here.” And they didn’t care about it.

So I went on the truck and tried to stop them. And I called and I screamed on the IDF. There were like very young soldiers. I told them, “Come! Come and help me! This is your role! This is not my role! Come and help me! I can’t do it on my own!” And my friend was documenting it and trying also to talk with them and trying to stop them while they were doing it. And they tried to prevent her to photograph. And she managed to do it anyway.

So, when I was on the truck, yeah, one of the settlers, in front of an IDF that was right next to us, he kind of slapped me extremely hard, and then he was trying to escape. The police was there. The police took him. I told them, “I want to press charges.” They said, “No,” and they hid him so I couldn’t document him, even though I have his photo and the video. And then, after 10 minutes, he came back, like nothing was happened. So they took him only to protect him, not for something else.

And I was the only one that the government, that the IDF, the police, asked for to see an ID. All that time, they didn’t ask anyone from them, from the settlers, to get out of this area, that it was like a parking lot — only us, only the two of us, just the two of us. And they were just sitting there or standing there while I was telling them, “You’re standing right here. You see someone with a knife. That person, a teenager, took a knife at me.” I told them, “You see him. At least take the knife. At least take the knife so, like, he won’t attack me.” And they didn’t care about it. They were just standing aside like there is nothing that they can do, like it’s normal, what’s happening.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Sapir, we only have a few minutes left —

SAPIR SLUZKER AMRAN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — and we want to know: Who are these Israeli settlers? Who are the people that destroyed the aid truck?

SAPIR SLUZKER AMRAN: Yeah, so, those are the people, settlers, that are, you know, living in the settlements. They’re Orthodox Jews. They’re from the national Zionist Jewish stream, Zionist stream. They have many supporters in government. They are the government. It’s not that they’re supporters.

And we know that yesterday — I want to say something like that right now I can show you — I can add you right now, Amy, to a WhatsApp group, because they’re organizing right now to do it again. So, they have this information. No one is trying to stop them. I think maybe it’s not clear that nothing has changed from Monday. They are still doing it. I don’t know what is showing on the international media, what the Israeli government is publishing. But they are doing it right now, with their names, with their numbers, and they don’t care about presenting even theirselves and documenting theirselves, because they know that nothing is going to happen to them, no circumstances, no objects, and nothing will happen at all.

So, they are connected to the government. We know that some of them are working with the government. We know that some of them — I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re funded from the government. We have MKs, members of the parliament, the Israeli parliament, that are supporting it and coming to those actions. We have someone that is a CEO of a right-wing organization that just got, a few months ago got — he has a photo with one of the MKs, the chairman of the Knesset, giving him a diploma to thank him for his service to Israel. OK? So, they are — last week, it was the mayor of one of the big cities in the south of Israel. They are the blood, and they are part of it. What you are doing is just, we can call it, privatization, privatization of the violence, which means that the government know. They hide because of the U.S. They have to pretend that they are obeying international law. But, in fact, they don’t want to. So they have these kids, they have these settlers, they have their supporters, that they are part of their political parties, and also they’re also funding them, to tell them, “Go to this crossing and handle it.”

AMY GOODMAN: Sapir —

SAPIR SLUZKER AMRAN: So, that’s why the police is not intervening, because the police belongs to Ben-Gvir and those kinds of people. So, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Sapir Sluzker Amran, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Israeli human rights lawyer and peace activist, who went to the Tarqumiyah crossing in Hebron to document the attack on a Gaza-bound aid convoy by Israeli settlers. She’s also the co-director of Breaking Walls, an intersectional feminist grassroots movement.

We had this in The Times of Israel: Israeli extremists mistook, on Wednesday, two days after the attack on the convoy she described — they mistook a regular commercial truck traveling in the West Bank for a convoy carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza and attacked the vehicle. The vigilantes set a fire in the road, dumped the truck’s contents onto the pavement and assaulted the Palestinian driver. Video from the scene showed the driver lying on the street bloodied.

When we come back, we’ll talk with Human Rights Watch about their new report on Israeli forces attacking humanitarian aid convoys in Gaza. The group has also documented Russian forces executing surrendering Ukrainian soldiers. We’ll go to Kyiv to speak with the HRW representative, and we’ll look at ethnic cleansing in Sudan. Back in 20 seconds.

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AMY GOODMAN: Voices of some the hundred university professors and faculty and their allies from higher education institutions across New York, gathering yesterday at Grand Central Station during rush hour to sing and read out a joint letter from faculty across a number of schools calling for an end to genocide in Gaza.

, the lies spread about UNRWA in an attempt to destroy that UN agency, you name it.

On UNRWA, THE NEW ARAB notes:

In the face of Israel's ongoing attacks on Rafah and on UNRWA, Iraq has pledged US$25 million to support Palestinian refugees through the agency.

The Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the announcement on Tuesday, stating that the country will contribute US$25 million to UNRWA.

Omar Al-Barzanji, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq, expressed condolences to the victims of the Israeli invasion of Rafah during a joint press conference with the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, who paid an official visit to Baghdad. Al-Barzanji also condemned the Israeli incursion into Rafah.

He also expressed Iraq's concern about the severe funding shortage faced by UNRWA and its inability to assist Palestinian refugees, reaffirming Iraq's rejection of the restrictive policies imposed on UNRWA and calling for increased support for the agency.

While courts and elected officials do nothing, students are the ones standing up and demanding an end to the slaughter in Gaza.

That solidarity march took place today. LE MONDE notes that the protests that began in the US are spreading across Europe, "The exam period, the end of the academic year, heavy-handed police evacuations and campus closures have, in some places, weakened student activism against the war in Gaza, particularly in the United States and France. But elsewhere across Europe, protest hotspots are emerging, with students calling for an end to Israeli bombardments in Gaza and for their universities to cut ties with companies and institutions linked to Israel." France and Australia were the first to follow the US students. Australian students are witnessing bullying and intimidation. Eric Ludlow and Oscar Grenfell (WSWS) report:

Over the past 24 hours, a campaign against student protest encampments opposing the Israeli genocide in Gaza has ratcheted up sharply. Two universities have issued eviction notices, others have held “crisis meetings,” and at the University of Melbourne, a senior manager has made a frothing denunciation of protesters and called for the police to mobilise against them.

Whether the crackdown is being nationally coordinated or not—and the timing strongly indicates that it is—the repressive actions of university administrations are in line with demands from the political and media establishment, particularly Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

This week, he has denounced the protests as “divisive” displays of “hatred” and “ignorance” that do not “have a place” in society. Albanese claimed that antisemitism is greater than at any point in his lifetime, in a deepening of the lying conflation of opposition to Israel’s horrific war crimes with anti-Jewish bigotry.

The remarks have had the character of an incitement to the Zionist thugs and far-right forces who, on three occasions over the past fortnight, have violently attacked student encampments in the dead of the night. They have been aimed at creating a climate of intimidation and manufactured hysteria in which the university administrations will feel compelled and emboldened to dismantle the protests.

That was underscored by a statement from University of Melbourne deputy vice-chancellor Michael Wesley yesterday. Referencing the fact that students at the university are continuing an occupation of the Arts West building they began on Wednesday, Wesley declared that “red lines have been crossed.”

Without evidence, he said protesters were “intimidating” other people and “have caused considerable damage.” Speaking more like a national security official than an academic administrator, Wesley asserted that “intelligence” had shown that many involved were not students but “professional protesters.”

“They are outside agitators and the sort of actions they are taking suggest to us that they could be potentially dangerous,” he said. “The way they have organised themselves within the building would suggest to us that they are preparing to resist being forcibly evicted.”

The deputy vice chancellor menacingly stated that police would now “be including the campus in their regular patrols. When it comes to ending the protest, we will largely be reliant on Victoria Police. This is going to be a very substantial operation.” Victoria Police this morning stated there had been no formal eviction notice from the university, and so they could not immediately act.

Wesley’s comments, however, are chilling. The use of quasi-military terminology about “red lines” and “substantial operations” is a warning that the university authorities are prepared to greenlight violence against protesters who are not accused of physically harming anyone, or of committing any real wrongdoing.

In the US, KTVU reports, "Officers have arrested at least 12 Gaza war protesters on Thursday, who took over a vacant building near UC Berkeley's campus one day earlier, university officials say. Campus police and outside law enforcement agencies responded to Anna Head Hall on Thursday to clear the building. The university-owned building is off campus. Several others, who occupied the building, were forcibly removed." Nollyanne Delacruz (EAST BAY TIMES) reports, "Twenty students from St. Mary’s College in Moraga occupied a chapel and eight students began a hunger strike on Wednesday night to push the university to disclose all of its financial investments and divest from any corporations supporting Israel’s war in Gaza. The students remained in the Chapel of the Most Blessed Virgin, near the entrance to campus, on Thursday. They also called on the school to not remove a vigil dedicated to Palestinian children killed in Gaza since Oct. 7 at the St. John the Baptist De La Salle statue on the campus." And Maya Stahl, Sarah Huddleston and Shea Vance (COLUMBIA SPECTATOR) report:

Barnard College celebrated its Commencement on Wednesday afternoon at Radio City Music Hall. Among the plush red chairs, graduates stood out in their Pantone 292 regalia, with many donning keffiyehs, pinning signs to their robes calling for divestment, and painting their caps.

Many graduates pinned to their regalia red poppies with the names of children killed by the Israeli military in Gaza, and several wore stoles with yellow ribbons, a symbol calling for the return of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Gaza remains under assault. Day 224 of the assault in the wave that began in October. 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 grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll reaches 35,303, with 79,261 wounded" Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

On bodies trapped under rubble, ALJAZEERA notes this morning:

We’re talking about a three-storey building that housed not only residents but also dozens of other displaced Palestinians in Rafah that made it to Nuseirat three days ago.

I met the neighbours. I met the family. I met one of the relatives of people still trapped under the rubble earlier today. They were telling me heartbreaking things.

Imagine escaping the air strikes in Rafah, looking for a safe space but being killed after three days of evacuating – not only being killed but being trapped where the Civil Defence teams do not have any equipment to remove or pull these people from under the rubble.

I saw Civil Defence teams doing their best to pull people from under the rubble. They were digging with their bare hands, with very basic tools. This was not the first time we have seen this scene. We have been seeing this for more than seven months now.

Unfortunately, it may come to a point where the Civil Defence teams will give up on this house because there are more people being targeted every single hour across the Gaza Strip.

April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."

As for 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."

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Harrison Loves Josh" went up last night. The following sites updated:

5/16/2024

no, not going back to watching 'the cleaning lady'

that's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Harrison Loves Josh."

'the cleaning lady.' bridgette e-mailed asking if i'm really done with the show.

yep. when i'm done with something i'm done.

like stevie nicks sings in 'welcome to the room .. sara,' 'when you hang up that phone, you cease to exist.'

a few of you tried to tempt me back e-mailing to note that the guy this year who showed up to help tony fix her toilet was f.b.i. or c.i.a.

and?

it was obvious he wasn't who he appeared to be. and, as i've noted before, the show was laughable with this notion that all the men on the show are in love with her and attracted to her.

i almost wish the show would be brought back next season - but because they might add on a gay character. it would be something so see thony have to finally deal with a man that she couldn't control.

the show needs to get the axe. the show runner was stupid to kill off garrett at the end of last season. i'm told that the health of the actor playing arman was already known. but they killed of garrett and then adan canto died in real life. and you lost the show with both of them gone.

i could have stuck around this season. but the decision, when we all knew canto was dead, to go through six or so episodes of this season pretending like the might have been alive was insulting to the fans.

and we went walking.

and aren't coming back.

the last 2 episodes got 1.1 million viewers. that's awful. and they're the 2 lowest rated episodes of the series. it's over.

let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

Thursday, June 16, 2024. The slaughter in Gaza continues, War Criminal Netanyahu sees some splinters in his administration, another US official resigns from the administration over its refusal to stop the assault in Gaza, and much more.

This morning, Hadya al-Alawi (THE NATIONAL) reports:

Arab and world leaders have been arriving in Manama on Wednesday and Thursday for the 33rd Arab League summit, focusing this year on reaching a consensus to help stop the Israeli war on Gaza.

Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad, who is also Prime Minister, received Jordan's King Abdullah II, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and Egyptian President Abdul Fattah El Sisi in Manama.

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has arrived and was received by Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Personal Representative of King Hamad and President of the Supreme Council for the Environment.

Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad, Bahraini King Hamad's representative for Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs, welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The final text of the summit, expected on Thursday, will announced "a tougher stance against Israel", a source told The National.

The preparatory meeting of Arab League foreign ministers on Tuesday saw a unanimous vote to adopt the “Bahrain declaration” calling for a peace conference on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

As the slaughter continues, the world's objection increases and grows louder. Dr Mahmoud Sabha writes at THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:

As an American doctor, I felt called to help Palestinians who have faced a collapsing healthcare system in Gaza. My first trip was in March and I returned for another mission earlier this month, before the Israeli military assault on Rafah, in southern Gaza, which has been catastrophic. Now we have no way out.

Israel’s seizure of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt has complicated our medical team’s departure from Gaza, which was coordinated with the World Health Organization and scheduled for Monday.

We have been at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, near Rafah. If we leave, and no new mission can get in, the patients here will be abandoned and terrified. More than 1 million people had taken refuge in Rafah during the Israeli bombardment of northern Gaza, and hundreds of thousands have now been forced to flee the area amid Israel’s offensive here.

Our patients ask me where they should go, to which hospital. They tell me that some facilities are still open and ask my opinion of them. What do I say? The patients know full well about the destruction of the Al Shifa and Nasser hospitals. They know patients have been killed with IV lines and catheters still inside, and they believe that will be their fate as well if they are left alone and vulnerable to the Israeli forces.

As the horrors continue, another US official resigns. AP reports, "An interior department staffer on Wednesday became the first Jewish political appointee to publicly resign in protest of US support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the interior department, accused Joe Biden of using Jewish people to justify US policy in the conflict." Ron Kampeas (JTA) notes, "While Greenberg Call is the first Jewish Biden administration staffer to resign publicly over the war, others in her movement say she isn’t alone in her sentiments. In memos, in internal staff meetings, and in occasional bursts of public protest, a cadre of mid-level D.C. bureaucrats is dissenting from the Biden administration’s backing for Israel in the war. They describe crushing disappointment in an administration that they feel is committed to defending innocents from carnage elsewhere — most notably in Ukraine — but not, they say, in Gaza." Sanjana Karanth (HUFFINGTON POST) adds:

In her resignation letter, Lily Greenberg Call, the special assistant to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s chief of staff, Rachael Taylor, called President Joe Biden out by name and criticized his administration’s lack of condemnation.

“I joined the Biden Administration because I believe in fighting for a better America, for a future where Americans can thrive: one with economic prosperity, a healthy planet and equal rights for all people. I have dedicated my career to candidates who I believed would further this vision,” Call wrote in her resignation letter to Haaland.

“However, I can no longer, in good conscience, continue to represent this administration amidst President Biden’s disastrous, continued support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”

Call has served as a special assistant to Taylor since February 2023. She was appointed to her position after working as a field organizer for Vice President Kamala Harris’ primary campaign in 2019 and then for Biden’s campaign in 2020.

On Tuesday, Amy Goodman (DEMOCRACY NOW!) noted:

A U.S. Army officer working at the Defense Intelligence Agency has resigned to protest what he called the United States’ “unqualified support” for Israel’s war on Gaza. Major Harrison Mann wrote in a post online that the U.S. has “enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians.” He went on to write, “As the descendant of European Jews, I was raised in a particularly unforgiving moral environment when it came to the topic of bearing responsibility for ethnic cleansing.”

Last night, John Bacon (USA TODAY) broke the news:

There is no humanitarian crisis in Rafah although almost 500,000 have fled the southern Gaza city in recent days as Israel's military gains traction, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday.

The Biden administration and much of the world has repeatedly urged Israel to abandon plans for a major invasion of the city, fearing a worsening of the humanitarian crisis that has swept across Gaza since the war began.

You have to wonder, do these Pol Pots believe their own lies? Or do they end up believing their own lies? Justifying years after, pretending they were something other than War Criminals?

At THE NATION, Abeer Barakat writes:

I have been displaced 11 times since the start of Israel’s bloody campaign against Gaza. My husband, four kids, and I flee from one neighborhood in Gaza City to another, trying to stay ahead of the bombs, sheltering with relatives and friends. Each time we flee, fragments of my grandmother’s stories from 1948 come to mind.

My grandmother’s experiences during the Nakba, when the majority of Palestinians were expelled from their homeland during the establishment of the state of Israel, have taken root so deeply in my heart that I have often felt that her memories were my own. Of all her grandchildren, I was the closest. I even called her “Immi,” which means “my mother,” copying what my aunties called her, though her given name was, ironically, “Hejar,” derived from the word “Hejjra,” meaning “migration.” I drank in her stories about the Nakba. I never imagined that I would actually live the same terror and displacement that Immi did.

My home in the western part of Gaza City was first struck by Israeli bombs on October 9. Terrified, my family groped our way out through dust and gunpowder, forgetting to grab the emergency backpacks I had prepared. We returned the next morning, and found jagged holes from airstrikes in the walls and ceilings. The windows and doors were blown out, and the kitchen entirely destroyed. Indeed, the entire street had been targeted. As we extracted the backpacks and important documents from the rubble, I remembered my grandmother describing mortar shells falling from the sky without warning in May 1948, and how she and my grandfather grabbed their children and fled for their lives, leaving all their valuables behind in their beautiful two-story home in Yaffa. How could Immi not carry her important belongings with her? I used to wonder. That judgment has entirely evaporated; in its place is my grandmother’s hard-earned wisdom that I cling to now.

My grandmother had moved to Yaffa some years earlier, after growing up in Gaza, where her father owned tracts of land planted with wheat and groves of olive trees. She had moved to the coastal city after marrying my grandfather, her cousin, who owned a tannery there. In 1948, the eldest of her (then) six children was ten years old, and the youngest was one month. I say a prayer of gratitude each time my four children survive a near miss, remembering the panic that rose in Immi’s voice as she recounted nearly losing her little girl.

As the bombing in Yaffa grew closer, my grandparents hastily lifted their children onto a passing truck, climbing up behind them. My grandmother counted her children, realizing that five-year-old Naema was missing. “Stop the truck!” she cried out desperately. They scrambled down, and my grandmother frantically stopped every passing truck, until finally she located Naema, who had been sobbing by the side of the road when another family found her and took her with them.

Does War Criminal Netanyahu really not believe he's doing harm today? Do those responsible for decision making in 1948 -- any still alive -- continue to lie to themselves?

UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram spoke with MSNBC's Chris Jansing about how this was a "catastrophe" for the children. Unlike Netanyahu, Tess Ingram is on the ground in Gaza and visiting refugee camps.

This is the reality that Netanyahu and other sorry excuses for human beings deny. You watch an idiot like bald headed Julianna Margulies defend the killing of children and you grasp that some blood thirsty monsters will defend anything other than human life.

THE NATIONAL quotes UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres declaring at the Arab Summit today, "Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Yet the toll on civilians continues to escalate."

Netanyahu can lie but he can't stop reality from emerging. That includes within his own government. From last night's THE NEWSHOUR (PBS).

Geoff Bennett:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back today against criticism of his Gaza strategy from within his own government.

Israel's defense minister accused Netanyahu of indecision and leading Israel down a — quote — "dangerous course." The public infighting comes as the Biden administration this week said Israel did not have a political plan for what's next in Gaza.

Nick Schifrin has been following this, and he's here with us now.

So, Nick, what happened today in Israel? It looks like the private infighting has burst into public view.

Nick Schifrin:

For months, the Israeli military has been pushing Benjamin Netanyahu to look beyond individual military operations and lay out a political plan for the future of Gaza, lay out the goals that the military operations that he's ordered are designed to achieve.

And, today, Gallant, the defense minister, said that, since October, he and military commanders have been pushing for a plan to have governance in Gaza led by Palestinians with international actors, and that would presumably require the Palestinian Authority to participate.

And, today, Gallant said that his proposal was never even debated and no alternative had ever been proposed.

Yoav Gallant, Israeli Defense Minister (through translator):

Indecision is, in essence, a decision. This leads to a dangerous course which promotes the idea of Israeli military and civilian governance in Gaza. This is a negative and dangerous option for the state of Israel, strategically, militarily and from a security standpoint.

We must make tough decisions for the future of our country, favoring national priorities above all other possible considerations, even with the possibility of personal or political costs.

Nick Schifrin:

Those personal or political costs that he's speaking about is a direct reference to Netanyahu.

There are senior U.S. officials who I speak to, Geoff, who are increasingly concerned that Netanyahu is prolonging the war in order to remain prime minister. Netanyahu, of course, denies that. And he said today that his plan was to install Gazan families unaffiliated with either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, but that plan had been blocked by Hamas.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister (through translator):

Therefore, all the talk about the day after, while Hamas remains intact, will remain mere words devoid of content. Contrary to what is being claimed, for months, we have been engaged in various efforts to resolve this complex problem.

In any case, there's no alternative to military victory. The attempt to bypass it with this or that claim is simply detached from reality. There's one alternative to victory, defeat, military, diplomatic and national defeat.

Nick Schifrin:

Detached from reality. He's speaking about his own defense minister's comments there.

It's important to note that Netanyahu is worried about his coalition staying intact, members of which have been called — have called for the reoccupation of Gaza and a much more punishing military operation in Gaza.

One of them today, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, tweeted this. He said that "Gallant failed on October 7. He continues to fail now and must be replaced."

Geoff Bennett:

So, how does the Biden administration view all of this?

Nick Schifrin:

The Biden administration has been pushing Netanyahu to accept the Palestinian Authority to run Gaza after the war, and that would unlock some of the larger proposals that the Biden team has been pursuing, especially unlocking Arab participation in the day-after plan.

And, this week, Jake Sullivan made another criticism public. He said that Netanyahu needed to embrace some kind of political strategy, those goals to — that he wanted to achieve in order to win this war. And U.S. officials tell me that call has not been heeded.

THE WASHINGTON POST reports, "The International Court of Justice will hold hearings Thursday and Friday on South Africa’s request that the court order Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah." ALJAZEERA notes:

South Africa’s minister of social development says the country is returning to the ICJ, where it will today request additional measures to end Israel’s Rafah invasion because it cannot leave its job undone as Israeli attacks intensify in the enclave’s last refuge.

South Africa went to the ICJ in January to try to “halt this genocide, but unfortunately, this has not happened”, Lindiwe Zulu told Al Jazeera.

“There’s been absolutely no respect for the action that we took … no respect for the ICJ,” she said, adding that Israel has only “escalated” its attacks on Gaza since the court’s ruling in January. “We believe we cannot leave it halfway.”

This comes as another analysis finds genocide is taking place. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) reports:

The University Network for Human Rights on Wednesday released and sent to United Nations offices a 105-page report that it called "the most thorough legal analysis" yet to find "Israel is committing genocide" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The network partnered with the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law, the International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School, the Center for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, and the Lowenstein Human Rights Project at Yale Law School for the analysis, which draws from "a diverse range of credible sources" and the territory's history.

"After reviewing the facts established by independent human rights monitors, journalists, and United Nations agencies, we conclude that Israel's actions in and regarding Gaza since October 7, 2023, violate the Genocide Convention," the report states. "Israel has committed genocidal acts of killing, causing serious harm to, and inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, a protected group that forms a substantial part of the Palestinian people."

As of May 1, Israel's assault had killed "more than 5% of Gaza's population, with over 2% of Gaza's children killed or injured," the analysis notes. In recent days, Israeli forces have ramped up their attack on Rafah—where over a million people from other parts of the besieged enclave sought refuge—and the total death toll has risen to 35,233, according to Gaza health officials, with another 79,141 Palestinians injured.

"Israel's military operation has destroyed up to 70% of homes in Gaza, and has decimated civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, universities, U.N. facilities, and cultural and religious heritage sites," the document says, noting the "staggering" number of forced displacements. "Civilians in Gaza face catastrophic levels of hunger and deprivation due to Israel's restriction on, and failure to ensure adequate access to, basic essentials of life, including food, water, medicine, and fuel."

Dropping back to yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

As many as 20 American doctors and healthcare workers on a medical mission at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, in Gaza, are trapped after Israel closed the Rafah border crossing into Egypt. The Intercept reported on the Palestinian American Medical Association’s situation Monday, describing, quote, “Monica Johnston, a nurse volunteering at the hospital, said that a primary concern of those who will be leaving is that new humanitarian workers be allowed in, otherwise the hospital campus is more likely to get overrun by the Israel Defense Forces. The plan, she said, is for the U.N. to do a test run from the hospital to the border Tuesday, only carrying U.N. staff. If those staff are not killed by the IDF — as one international employee was on Monday — then on Wednesday two medical staff will be taken to the border, and two new volunteers will be allowed in to replace them, and so on in coming days,” she said.

For an update, we’re joined by Dr. Adam Hamawy. He is a plastic surgeon, Army veteran from New Jersey who’s part of the volunteer mission with the Palestinian American Medical Association at European Hospital in Khan Younis. Twenty years ago, in 2004, he saved the life of Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois when she was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade while serving in the Iraq War, losing both of her legs and partial use of her right arm. She told NBC News Tuesday, quote, “We’re shaking every tree, calling everyone to make sure we do everything we can to ensure safe passage of these doctors to whatever crossing we can get them to,” Senator Duckworth said.

Dr. Hamawy, thanks so much for being with us. Explain where you are and the situation you’re in right now.

DR. ADAM HAMAWY: Thank you very much for having me.

I am in the European Hospital in Gaza, which is in Khan Younis, on the border of Rafah. We’ve been over here over about two weeks now. And we are continuing to work the best we can with the resources we have. There’s no new updates about our status. So far, we have not been cleared to leave. We’ve heard many rumors, on and off, over the last few days about test runs and having, you know, two people leave, like you were just explaining. We were supposed have two people do a test run on Monday, but that did not happen, and I haven’t heard anything since. So we are currently on standby.

We’re continuing to do our job. We came here to help the people, to provide medical care and assistance. And we’re still here, and we’re still doing that. We are doing it with the limited supplies that we have, the limited resources that we have. It’s tiring, but, you know, this is exactly what we need to be doing at this time, because they have nothing else.

We are kind of their hope here in terms of safety. They feel secure that our presence is here, as well as the hospital, because of what happened at places like Shifa and Nasser. They feel that as long as there are foreigners here, that they are protected. They are concerned also that what happens when we leave. So, we completely understand that it’s not just about us leaving. We want to make sure that there’s continuous aid coming here and that we are replaced with another team with more supplies and resources, so that they feel safe and that we can also make this place function like a hospital.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Doctor, could you compare the situation in other war zones you have worked in, such as Iraq, to the situation in Gaza right now?

DR. ADAM HAMAWY: When I was in Iraq, I had the resources of the United States Army behind me. So, we had, you know, a combat support hospital. We had multiple specialists. We had a supply chain. Even though it might have been limited at some times, we continued to have that. And we were dealing basically with combat. You know, I was dealing with people who got injured because they were either soldiers, combatants. There were civilians that were injured, but it’s nothing compared to what I’m seeing right now. Ninety percent of who I see are civilians. And the injuries are just massive.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in terms of your —

DR. ADAM HAMAWY: Hello?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: — your ability to access electricity, internet, phone lines and communication to the outside world, what’s it been like?

DR. ADAM HAMAWY: So, we have intermittent internet at times. Electricity also is on and off. Electricity has been even worse over the last, I would say, four or five days, just because the fuel for the hospital is running out and they’re trying to conserve it. So they’ve been cutting off electricity to some of the wards and trying to preserve it for like the operating room and the ICUs in order to make it last as long as it can go. There is — again, I have almost no cellular service. The wireless does get internet in some locations, and it’s like random. So, like, I was having a little trouble before getting on the show, so was a little frantic trying to find a good spot, and finally got it, so I’m glad I’m here.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we really appreciate you making that contact with us. If you can describe the situation with the Israeli military moving into Rafah, cutting off the border crossing, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are displaced from all over Gaza now heading back north, and what’s happening in the hospital you’re in, in Khan Younis, and particularly the children that you’re treating?

DR. ADAM HAMAWY: So, most of my patients are children. My average patient is about 12 or 13 years old. They range from — the youngest one I’ve taken care of is about 4. And the age goes up to like mid-sixties or seventies. The people — since the invasion of Rafah, we’ve had a lot of the hospital personnel leave, because they are trying to get their families out of Rafah. Many of them have either moved there from other parts of Gaza, or they have, you know, lived there and are trying to flee.

I just saw a nurse this morning. I met him the first week that I was here. He hasn’t been around for seven days, and I just saw him. He looked dehydrated. He looked completely exhausted. He basically broke down and cried, telling me what he went through. He basically went to take his family out of their home and take them basically along, you know, out into like a clear area that was a designated safe zone. He took his wife. He has two daughters, one that’s 2 years old, another that’s 3 months old. They went to a place that had absolutely no shelter. He basically said it’s like the desert there. He said that they had no tent, they had no water, they had no food. The other day, he had to stand in line from dawn to about sunset just to get a jug of water for the family. He says that he has, like, absolutely no electricity. He has no water. And he basically broke down and cried, because, he said, like, “I feel like an animal. I don’t know what to do. When we go to the bathroom, I dig a hole in the ground, and we go there.” And, you know, he says his family, a week before, like his extended family, his uncle and his cousins, were hit by a strike, an airstrike, during the night, which killed most of them, except one of his nieces and another cousin. So, he said that they all passed away and died, were killed while they were sleeping. He said, “I wish that would have happened to us, because at least we wouldn’t have to go through what we’re going through.”

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dr. Hamawy, 20 years ago, you provided lifesaving care to now-Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois when she was wounded in Iraq. Have you had conversations with her office about the situation there?

DR. ADAM HAMAWY: Yes, her office has been in contact with me, and I know she’s doing everything she can to try to help us not only leave, but to provide that humanitarian aid into Gaza, as well. I really appreciate everything she’s doing.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the United States, where you come from? On the one hand, you have President Biden announcing he’s halting a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs because he doesn’t want them used in Gaza. He also said he wants Israel out of Gaza. At the same time, on the eve of today, he announced $1 billion of weapons to Israel. If you could speak with President Biden today, what would you tell him, Dr. Hamawy?

DR. ADAM HAMAWY: I would tell him, like, “What difference is it from a 2,000-pound bomb from a 500-pound bomb?” They’re both going to kill civilians. He could stop this war right now. All he has to do is say, “We are not going to give anything, and you need to stop. I don’t care if you are our friend.” If my best friend is a serial killer, I’m going to stop being his friend, and I’m going to tell him to do something.

This doesn’t — this isn’t who we are. This isn’t our country. This is not how I was raised, not any of us, you know, what we were taught what our nation is supposed to be. We’re supposed to stand for freedom. We talk about that all the time. We claim to be the banner carriers for freedom across the world. And yet we have this foreign policy that is so hypocritical in terms of providing a little bit of aid and a lot of bombs, and we’re supposed to be — you know, we’re supposed to be, like, the United States of America. I mean, really, that’s — this is— it’s disheartening. It’s going to haunt all of us when the truth — you know, I’m here. I see it with my own eyes. At some point in time, everyone’s going to see it.

I went out to Khan Younis, and it is flattened. It looks like a nuclear bomb hit the center of town. There is not one building standing. And every building was entered in after it was bombed and completely vandalized. There’s gunshots. There’s like, you know, graffiti everywhere that was placed after it was destroyed, making it completely uninhabitable. This is not a war against —

AMY GOODMAN: Making it — vandalized by who, Dr. Hamawy?

DR. ADAM HAMAWY: Well, all the words on there are in Hebrew.

AMY GOODMAN: We only have 30 seconds. Why did you go to Gaza? You are risking your life.

DR. ADAM HAMAWY: I am a surgeon. I have skills. I have been in war, and I’ve been on humanitarian missions in the past. I feel that I can make a difference. I’ve been trying to come here, actually, since December. I’ve reached out to many medical organizations, seeing who is coming and who has a slot. And I was offered one, and I came as soon as that opportunity was offered.

This is who we are. You know, we try to help people. This is what I do. I did this, you know, when I was in Iraq. I was proud to be with a team of U.S. Army doctors that took care of everyone that came into our combat support hospital. We took care of U.S. military, we took care of contractors, we took care of Iraqis, and we took care of other nationals. It didn’t matter who they were, because we treat human beings. I had the best job in the country there, and this is what I continue to do. I treat people as humans. And the way I am seeing this war conducted is not how we conduct wars, and this is not how we are taught in the United States, and this is not who we should be supporting.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Adam Hamawy, plastic surgeon, Army veteran, now trapped at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, in Gaza, where he’s volunteering with the Palestinian American Medical Association. Again, 20 years ago, in 2004, he saved the life of now-Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, whose legs were blown off when she was serving in Iraq.

Next up, Palestinians across the globe are marking the 76th anniversary of the Nakba — in English, it’s “catastrophe” — when 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes upon Israel’s founding. We’ll speak with a Palestinian historian in Amman. Stay with us.

Gaza remains under assault. Day 223 of the assault in the wave that began in October. 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 grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "At least 35,272 Palestinians have been killed and 79,205 injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 7, the enclave's Health Ministry said on Thursday. In the past 24 hours, 39 people were killed and 64 injured, the ministry added." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

On bodies trapped under rubble, ALJAZEERA notes this morning:

We’re talking about a three-storey building that housed not only residents but also dozens of other displaced Palestinians in Rafah that made it to Nuseirat three days ago.

I met the neighbours. I met the family. I met one of the relatives of people still trapped under the rubble earlier today. They were telling me heartbreaking things.

Unfortunately, it may come to a point where the Civil Defence teams will give up on this house because there are more people being targeted every single hour across the Gaza Strip.