Reading

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Sat, 14/10/2023 - 06:00
There is a ton of good writing out there on the war in Israel. It’s so fraught with emotion and complex morality that it’s hard to keep up. I admit that I’m starting to flag a bit. There have also been some good television discusions. This was one of them and I’m glad Josh Marshall caught it: Very good discussion and worth listening to all the way through https://t.co/xEA03nmYuY — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 13, 2023 Here are a few links I’ve bookmarked. I don’t endorse all the ideas within them necessarily but they’re all thoughtful and interesting: The NRRB: Heading toward a second NakbaDissent: Toward a humane leftThe Nation: The Catastrophic Moral Failing of Those Who Won’t Condemn HamasHaaretz: Israel’s new concept of Hamas and Gaza is doomed to fail just like the last oneNYT Kristof: Seeking a Moral Compass in Gaza’s WarNYT Goldberg: The Massacre in Israel and the Need for a Decent LeftThe Guardian: How should the US respond to the Israel-Palestine crisis?
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Sat, 14/10/2023 - 05:47

After Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, IDF forces responded with airstrikes, leveling Gazan buildings. The violence so far has claimed the lives of more than 2,500 people. Western media, however, show far more interest and have much greater sympathy with Israeli dead than Palestinian ones and have played their usual role as unofficial […]

The post Propaganda Blitz: How Mainstream Media Is Pushing Fake Palestine Stories appeared first on MintPress News.

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Sat, 14/10/2023 - 05:46

Israel has bombed three regions in 5 days: Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Little reporting has been seen on this in the media, but one thing is certain: Western politicians from are cheering on Israel’s actions with an eye on drawing Iran into the conflict. Daniel McAdams and Vanessa Beeley break it down.

The post Panel: These are the Western Politicians Escalating Israel’s Regional War in the Middle East appeared first on MintPress News.

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Sat, 14/10/2023 - 04:58
Will Australia today say Yes and agree to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice? Or will we reject the request made to us by representatives of First Nations communities in the Uluru Statement from the Heart?  Over recent weeks and months, our Continue reading »
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Sat, 14/10/2023 - 04:55
The depressing, crushing spectacle of extreme violence and mayhem unleashed across Israel and Palestine over recent days is a reminder of the depths to which humanity can sink. To see complex historical, cultural and geopolitical questions – let alone humanity and decency – reduced to a ceaseless cycle of hatred, death and destruction is hard Continue reading »
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Sat, 14/10/2023 - 04:54
On 14 October, my attention will wander between three unconnected stories as they unfold in real time. I will be in New Zealand on that general election date. Polls indicate the Labour government will be replaced by a centre-right coalition. But the peculiarities of the electoral system make election results and the outcome of post-election Continue reading »
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Sat, 14/10/2023 - 04:54
Terrorism: “(adjective) unlawfully using violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in pursuit of political aims.” Has any term more fully captured what the state of Israel inflicts on Palestinians? The descriptive of ‘terrorist’ is bandied about regularly and without consideration of the ramifications on the individual, group or country. The average reader of any news Continue reading »
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Sat, 14/10/2023 - 04:53
Dear distinguished readers, in response to the terrible situation in Palestine, please support an urgent appeal from the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association (PANZMA), to purchase badly needed medical supplies for the besieged people of Gaza. The Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association (PANZMA) was established in 2020 by a group of healthcare professionals Continue reading »
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Sat, 14/10/2023 - 04:50
Michael Hirsh has just published a withering review, in Foreign Policy, of the lead-up to horrific war now underway between Israel and Hamas entitled “Netanyahu’s Road to War”. Hirsh argues convincingly that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has, over an extended period: malevolently undermined all Palestinian peak bodies; artfully wooed Arab states; and (more recently) Continue reading »
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Sat, 14/10/2023 - 04:30
His employees are a bunch of Sgt. Schultzes In case you’re interested in the recent doings of the Trump fraud trial this week, this article in the Daily Best runs down a part of it. By the way, Trump hasannounced that he plans to attend the tril next week when Michael Cohen is expected to take the stand. I guess hw figures he can bad-vibe him with that mug-shot scowl: For years, a high-ranking accountant at the Trump Organization was the point man for ensuring that tweaked numbers padded Donald Trump’s wealth on paper. But when he appeared on the witness stand at the former president’s bank fraud trial last week, the accountant’s supposed finance expertise suddenly vanished into thin air. Jeffrey McConney, who recently retired as the company’s controller, has spent recent years facing close legal scrutiny. In 2017, state investigators questioned him over the way Trump misused his charity, which was eventually dissolved. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg used McConney’s testimony to convict the Trump Organization of tax fraud last year.
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Sat, 14/10/2023 - 04:00

While on my way to dispose of a breakfast of which I only took three bites, I noticed something that has broken my heart: The sixteenth craft I made at preschool this week, stuffed into the garbage beneath a layer of yesterday’s trash as if I wouldn’t find it.

No, not the one with the blue crayon circles. Also, no, not the paint handprints that mysteriously had some other kid’s name spelled backward on it. I’m talking about the one with the eight star stickers, a singular macaroni noodle glued to the top, and a few smudges of pink marker, wrinkled from when I shoved it in my backpack. Yes, there’s a hole in the middle from where I pressed the marker down too hard, repeatedly rubbing it in violent circles like I was trying to murder my canvas, but that doesn’t give you an excuse to dispose of it without my permission.

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Sat, 14/10/2023 - 03:30
No one could be more ignorant or self-serving It seems like only yesterday that then-President Donald Trump appeared before the Republican Jewish Coalition and referred to Benjamin Netanyahu as “your prime minister” despite the fact that, by definition, everyone there was American, not Israeli. It wasn’t a slip of the tongue. Lamenting that American Jews tend to vote more often for Democrats, in the same speech he proclaimed that voting for them again “would cripple our country and very well could leave Israel out there all by yourselves” and then suggested that “maybe you could explain that to some of your people who say ‘Oh, we don’t like tariffs.’” This was happening at the same time as Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was under fire from the right for suggesting that some American Jews have “dual loyalties,” but somehow Trump didn’t hear any condemnation from his fellow Republicans.