When former president Donald Trump’s media start-up announced in October 2021 that it planned to merge with a Miami-based company called Digital World Acquisition, the deal was an instant stock-market hit....
The Kansas Supreme Court offered a mixed bag in a ruling Friday that combined several challenges to a 2021 election law, siding with state officials on one provision, reviving challenges to others and offering the possibility that at least one will be halted before this year’s general election....
The problem is Trump could claim “oops I forgot that I agreed with the crowd in 2016” and that is different than intentionally lying. That’s why journalists have to split hairs here; George Santos can be called a liar but saying Trump lied this time is harder. It opens a can of worms; when Biden inevitably gets a detail wrong in another story of his should they call him a liar?
The bodies of 109 Palestinians including 23 children and 11 women were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, and spokesperson Khalil Degran told the Associated Press that more than 100 wounded also arrived to the hospital. In addition, he said the rest of the 210 Palestinians killed were taken to Al-Awda Hospital after the...
Netanyahu has said repeatedly since November that even if all hostages are released he will not stop the war. He turned down multiple ceasefire deals where all the hostages would be returned in exchange for aid. Your comment is simply incorrect.
Israel isn’t overthrowing Hamas though. They’re actually empowering them by Netanyahu spending the last 17 years sidelining Palestinian moderates. Abbas offered to work with Netanyahu to actively fight Hamas but was turned down, because Netanyahu refused to work with Palestinians of any stripe.
At least 274 Palestinians were killed and 698 wounded in Israeli strikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday. The Israeli military said its forces came under heavy fire during the daytime operation....
Are you trying to say that whoever puts military bases near civilians is willfully endangering civilians?
Yes according to Israeli logic based on what they say about Palestinians and Lebanese. Their behavior is hypocritical.
I think considerations about threat of attack come into play, and how great that risk is.
Hamas, Hizbullah, and Iran have all directly targeted these military installations, some in cities, and Israeli PR hollowly complains about how civilians are put in peril.
You’re missing the point completely, the Israeli military knowingly puts their bases in civilian areas knowing they are targets by enemy forces, putting the surrounding civilians at risk.
Realistically Likud and the Jewish Power Party needs to be neutered politically. Why is nobody talking about how Israel has convicted terrorists in its cabinet while at the same time complaining that Palestinians should have popular political parties banned? Rightwing extremism on one side begets rightwing extremism by the other side in response. This has been the case for over 30 years, we just had the 30 year anniversary of Israeli terrorist Baruch Goldstein’s massacre which kicked of Hamas’ wave of bombings in Israel.
Israel detains many Palestinians including hundreds of minors without charge, on bases right in the middle of civilian towns. Heck, IDF headquarters is right in the middle of a civilian neighborhood in Tel Aviv. Does that mean Tel Aviv is a legitimate military target?
Talk about cherry picking an opinion piece. Of course you’d promote someone who says what you want to hear and ignore the many many Palestinian op-Ed’s who don’t.
I love any Palestinian who supports peace but this guy made some blatant historical errors. In 2007, Fatah engaged in a coup against the PA since they couldn’t accept the election result. Israel publicly supported the coup, even with the prime minister publicly urging the Knesset to send weapons to Fatah so they could complete the coup. The coup attempt failed, which is why Hamas controlled Gaza while Fatah controlled West Bank. Netanyahu publicly supported Hamas through this with money, which is why the Israel press has been tearing into him for the last 6 months.
If you want a more mainstream Palestinian voice, I’d recommend Khaled Elgindy who has previously worked with the White House on negotiations. Not this guy who whitewashes Israeli crimes in hopes he could get picked to help run the occupation.
Netanyahu is under pressure to keep his coalition government intact. Two far-right partners have threatened to bolt in protest at any deal they deem to spare Hamas. A centrist partner, ex-general Benny Gantz, wants the deal considered. Hamas has provisionally welcomed the Biden initiative.
Keep in mind Israel has not formally accepted it yet nor stopped the bombings and raids.
Right now this is all background stuff being reported on. Netanyahu is being pressured in both directions; Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have said they will leave his coalition if he accepts a ceasefire, which means elections and prosecution. Turning down the offer will make Israel look even worse to the international public and cause him deep problems with US.
It’s not something the Palestinian public can accept. Give over ALL your leverage in exchange for a temporary deal that has no incentive to prevent a resumption of war, no quantifiable guarantees of aid or allowing people to return to their homes, or advance to Two State solution? To say nothing of the West Bank pogroms and Al Aqsa incursions that triggered the Oct 7 reprisal attack in the first place.
There’s a reason Hamas originally rejected the Israeli offer; it was insultingly bad and only benefited Israel. That’s why the original offer argued over “ceasefire” versus “sustainable calm,” whatever that means.
lol, as a political scientist that’s ridiculous and false. The Judicial Branch does not have a role in impeachment aside from Chief Justice having a role in the Senate trial. Impeachment is a political process conducted by the Legislative Branch. And impeachment “for high crimes and misdemeanors” does not include wielding his congressionally-authorized power to condition aid or hold aid when the country in question violates the Leahy Laws (which require the US to hold military aid to a country that violates human rights without accountability.
Sanctions on just 4 people? There’s hundreds of thousands of illegal settlers, thousands of attacks a year, and hundreds of Palestinians dead in the last 12 months even before October 7. Even 4 per settlement is insultingly low, not 4 in all of the OPT. You can’t even round up to the nearest 10 people; even you know this is a worthless gesture that is nothing more than a political talking point. And Biden walked back those sanctions after pressure from Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich; Israeli banks can now do business with the sanctioned individuals in a special exemption.
Close. All the postwar analysis including mentions in the Senate Report on Iraqi WMD Intelligence and independent reporting (Slow Burn podcast did a good summary) discussed how analysts were pressured to write reports backing up claims of WMDs or pre-assuming WMDs existed and that anyone who wrote reports otherwise was reprimanded from above and their career impacted negatively in a way that others saw and tried not to repeat. Some Bush supporters tried to make the case that the CIA came up with WMD claims on their own and Bush was unwittingly dragged into a war reluctantly because of the bad intelligence and that’s a laughable claim; it was the White House pressuring reports to say what they wanted to hear. Cheney personally set up an office in Langley to drive that point home.
My point still stands; the top levels of the Executive Branch can influence pretty far down into the bureaucrat levels. The White House can pressure the CIA to issue reports that favor the existing policy and bury papers that contradict it. The State Department can issue reports that favor the administration’s foreign policy objectives and bury reports that contradict it. The Trump (and Biden) administrations wielded control over the CDC and issued guidelines that sometimes went against what independent public health experts and the medical community were recommending; promoting ideas with weak evidence and burying other ideas with strong evidence because they contradicted the political policies at the time (see also needle exchange policies vs evidence based public health community recommendations).
Look at it this way, did the CDC ever openly contradict Trump? They had private disagreements behind closed doors according to a lot of anonymous media reporting, but since the CDC falls under the jurisdiction of HHS the civil service employees fall under the management of political appointees. In contrast, the Fed are a more independent agency designed to be more insulated from politicians and they had no trouble publicly saying no to a president.
I feel like people didn’t learn about this in school or remember it, so let me give a brief summary. Government agencies are staffed from the bottom up by civil service employees. They are hired and promoted based on their technical competence and expertise and can offer expert opinion and manage regulations. They are apolitical and keep their jobs in between presidential administrations. The very top and highest level jobs are politically appointed jobs by the White House and they change when administrations change. Their job is to set the policies for their respective departments and carry them out in accordance with the president’s wishes. If you’d like another example, the civil servants at the department of labor compile statistics on employment and unemployment rates and the president’s Secretary of Labor manages the department at the top and helps set departmental agenda.
My point is that the departments and agencies are not purely independent bodies and by design they are under the control of politicians. We have accountability by both electing a president who controls the staffing and high level decisions and Congress who oversees the functioning and results of each agency. I never said all presidents were equal on this but each one has a lot of control over what each agency PUBLICLY says. Biden essentially controls what ICE or CIA says to the press even if they privately warn him about changes in migrant numbers or WMD programs abroad.
No they don’t. They once had it in their charter in the 80s but updated it; and have called for a two state solution for nearly 20 years now. They even took the step of recognizing Israel, only for Netanyahu to move the goalposts. Meanwhile Netanyahu and the Likud party have genocide as their openly, publicly stated goal of destroying the nation of Palestine.
Trump’s Truth Social may be days away from liquidation (www.washingtonpost.com)
When former president Donald Trump’s media start-up announced in October 2021 that it planned to merge with a Miami-based company called Digital World Acquisition, the deal was an instant stock-market hit....
Passengers were stuck on plane for 7 hours with no air conditioning, no food or water provided, woman says (www.kcbd.com)
Firefighters who backed DeSantis takeover of Disney’s property upset that they lost firefighter perks (www.businessinsider.com)
Biden administration uses emergency authority to sell tank shells to Israel (amp.theguardian.com)
U.S. committee demands reasons for lack of Xinjiang sanctions (www.reuters.com)
Gaza struggles to bury and grieve the dead in accordance with Islamic traditions (www.nbcnews.com)
Kansas Constitution does not include a right to vote, state Supreme Court majority says (apnews.com)
The Kansas Supreme Court offered a mixed bag in a ruling Friday that combined several challenges to a 2021 election law, siding with state officials on one provision, reviving challenges to others and offering the possibility that at least one will be halted before this year’s general election....
Trump falsely claims he didn’t call to lock up Hillary Clinton | CNN Politics (www.cnn.com)
210 Palestinians reportedly killed during Israeli hostage recovery operation (thehill.com)
The bodies of 109 Palestinians including 23 children and 11 women were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, and spokesperson Khalil Degran told the Associated Press that more than 100 wounded also arrived to the hospital. In addition, he said the rest of the 210 Palestinians killed were taken to Al-Awda Hospital after the...
Outrage over ‘massacre’ in Gaza as Israel rescued four hostages (www.theguardian.com)
At least 274 Palestinians were killed and 698 wounded in Israeli strikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday. The Israeli military said its forces came under heavy fire during the daytime operation....
Biden's Gaza plan 'not a good deal' but Israel accepts it, Netanyahu aide says (www.reuters.com)
Netanyahu is under pressure to keep his coalition government intact. Two far-right partners have threatened to bolt in protest at any deal they deem to spare Hamas. A centrist partner, ex-general Benny Gantz, wants the deal considered. Hamas has provisionally welcomed the Biden initiative.
No end to Gaza war until ’destruction’ of Hamas, says Netanyahu (www.theguardian.com)
Hamas Police Officer Fatally Shoots Boy Approaching Humanitarian Aid Truck to Keep Others Away: (themessenger.com)