A letter to Joe Biden

 https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/05/21/a-letter-to-biden-on-gaza/

May 21

Dear President Biden,

I am writing to you about Gaza, a place that I have studied and written about for the last 35 years, a place that I consider another home, filled with the kindest and most generous people you will ever meet—have you ever been there? But I am writing not only as a scholar of the region but as a Jew and one whose parents survived Auschwitz.

I have a question for you, Mr. President: When is the death of a child acceptable? Or perhaps I should ask the question this way: When does the death of a Palestinian child become unacceptable? You have experienced the unspeakable loss of your own children so you are better placed than most to answer my questions.

How Joe Biden Can Win a Nobel Peace Prize

Thomas Friedman May 23, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/23/opinion/israel-hamas-biden.html?searchResultPosition=1

Leon Trotsky once supposedly observed, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” To President Biden I’d say today, “You may not be interested in Middle East peacemaking, but Middle East peacemaking is interested in you.” Here’s why: All three key players in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been dealt some huge painful shocks over the past year. They know, deep down, that another round of fighting like the one we saw in the past two weeks could unleash disastrous consequences for each of them. Henry Kissinger forged the first real peace breakthrough between Israelis and Arabs after they were all reeling, vulnerable and in pain as a result of the 1973 War. They each knew that something had to change.

No Sign of Israel-Gaza Conflict Ending

 https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/16/world/israel-gaza-updates

May 21, 2021
Speaking on CBS’ Face The Nation on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said there was no clear end in sight to the violence between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to restore order and quiet,” he said, adding, “It will take some time.”
Hours after he spoke, Israeli warplanes began another round of attacks in the Gaza Strip, attacking a main road, security compounds and an electricity line feeding southern Gaza City, according to The Associated Press and local media reports. The attack was heavier, and lasted longer, than the air raids from the day before, the reports noted.

Also late Sunday, Jon Ossoff, a Democrat from Georgia, and 27 other Senators called for an immediate cease-fire “to prevent further loss of life.”

After the Cease-Fire, Gaza Wakes to a Sea of Rubble

 By Patrick Kingsley and Iyad Abuheweila

In addition to relief, some residents felt a sense of déjà vu, having survived several recent wars with Israel. After each war, it takes years for Gaza to recover.

May 21, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/21/world/middleeast/gaza-war-ceasefire-israel.html

GAZA CITY — As the first day of a fragile new cease-fire between Israel and Hamas drew to a close, Sami Abul Ouf stood five yards above the ground, teetering atop a dense mound of rubble in Gaza City where his sister’s home once stood.

A New Generation of Palestinians Are Rising Under Netanyahu's Nose and Saying 'Enough Is Enough'

 By David Hearst

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/05/11/new-generation-palestinians-are-rising-under-netanyahus-nose-and-saying-enough

Ten years ago, I walked down a tiled pathway in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and was led into a room where an old woman was sitting amid a pile of boxes and packed suitcases.

The first thing I noticed about Rifqa al-Kurd was the burning intensity of her eyes. She told me that she lived out of boxes because she was expecting the police to throw her out of house and for the settlers to move in at any moment. When that happened, she explained, she did not want her clothes thrown into the street. Hence the packed bags.

She had been through this before, when she was evicted from her home in Haifa in 1948. What kept her there, sitting among her boxes? She gave a one word reply: "Sumud", which roughly translates as steadfastness.

Palestinian Refugees Deserve to Return Home

 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/12/opinion/israel-palestinian-refugees-right-of-return.html?searchResultPosition=4

By: Peter Beinart

Why has the impending eviction of six Palestinian families in East Jerusalem drawn Israelis and Palestinians into a conflict that appears to be spiraling toward yet another war? Because of a word that in the American Jewish community remains largely taboo: the Nakba.

The Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic, need not refer only to the more than 700,000 Palestinians who were expelled or fled in terror during Israel’s founding. It can also evoke the many expulsions that have occurred since: the about 300,000 Palestinians whom Israel displaced when it conquered the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967; the roughly 250,000 Palestinians who could not return to the West Bank and Gaza after Israel revoked their residency rights between 1967 and 1994; the hundreds of Palestinians whose homes Israel demolished in 2020 alone. The East Jerusalem evictions are so combustible because they continue a pattern of expulsion that is as old as Israel itself.

Democracy Of The Rich

Whenever speaking of politics or government in the United States, the word democracy is heard several times. Sometimes it is combined with some adjectives, such as “the largest” or “the greatest”. There is no doubt that no country in the world has such a vast and untarnished democracy as the United States. However, no one asks who the beneficiary of this democracy is. The term is Greek, and it means the vote or the rule of the people. The question is who these people are.

Preparing taxes, I came across with elimination of some deductions, that was passed by congress on December 22, 2017, under Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The interesting common place among all the enacted status is their titles, which is usually the opposite of what the act is for. For example, this one is not to cut taxes, but to cut deductions, several of them at once, which would increase one’s taxes.

What Your Taxes Are Paying For in Israel

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/12/opinion/israel-palestinians-gaza.html

NICHOLAS KRISTOF

Saying Hamas must pay a “very heavy price” for belligerence, Israeli bombs destroyed a 13-story apartment building in Gaza that had a Hamas presence. And saying Israel “ignited fire” and is “responsible for the consequences,” Hamas launched more rockets at Israel.

We’re now seeing the worst fighting in seven years between Israelis and Palestinians, and again a basic pattern asserts itself: When missiles are flying, hard-liners on each side are ascendant. Civilians die, but extremists on one side empower those on the other.

Israel Is Carrying Out Mass Murder, Aided and Abetted by the US

Friday, May 14, 2021

by

Chris Hedges

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/05/14/israel-carrying-out-mass-murder-aided-and-abetted-us

Israel is not exercising "the right to defend itself" in the occupied Palestinian territories. It is carrying out mass murder. It is a war crime. 

We Could Have Greened Half the US Electrical Grid With $2.26 Wasted on Afghan War

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/04/19/we-could-have-greened-half-us-electrical-grid-226-wasted-afghan-war

Juan Cole- 4/19/2021

The Costs of War Project at Brown University has just brought out a new report on Afghanistan. The September 11, 2001 attacks were launched from Khost and Qandahar in Afghanistan by al-Qaeda, though it is not clear that this organization of Arab expatriates informed their Taliban hosts of what they were planning. The operation involved hijacking commercial airliners and using them as massive suicide bombs. It cost $500,000 or so to pull off, and killed nearly 3,000 persons. We could have avoided our war dead in Afghanistan and our wounded warriors by just getting out in the summer of 2002, in an enormous savings to our country in blood and treasure.

New Wind and Solar Up 50% Globally in 2020

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/04/18/new-wind-and-solar-50-globally-2020-china-beats-us-over-4-1

Juan Cole- 4/18/2021

The new report on 2020 by the International Renewable Energy Agency reveals that the world's renewable energy generation capacity increased by an astonishing 10.3% in 2020 despite the global economic slowdown during the coronavirus pandemic. It beats the previous record for an annual increase in this sector by a healthy 50%.

USA, Inc.

The largest corporation in the world is USA Inc. Not only it is the leading company, but it also is the most influential and the most tightly protected for-profit-organization in the world. The corporation has close to ten thousand owners and co-owners worldwide. The largest military in the world, by far, protects this conglomerate and all its subsidiaries all around the world. With more than 800 military posts in over 70 friendly (!) countries, it is a daring prospect to try to undermine this company. Of course, there are other entities (countries) that have been competing very carefully, due to their special circumstances. One of them is Russia, that is not economically a challenge for the Big Brother, but has not submitted to it either, due to its history. The other one, China, became an economic power taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the United States. Of course, these countries and some other few that have not become America’s plain field, are not considered “Normal” by American establishment, and there have been plans to convert them through smaller and weaker ex-alliances. This has been the case for Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Syria, with a prospect for a few others, such as Iran. Justifications for such military and covert actions are planned so intelligently (with the aid of majority Americans’ trust in their governments) that such excuses can easily be consumed by American public.