Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

N&P: Discuss governments, nations, politics and recent related news here.

Moderators: Alyrium Denryle, Edi, K. A. Pital

Post Reply
Ralin
Sith Marauder
Posts: 4554
Joined: 2008-08-28 04:23am

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Ralin »

Okay I can just can just barely make that out.

One more mark in the don't vote next year column.
User avatar
LadyTevar
White Mage
White Mage
Posts: 23423
Joined: 2003-02-12 10:59pm

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by LadyTevar »

Ralin wrote: 2024-01-30 01:35am Okay I can just can just barely make that out.

One more mark in the don't vote next year column.
I don't think she's running, so it doesn't matter anyway.

But, for the love of NOT LETTING TRUMP WIN, Please Vote.
Image
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
Ralin
Sith Marauder
Posts: 4554
Joined: 2008-08-28 04:23am

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Ralin »

LadyTevar wrote: 2024-01-30 05:31am
Ralin wrote: 2024-01-30 01:35am Okay I can just can just barely make that out.

One more mark in the don't vote next year column.
I don't think she's running, so it doesn't matter anyway.

But, for the love of NOT LETTING TRUMP WIN, Please Vote.
And she wouldn't be in my state or district regardless. But under the circumstances this is one more thing I'm holding against Biden, is what I was getting at. His party's leadership, his people, he gets tarred by proxy
User avatar
LadyTevar
White Mage
White Mage
Posts: 23423
Joined: 2003-02-12 10:59pm

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by LadyTevar »

Ralin wrote: 2024-01-30 05:40am
LadyTevar wrote: 2024-01-30 05:31am
Ralin wrote: 2024-01-30 01:35am Okay I can just can just barely make that out.

One more mark in the don't vote next year column.
I don't think she's running, so it doesn't matter anyway.

But, for the love of NOT LETTING TRUMP WIN, Please Vote.
And she wouldn't be in my state or district regardless. But under the circumstances this is one more thing I'm holding against Biden, is what I was getting at. His party's leadership, his people, he gets tarred by proxy

I think we already had an argument about tarring Biden by Proxy. I believe I said that it was a stupid fucking thing to do, because Biden has NOTHING TO DO WITH PELOSI'S PERSONAL OPINIONS, just like he had NOTHING TO DO WITH SOMEONE GOING TO THE HOSPITAL.

The fact that you think Biden's a tyrant who has to have total control over every single Democrat is not just illogical and impossible, but absolutely mindboggling stupid. But if that's the hill you wanna die on, fine.
Image
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
User avatar
Gandalf
SD.net White Wizard
Posts: 16358
Joined: 2002-09-16 11:13pm
Location: A video store in Australia

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Gandalf »

It also means that the unless there's a proper rebuke, the Democrats as a party approve of her behaviour.
"Oh no, oh yeah, tell me how can it be so fair
That we dying younger hiding from the police man over there
Just for breathing in the air they wanna leave me in the chair
Electric shocking body rocking beat streeting me to death"

- A.B. Original, Report to the Mist

"I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."
- George Carlin
User avatar
The Sisko
Redshirt
Posts: 47
Joined: 2020-08-10 12:37pm

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by The Sisko »

Ralin wrote:And she wouldn't be in my state or district regardless. But under the circumstances this is one more thing I'm holding against Biden, is what I was getting at. His party's leadership, his people, he gets tarred by proxy
The previous generation of Cold-War addled brains sees Russia behind every shadow. Democrats seem to have it the worst. It's not hard for the DNC to come out and say this retired old woman doesn't speak for the party. Democrats are just cowards. Politically they're that guy who agrees with everyone else so long as the GOP feels bad about it.
Anyway, here's Wonderwall
Ralin wrote:Soft Holocaust Denial isn't Holocaust Denial.
User avatar
Gandalf
SD.net White Wizard
Posts: 16358
Joined: 2002-09-16 11:13pm
Location: A video store in Australia

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Gandalf »

The Sisko wrote: 2024-01-30 02:24pm It's not hard for the DNC to come out and say this retired old woman doesn't speak for the party. Democrats are just cowards. Politically they're that guy who agrees with everyone else so long as the GOP feels bad about it.
One could hardly describe Pelosi as retired, given that she is still in office, and will contest the seat again in 2024.
"Oh no, oh yeah, tell me how can it be so fair
That we dying younger hiding from the police man over there
Just for breathing in the air they wanna leave me in the chair
Electric shocking body rocking beat streeting me to death"

- A.B. Original, Report to the Mist

"I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."
- George Carlin
User avatar
Elfdart
The Anti-Shep
Posts: 10702
Joined: 2004-04-28 11:32pm

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Elfdart »

Ralin wrote: 2024-01-27 10:08pm Oh hey, looks like the ruling has already had an effect! https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official ... suspension
"Your Honor, my client is not a wife-beater -it's a filthy slander to say so. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to burn down the battered women's shelter where his wife currently resides, and buy my client a shiny new set of brass knuckles so he can really put the bitch in her place!".
The Sisko wrote: 2024-01-30 02:24pmThe previous generation of Cold-War addled brains sees Russia behind every shadow. Democrats seem to have it the worst.
She's of the same generation as Biden, and has very similar views. For them it's always 1968 and they're convinced it wasn't the slaughter of millions in Indochina that cost them the election, it was those Dirty Fucking Hippies who complained about it. No doubt the DFHs were paid for with Moscow's gold.
User avatar
LaCroix
Sith Acolyte
Posts: 5196
Joined: 2004-12-21 12:14pm
Location: Sopron District, Hungary, Europe, Terra

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by LaCroix »

I never really understood the concept of UNWRA existing.

Refugees worldwide are handled by UNHCR - while UNWRA is only handling Palestine, exclusively. At the same time, UNWRA has roughly 10% of the budget UNHCR uses for world-wide operations, and virtually no oversight or rules, and nothing to show for it.

Defunding it, and rolling everything under the common mantle and rule set of UNHCR is the best thing to do, IMHO.
A minute's thought suggests that the very idea of this is stupid. A more detailed examination raises the possibility that it might be an answer to the question "how could the Germans win the war after the US gets involved?" - Captain Seafort, in a thread proposing a 1942 'D-Day' in Quiberon Bay

I do archery skeet. With a Trebuchet.
User avatar
Elfdart
The Anti-Shep
Posts: 10702
Joined: 2004-04-28 11:32pm

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Elfdart »

LaCroix wrote: 2024-02-01 04:07am I never really understood the concept of UNWRA existing.
I never understood the concept behind Israel's Lebensraum policy that created so many refugees in the first place -and continues to this day.
Refugees worldwide are handled by UNHCR - while UNWRA is only handling Palestine, exclusively. At the same time, UNWRA has roughly 10% of the budget UNHCR uses for world-wide operations, and virtually no oversight or rules, and nothing to show for it.

Defunding it, and rolling everything under the common mantle and rule set of UNHCR is the best thing to do, IMHO.
You may be right: Since Palestinians in Gaza are slated for extermination, employing thousands of them to handle relief duties for the rest of the refugees is rather cruel. I mean, what's the point of giving out polio vaccines to Palestinian toddlers when Israel is going to bomb and starve them to death anyway? Besides, I'm sure foreign relief workers will volunteer in droves to help out in Gaza and fill in for the UNWRA workers who are fired (and killed).

Your Modest Proposal would make Jonathan Swift cringe.

Were it not for the genocide going on, it would be almost comical watching the tag team of Biden-Bibi trying to get their groove back by attacking a relief agency.
User avatar
LaCroix
Sith Acolyte
Posts: 5196
Joined: 2004-12-21 12:14pm
Location: Sopron District, Hungary, Europe, Terra

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by LaCroix »

Pure ad hominem, with no explanation why the palestinian refugees are so unique that they need their own UN refugee organization, while EVERY other crisis can be handled by UNHCR.
A minute's thought suggests that the very idea of this is stupid. A more detailed examination raises the possibility that it might be an answer to the question "how could the Germans win the war after the US gets involved?" - Captain Seafort, in a thread proposing a 1942 'D-Day' in Quiberon Bay

I do archery skeet. With a Trebuchet.
User avatar
Elfdart
The Anti-Shep
Posts: 10702
Joined: 2004-04-28 11:32pm

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Elfdart »

LaCroix wrote: 2024-02-01 02:30pm Pure ad hominem, with no explanation why the palestinian refugees are so unique that they need their own UN refugee organization, while EVERY other crisis can be handled by UNHCR.
Name another group of refugees who are murdered as often as Palestinians, or in such numbers. Israel habitually massacres Palestinian refugees in Gaza so often that they refer to it as "mowing the lawn" -and that was before the October 7th attacks.

Please enlighten readers how cutting off UNWRA and giving the job to THE UNHCR (which has its own fish to fry) will help anyone. Aside from IDF bootlickers, I mean.
User avatar
LadyTevar
White Mage
White Mage
Posts: 23423
Joined: 2003-02-12 10:59pm

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by LadyTevar »

Elfdart wrote: 2024-02-01 05:46pm
LaCroix wrote: 2024-02-01 02:30pm Pure ad hominem, with no explanation why the palestinian refugees are so unique that they need their own UN refugee organization, while EVERY other crisis can be handled by UNHCR.
Name another group of refugees who are murdered as often as Palestinians, or in such numbers. Israel habitually massacres Palestinian refugees in Gaza so often that they refer to it as "mowing the lawn" -and that was before the October 7th attacks.

Please enlighten readers how cutting off UNWRA and giving the job to THE UNHCR (which has its own fish to fry) will help anyone. Aside from IDF bootlickers, I mean.
YOU ARE WALKING A THIN LINE ELFDART.
You were asked to provide context first, so back your statements up first. Otherwise, Sit Down, Shut up.
Image
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
User avatar
Elfdart
The Anti-Shep
Posts: 10702
Joined: 2004-04-28 11:32pm

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Elfdart »

I DID provide context: Palestinian refugees are murdered on a regular basis and in large numbers (Cast Lead in 2007, Pillar of Defense in 2012 and Protective Edge in 2014, to name but a few), so it would make sense to recruit Palestinians to handle day-to-day relief work since it's quite dangerous for relief workers in these refugee camps/ghettos. This also has the benefit of providing jobs and training for these local relief workers. If other refugees were subjected to periodic mass murder like what goes on in Gaza, I would hope the same relief would be given to them, too.

La Croix ought to explain how getting rid of UNWRA and handing the job to other agencies will accomplish anything. The few medical personnel left (Israel has killed doctors too) are already forced to operate on people without anesthetic. The only thing his idea for cutting off aid to Gaza will accomplish is piling up more dead Palestinians.

Besides, the whole reason UNWRA is being attacked is because the ICJ ruled that Israel must refrain from all genocidal acts. One of these acts is cutting off food, fuel, water, medical supplies to Gaza. About the only source left in Gaza for any of these things is UNWRA, and accusing the organization of taking part in the October 7th attacks gives a handy excuse for continuing the genocide while playing the victim.

For details:


(13:36)

And keep in mind that the source for the claim that UNWRA was involved in Oct 7 has spread so many ridiculous lies ("OMG! Forty Beheaded Babies!") that anyone who takes their claims at face value is either stupid, dishonest, showing signs of a stroke, or all of the above.
User avatar
LaCroix
Sith Acolyte
Posts: 5196
Joined: 2004-12-21 12:14pm
Location: Sopron District, Hungary, Europe, Terra

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by LaCroix »

https://www.unhcr.org/emergencies/ongoing-emergencies
UNHCR is handling multiple emergencies that are absolutely comparable to the current Gaza situation.
And they do so with local relief workers, just the same.
Nobody in his right mind would think that the UNHCR would kick out all local workers and only work with foreign volunteers
You would simply be putting the current operation under the UNHCR authority, cutting some of the overhead and replacing the leadership.

You have not provided any reason why putting the current relief actions under the UNHCR autorithy would change anything, unless you are implying that the UNHCR will immidiately cease all support, stop all current aid provided and leave the Palestinans to die in droves because the UNHCR is secretly an Israeli organization with a (very well) hidden agenda to kill all Palestinians, or inherently incompetent, despite of being THE agency handling pretty much every refugee crisis worldwide for the last 70 years, apart from one.

This would change absolutely nothing in the short term, and in the medium to long term would remove all implications of the humanitarian efforts being
comprimised. It would also mean that there is no good way to cut funding to Palestine, anymore, because you would need to cut all funding to UNHCR to do so.
A minute's thought suggests that the very idea of this is stupid. A more detailed examination raises the possibility that it might be an answer to the question "how could the Germans win the war after the US gets involved?" - Captain Seafort, in a thread proposing a 1942 'D-Day' in Quiberon Bay

I do archery skeet. With a Trebuchet.
User avatar
Elfdart
The Anti-Shep
Posts: 10702
Joined: 2004-04-28 11:32pm

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Elfdart »

LaCroix wrote: 2024-02-01 08:24pm https://www.unhcr.org/emergencies/ongoing-emergencies
UNHCR is handling multiple emergencies that are absolutely comparable to the current Gaza situation.
And they do so with local relief workers, just the same.
Nobody in his right mind would think that the UNHCR would kick out all local workers and only work with foreign volunteers
You would simply be putting the current operation under the UNHCR authority, cutting some of the overhead and replacing the leadership.
And that would accomplish what, exactly?
You have not provided any reason why putting the current relief actions under the UNHCR autorithy would change anything,


If it wouldn't change anything, why bother?
unless you are implying that the UNHCR will immidiately cease all support, stop all current aid provided and leave the Palestinans to die in droves because the UNHCR is secretly an Israeli organization with a (very well) hidden agenda to kill all Palestinians, or inherently incompetent, despite of being THE agency handling pretty much every refugee crisis worldwide for the last 70 years, apart from one.
What is the point of phasing out one UN relief agency for another? If the UNHCR is put in charge of the same relief workers and does the same duties as UNWRA then the only real change is the name. Again, why bother?
This would change absolutely nothing in the short term, and in the medium to long term would remove all implications of the humanitarian efforts being
comprimised.
The only "implications" that humanitarian efforts are "compromised" come from the same Israeli government currently trying to exterminate Palestinians by depriving them of medical supplies, food, water and fuel (as well as by bombing and shooting them of course). Guess what, genius -if the UNHCR starts giving aid to Palestinians, they'll be attacked just like UNWRA: with bombs, bullets and smear campaigns from creeps who just love the taste of IDF boot leather.

Case in point: Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) is routinely slandered as "supporting terrorism" or "anti-Semitism", and not only has the IDF attacked the hospitals where they work, but bombed their vehicles and killed their family members, too. The Red Cross/Red Crescent has also been attacked by the IDF.
It would also mean that there is no good way to cut funding to Palestine, anymore, because you would need to cut all funding to UNHCR to do so.
The same governments that just cut off Gaza from aid, knowing full well that it means speeding up the genocide in progress wouldn't be deterred from doing so by having it linked to aid for Haitian or Sudanese refugees. Hell, that might encourage them.
User avatar
Broomstick
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 28831
Joined: 2004-01-02 07:04pm
Location: Industrial armpit of the US Midwest

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Broomstick »

LaCroix wrote: 2024-02-01 04:07am I never really understood the concept of UNWRA existing.
UNWRA was created in 1948 to handle an immediate crisis in the Middle East. Two years later the UN said, oh, wait, we should probably have an organization for all refugees and not just this group. Thus was created the UNHCR to deal with everyone the UNWRA wasn't.

Personally, I think rolling them all up into one agency would make sense but they don't put me in charge of anything.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. Leonard Nimoy.

Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy

Sam Vimes Theory of Economic Injustice
User avatar
LadyTevar
White Mage
White Mage
Posts: 23423
Joined: 2003-02-12 10:59pm

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by LadyTevar »

Broomstick wrote: 2024-02-02 07:49pm
LaCroix wrote: 2024-02-01 04:07am I never really understood the concept of UNWRA existing.
UNWRA was created in 1948 to handle an immediate crisis in the Middle East. Two years later the UN said, oh, wait, we should probably have an organization for all refugees and not just this group. Thus was created the UNHCR to deal with everyone the UNWRA wasn't.

Personally, I think rolling them all up into one agency would make sense but they don't put me in charge of anything.
I couldn't remember how that was all set up. Thank you Broomstick
Image
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.

"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
User avatar
EnterpriseSovereign
Sith Marauder
Posts: 4362
Joined: 2006-05-12 12:19pm
Location: Spacedock

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by EnterpriseSovereign »

It's spelt UNRWA, standing for United Nations Relief and Works Agency (for Palestine Refugees in the Near East).
User avatar
Elfdart
The Anti-Shep
Posts: 10702
Joined: 2004-04-28 11:32pm

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Elfdart »

On a lighter note, Katie Halper & Friends put this catastrophe to music:



Not only is the satire dead on target, but they took one of the most insipid pop songs of the 1980s and made it fun to listen to. :lol:
Natanyahoo wrote:"That's smooth -like a 2000-pound bomb!"
Ralin
Sith Marauder
Posts: 4554
Joined: 2008-08-28 04:23am

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Ralin »

Elfdart wrote: 2024-02-02 12:37am
What is the point of phasing out one UN relief agency for another? If the UNHCR is put in charge of the same relief workers and does the same duties as UNWRA then the only real change is the name. Again, why bother?
Elfdart, funny you should mention that. Turns out that there actually IS a practical difference. I hadn't known this, but it turns out that unlike other agencies such as UNHCR the UNWRA classifies Palestinians expelled from the country AND their descendants as refugees regardless of their current location or citizenship in another country.

https://www.unrwa.org/palestine-refugees

https://www.ajc.org/news/what-to-know-a ... in-the-107

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/isr ... rt-details

This has apparently been a point of contention between them and the Israeli government and its supporters for awhile because as a practical matter it means that number of recognized Palestinian refugees continues to grow over time, even over generations. You can probably connect the dots on how this might conflict with the goal of someone who wanted to permanently drive the Palestinian population of the region over an extended period of time. It makes it that much harder to just pretend they don't exist once they've left the country and aren't allowed back in.

That is one significant thing you could expect to change if they were replaced by UNHCR, even if the UNHCR was every bit as well-funded and competent in delivering aid as the UNWRA.
User avatar
Gandalf
SD.net White Wizard
Posts: 16358
Joined: 2002-09-16 11:13pm
Location: A video store in Australia

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Gandalf »

Biden's ongoing support of Israel is having domestic effects.
The Guardian wrote:Joe Biden had barely started speaking at a high-profile re-election campaign rally focusing on abortion rights in Virginia last week when the carefully choreographed made-for-TV spectacle exploded into a cacophony of angry yelling.

“Genocide Joe!”, a protester holding up a Palestinian flag cried from the back of the hall. “How many kids have you killed in Gaza? How many women have you killed in Gaza?”

Biden looked bemused, blinking silently into the cameras. In all, he was to be interrupted at least 13 more times. “This is going to go on for a while,” he said at one point. “They’ve got this planned.”

As Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign gets under way, it is becoming increasingly clear that they have indeed got it planned. A decentralized network of pro-Palestinian groups and individuals, including Muslim Americans, Jewish Americans and anti-war organizations, are hounding Biden over his firm support for Israel despite the heavy cost in civilian lives of its war against Hamas.

Community is going to be active, with actions big or small, until this genocide ends and there’s a permanent ceasefire,” Mohamad Habehh told the Guardian. He was the individual who stood up and shouted: “Genocide Joe!” in Virginia.

Habehh said that Biden should expect much more of the same as election year unfolds. “Every event the president does, no matter where it is, not matter what state or city, there will be Americans who stand against his stance on Gaza.”

Habehh, who described himself as a Palestinian American organizer, was not making an idle threat. This month all of Biden’s big set-piece speeches marking the launch of his re-election campaign have been disrupted by pro-Palestinian protests.

At the abortion rights rally in Virginia there were at least 30 protesters inside the hall and a further 50 outside. A couple of weeks earlier at the historic Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, Biden’s appeal to Black voters ground to a halt after several protesters began chanting “ceasefire now!” from the pews.

A day after the Virginia rally, protesters interrupted a similarly carefully choreographed event in Washington DC aimed at wooing union members where Biden was accepting the endorsement of the United Auto Workers. Video taken by the New York Times reporter Katie Rogers showed individuals being physically dragged out of the venue.

The sense that such agitation is fast becoming the new normal was confirmed by Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the feminist peace group Code Pink and one of the protesters outside the Virginia rally.

“We expect there to be protests at every major event that Biden does, and even minor ones,” she said. “People are so angry they’re looking to vent their frustration and disgust at the man we now call Genocide Joe and anybody working for this complicit administration.”

It’s not just the major prime-time rallies that are now attracting the anti-Gaza war crowd’s wrath. Everywhere Biden goes he is being dogged, whether it is outside the church he attends near his home in Delaware or along the route of his presidential motorcade.

Other senior politicians are also in the firing line. Benjamin said she now joins protest events inside Congress almost daily.

Code Pink and other groups have accosted senators as they are going in and out of congressional hearings. They have also held sit-ins at the congressional offices of Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, and Mitch McConnell, his Republican opposite number.

Regular demonstrations are also being staged at entrances to the White House, at the US state department and other federal government offices deemed to be contributing to the Biden administration’s backing for the Israeli assault on Gaza, which came in response to Hamas’s attack on 7 October that killed 1,200 people inside Israel.

More than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military operation, according to the Gaza health ministry.

In the short term, the disruptions threaten to cloud the re-election narrative that Biden and team are seeking to present. Where they had hoped the rallies would generate media coverage emphasizing the president’s record on fighting for women’s choice, racial equality or trade union rights, they instead were greeted with protest headlines.

Already there are signs that potentially key demographic groups who turned out strongly for Biden in 2020 might be paling this time because of their disapproval of his policy on the Israel-Hamas war. An AP analysis in 2020 found that 64% of American Muslims voted for Biden, against 35% for Donald Trump.

Biden will be looking to replicate such numbers in November, especially in key battleground states with sizable Muslim electorates. Those include Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

But opinion polls conducted since Israel’s assault on Gaza began show support for Biden among Arab Americans plummeting. The trend is especially worrying for the White House in Michigan, the state with the largest Arab American population.

Biden won Michigan by 154,000 votes in 2020. There are more than 200,000 Muslim American voters living there.

Influential Michigan figures have been excoriating in their criticism of the Biden administration. “I can tell you with confidence that Biden won’t get Arab and Muslim American votes in November,” Osama Siblani, publisher of the largest Arab American newspaper in the US, the Dearborn-based Arab American News, told the Guardian.

He added: “Our community is extremely angry at the president for his unlimited and unconditional support of Israeli crimes against Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank. We won’t forget what Biden did, and we’ll deliver the message where it really counts – no votes for Biden.”

There are similar alarming signs that support for the Democratic president may be waning among young voters dismayed by the catastrophic destruction inside Gaza. A recent Economist/YouGov poll found that almost half of 18- to 29-year-olds believe that Israel is committing genocide.

Biden has so far allowed the wave of protests to wash over him. At campaign events he has acknowledged the passion of his detractors – “they feel deeply”, he said in Virginia as he was being heckled – but has refused to engage in debate with them.

When pressed on the danger that he is losing Arab American support, he has countered by referencing Trump’s travel ban on visitors from several majority-Muslim countries. “We understand who cares about the Arab population,” he said recently.

Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, accused some of the protesters of being in the pay of the Kremlin. “Some, I think, are connected to Russia,” she told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, adding without evidence that they were doing the work of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

“For them to call for a ceasefire is Mr Putin’s message.”

Eva Borgwardt, the national spokesperson of the Jewish American group IfNotNow which opposes unconditional US support for Israel, dismissed such slurs against protesters. She pointed to her own record as a Democratic field organizer in Arizona in the 2020 presidential election.

“As an American Jew who worked for Biden in 2020, I’m furious and frustrated that he is risking throwing this election to Trump over his refusal to call for a ceasefire.”

In an October action, IfNotNow peacefully blockaded every entrance to the White House. The group has also targeted top Democrats in Congress including Schumer, the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, and the progressive Democratic senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders.

Biden supporters have urged caution, telling protesters that there are bigger stakes at play in this presidential election than the president’s stance on the Middle East. They say the protesters might come to think differently were a politician with fundamentally anti-democratic tendencies, and his own contentious record on Israel-Palestine, in the White House.

Shev Jones, a state senator in Florida who is co-chair of the Biden re-election campaign there, told CNN that protesters had to get serious about the importance of this election. Addressing those who say they may not turn out for Biden to defeat Trump, he said: “It’s easy to say that when you currently have the ability to make a choice. I want them to say that when they’re not able to make a choice at all.”

Asked how she responded to the accusation that by attacking Biden the protesters are helping Trump, Borgwardt said: “Young Jews are terrified of a Trump presidency.” But she called it “absurd” to blame young voters “who are rightly furious with Biden for backing the Israeli government which has caused tens of thousands of deaths, rather than the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the world”.

Habehh also dismissed claims that the protesters were giving Trump a boost. “That’s a very lazy argument,” he said.

“Trump could easily be worse – we’ve seen what he’s done to our community and we know what he’s capable of. But Biden’s the one who is unequivocally supporting the rightwing government of Benjamin Netanyahu that has killed more than 25,000 people, mostly women and children, using American taxpayer dollars.”
Guven the funding which goes to the DNC, they should be able to employ a ton of people whose whole job is to come up with better excuses than "But Trump!"

On the upside, Rashida Tlaib is doing well despite censure.
"Oh no, oh yeah, tell me how can it be so fair
That we dying younger hiding from the police man over there
Just for breathing in the air they wanna leave me in the chair
Electric shocking body rocking beat streeting me to death"

- A.B. Original, Report to the Mist

"I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."
- George Carlin
User avatar
Elfdart
The Anti-Shep
Posts: 10702
Joined: 2004-04-28 11:32pm

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Elfdart »

Being censured by this Congress is like Jerry Sandusky telling you he doesn't want your kid trying out for his Little League team.

Biden squeaked by Cheeto Mussolini in Michigan, Arizona and Georgia -states that have hundreds of thousands of Arab and Muslim voters. If he only pulls a lower percentage of what he did in 2020, he loses.

LINK
Numbers are difficult to pinpoint, since neither the U.S. Census nor media exit polls ask about religion or Arab ethnicity. But a post-election poll conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations found that 69% of Muslim American voters backed Biden in 2020.

And while Muslims are a tiny minority of the overall U.S. population — about half the number of American Jews — they happen to make up a large enough proportion of several battleground states to be at least theoretically capable of swinging an election, were they to pull support from Biden en masse.

For instance, Biden won Arizona by just about 10,500 votes. The nongovernmental U.S. Religion Census, run by a consortium of religious institutions and other nonprofit groups, estimated that there were 110,00 Muslim adherents in Arizona total, including people ineligible to vote because they are too young or not citizens.

Biden won Georgia by about 12,000 votes; the Religion Census estimates there are 123,000 Muslim adherents in the state. He won by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin, where there are an estimated 69,000 Muslim adherents. Biden won Michigan by about 154,000 votes, and there are estimated 242,000 Muslim adherents in the state. And he won Minnesota by about 233,000, where there are an estimated 115,00 Muslims.

“Many, including myself, are considering voting the other way or leaving the ticket blank,” said Sumaya Abdul-Quadir, program director at the Arizona Muslim Alliance, which has been urging members of Congress to support a cease-fire.
Houdini couldn't contort his way out of this mess. Biden is going to be LBJ 2 where any good he might have done domestically will go right down the shitter thanks to this foreign policy abomination.
Ralin wrote: 2024-02-06 07:21am
Elfdart wrote: 2024-02-02 12:37am
What is the point of phasing out one UN relief agency for another? If the UNHCR is put in charge of the same relief workers and does the same duties as UNWRA then the only real change is the name. Again, why bother?
Elfdart, funny you should mention that. Turns out that there actually IS a practical difference. I hadn't known this, but it turns out that unlike other agencies such as UNHCR the UNWRA classifies Palestinians expelled from the country AND their descendants as refugees regardless of their current location or citizenship in another country.

https://www.unrwa.org/palestine-refugees

https://www.ajc.org/news/what-to-know-a ... in-the-107

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/isr ... rt-details

This has apparently been a point of contention between them and the Israeli government and its supporters for awhile because as a practical matter it means that number of recognized Palestinian refugees continues to grow over time, even over generations. You can probably connect the dots on how this might conflict with the goal of someone who wanted to permanently drive the Palestinian population of the region over an extended period of time. It makes it that much harder to just pretend they don't exist once they've left the country and aren't allowed back in.

That is one significant thing you could expect to change if they were replaced by UNHCR, even if the UNHCR was every bit as well-funded and competent in delivering aid as the UNWRA.
After reading an NYT Op-Ed from Pinochet fangirl Bret "Bedbug" Stephens, I think you're right. IDF bootlickers are enraged that someone keeps a running tally of people who've been ethnically cleansed. Not the "cleansing" itself, but taking note of it. Another more recent (and obvious) reason for the smear campaign against UNRWA is that their statements about Israel's war crimes were entered as evidence in South Africa's case at the ICJ. Their creepy little flack in London has already accused South Africa of being in cahoots with Hamas, so naturally anyone who helped the plaintiffs must be in league with Hamas, too. Next week they'll accuse Zombie Nelson Mandela of sneaking out of his tomb and hiding all 40 of those beheaded babies that every Gaza genocide enthusiast claims to have seen, but can't provide proof for.

Oh, and extra sad fuck points to Google/YouTube for putting an age restriction on Katie Halper's video.
User avatar
Broomstick
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 28831
Joined: 2004-01-02 07:04pm
Location: Industrial armpit of the US Midwest

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Broomstick »

“Genocide Joe!”, a protester holding up a Palestinian flag cried from the back of the hall. “How many kids have you killed in Gaza? How many women have you killed in Gaza?”

Biden looked bemused, blinking silently into the cameras. In all, he was to be interrupted at least 13 more times. “This is going to go on for a while,” he said at one point. “They’ve got this planned.”
"Hey, hey [fill in a name], how many kids did you kill today?"

I swear to God I'm getting whiplash from feeling one moment like we're in the 1930's then in the 1960's the next.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. Leonard Nimoy.

Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy

Sam Vimes Theory of Economic Injustice
User avatar
Gandalf
SD.net White Wizard
Posts: 16358
Joined: 2002-09-16 11:13pm
Location: A video store in Australia

Re: Israel orders mass 'evacuation' from Northern Gaza, humanitarian crisis certain to ensue

Post by Gandalf »

Broomstick wrote: 2024-02-07 05:59pm"Hey, hey [fill in a name], how many kids did you kill today?"

I swear to God I'm getting whiplash from feeling one moment like we're in the 1930's then in the 1960's the next.
Hard to beat a classic chant.
"Oh no, oh yeah, tell me how can it be so fair
That we dying younger hiding from the police man over there
Just for breathing in the air they wanna leave me in the chair
Electric shocking body rocking beat streeting me to death"

- A.B. Original, Report to the Mist

"I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."
- George Carlin
Post Reply