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

[Ralin]

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.

Now imagine how Genocide Joe must feel!

[3-Body Problem]

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.

Now imagine how Genocide Joe must feel!

Is he even all there enough to understand what's going on more than half the time? As we learn more and more about how the brain ages I grow ever more concerned that we leave nations in the hands of people with fading faculties.

[Ralin]

Is he even all there enough to understand what's going on more than half the time? As we learn more and more about how the brain ages I grow ever more concerned that we leave nations in the hands of people with fading faculties.

I really don't want to go down the justified age discrimination/prejudice route without solid proof that a specific person is impaired.

[Batman]

And that presupposes age even consistently figures into it.Trump was utterly unqualified for absolutely everything since freaking ever, his recent dementia just emphasizes this.

[Elfdart]

Is he even all there enough to understand what's going on more than half the time? As we learn more and more about how the brain ages I grow ever more concerned that we leave nations in the hands of people with fading faculties.

I really don't want to go down the justified age discrimination/prejudice route without solid proof that a specific person is impaired.

I remember how far gone Von Reagan was in his second term. The difference was that his people had sense enough to handle his shit for him and did their best to put the old dotard down for a nap before he said or did something really stupid: Nancy, James Baker, Richard Thornburgh, Frank Carlucci, Howard Baker and other "grown-ups" (in relative terms) spent four years telling Bitburg Ronnie what to say, finished sentences for him, assured the public that "No, what the President really meant was..." and tried to keep the demented old codger out of the public eye as much as possible except in carefully staged events. Biden is allowed to bumble along like Mr Magoo with predictable results.

Back on topic, Ali Abunimah brought up the difference between how Reagan dealt with Israeli atrocities and how Genocide Joe does. It is not flattering to Biden:



In short, Reagan got Menachem Begin to call off the dogs in Lebanon with one phone call.

[3-Body Problem]

Is he even all there enough to understand what's going on more than half the time? As we learn more and more about how the brain ages I grow ever more concerned that we leave nations in the hands of people with fading faculties.

I really don't want to go down the justified age discrimination/prejudice route without solid proof that a specific person is impaired.

You don't need any proof, everybody above 50 or so suffers from some level of age-related impairment that continues to grow as they age. The question isn't, is any specific person impaired, but by how much they are impaired and with which specific effects.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... %2C%201988).

[3-Body Problem]

Addendum to the above: I was overly conservative in making my age cut off at 50. It appears that cognitive decline starts very early in adulthood and continues until we're gone. So the real question is what age range is best able to govern justly and adapt to changes in technology and geopolitics. I'd argue that this age is not 60+ and is likely much closer to the 40-50 range.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Addendum to the above: I was overly conservative in making my age cut off at 50. It appears that cognitive decline starts very early in adulthood and continues until we're gone. So the real question is what age range is best able to govern justly and adapt to changes in technology and geopolitics. I'd argue that this age is not 60+ and is likely much closer to the 40-50 range.

Obama was 47 when he took office

[Broomstick]

Back on topic, Ali Abunimah brought up the difference between how Reagan dealt with Israeli atrocities and how Genocide Joe does. It is not flattering to Biden:



In short, Reagan got Menachem Begin to call off the dogs in Lebanon with one phone call.

Begin wasn't going to go to jail for "calling off the dogs" whereas Netanyahu stands a very high chance of being dragged into court and spending the rest of his life in jail when this little war of his ends. Different motivations of different heads of state. This isn't just about the guys on our side, you have to take into account the Israeli guys as well.

[Broomstick]

Addendum to the above: I was overly conservative in making my age cut off at 50. It appears that cognitive decline starts very early in adulthood and continues until we're gone. So the real question is what age range is best able to govern justly and adapt to changes in technology and geopolitics. I'd argue that this age is not 60+ and is likely much closer to the 40-50 range.

That does not account for individual variability. There are demented 40 years olds and cognizant 90 year olds. A myriad of factors have an impact, from genetics to diet to occupation to literal (head) impacts. I'd be OK with requiring an evaluation for ANY presidential candidate (since they have to be at least 35 anyway and are usually significantly older) by an impartial third party(s).

[Ralin]

Moot point because his policies and decisions on the subject aren't meaningfully different from the ones he would have made before his supposed cognitive decline.

[madd0c0t0r2]

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024 ... ter-supply

Pumping of saltwater into tunnels confirmed.

[LadyTevar]

Six year old girl who was pleading on phone for help found dead

A six-year-old girl who went missing in Gaza City last month has been found dead, along with several of her relatives and two paramedics who tried to save her.

Hind Rajab was fleeing the city with her aunt, uncle and three cousins when the car they were travelling in appears to have come face to face with Israeli tanks, and come under fire.
Audio recordings of calls between Hind and emergency call operators suggest that the six-year-old was the only one left alive in the car, hiding from Israeli forces among the bodies of her relatives.
Her pleas for someone to rescue her ended when the phone line was cut amid the sound of more gunfire.

Paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) managed on Saturday to reach the area, which had previously been closed off as an active combat zone.
They found the black Kia car Hind had been travelling in - its windscreen and dashboard smashed to pieces, bullet holes scattered across the side.
One paramedic told journalists that Hind was among the six bodies found inside the car, all of which showed signs of gunfire and shelling.
A few metres away were the remains of another vehicle - completely burnt out, its engine spilling onto the ground. This, the Red Crescent says, is the ambulance sent to fetch Hind.
Its crew - Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun - were killed when the ambulance was bombed by Israeli forces, the organisation says.

In a statement, the PRCS accused Israel of deliberately targeting the ambulance, as soon as it arrived at the scene on 29 January.
"The [Israeli] occupation deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite obtaining prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the scene to rescue the child Hind," it said.
The PRCS told the BBC that it had taken several hours to coordinate access with the Israeli army, in order to send paramedics to Hind.
"We got the coordination, we got the green light," PRCS spokeswoman, Nibal Farsakh, told me earlier this week. "On arrival, [the crew] confirmed that they could see the car where Hind was trapped, and they could see her. The last thing we heard is continuous gunfire."

Recordings of Hind's conversations with call operators - shared publicly by the Red Crescent - sparked a campaign to find out what had happened to her.
Hind's mother told us - before her body was discovered - that she was waiting for her daughter "any moment, any second".
She called on the Red Crescent to publish the details of its coordination with the Israeli army.
We twice asked the army for details on its operations in the area that day, and about the disappearance of Hind and the ambulance sent to retrieve her - it said it was checking.
We have asked again for their response to the allegations made by the Palestinian Red Crescent on Saturday.
The rules of war say medical personnel must be protected and not targeted in a conflict, and that injured people must be given the medical care they need - to the fullest practical extent and with the least possible delay.
Israel has previously accused Hamas of using ambulances to transport its weapons and fighters.

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT ISRAEL HAS TO SAY ABOUT THIS.

[Tribble]

Probably that dead witnesses tell no tales?

[LadyTevar]

Probably that dead witnesses tell no tales?

I hate how close to right you may be.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Israeli airstrikes kill dozens in Rafah after Netanyahu orders evacuation

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 44 Palestinians in the Gazan city of Rafah on Saturday, hours after Israel's prime minister said he asked the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people ahead of a ground invasion.

Benjamin Netanyahu did not provide details or a timeline, but the announcement set off widespread panic.

More than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people are packed into Rafah, many after being uprooted repeatedly by Israeli evacuation orders that now cover two-thirds of the Gaza Strip.

Currently, it is not clear where they could next move to.

A Hamas-run government media office urged the United Nations (UN) Security Council on Saturday to "convene immediately", following Netanyahu's announcement.

"We call on the UN Security Council to convene immediately and urgently to confirm its determination to oblige the 'Israeli' occupation to stop the genocidal war it is committing against the Palestinians in Gaza," read the statement, warning of a "catastrophe and massacre that could leave tens of thousands martyred and wounded".

Egypt and Qatar have similarly expressed concern about any Israeli offensive in Rafah, with the former's foreign minister warning it would have "disastrous consequences".

UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, meanwhile, said he is said he is "deeply concerned" about the prospect of a ground invasion.

"Deeply concerned about the prospect of a military offensive in Rafah - over half of Gaza's population are sheltering in the area," Lord Cameron wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"The priority must be an immediate pause in the fighting to get aid in and hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable, permanent ceasefire."

Word of the invasion plans capped a week of increasingly public friction between Mr Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden's administration.

US officials have said an invasion of Rafah without a plan for the civilian population would lead to disaster.

Israel has carried out airstrikes in Rafah almost daily, even after telling civilians in recent weeks to seek shelter there from ground combat in the city of Khan Younis, just to the north.

Overnight into Saturday, three airstrikes on homes in the Rafah area killed 28 people, according to a health official and Associated Press (AP) journalists.

Each strike killed multiple members of three families, including a total of 10 children, the youngest three-months-old.

A further 11 people - including three children - were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a home in Rafah, according to the head of the city's municipality.

Two other strikes killed two policemen and three senior officers in the civil police, city officials said.

In Khan Younis - the focus of the current ground combat - Israeli forces opened fire at Nasser Hospital - the area's largest - killing at least two people and wounding five, said Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry.

Rafah had a pre-war population of roughly 280,000 people, and according to the UN is now home to some 1.4 million additional people living with relatives, in shelters or sprawling tent camps after fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza.

Israel declared war after several thousand Hamas militants burst across the border into southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage.

An Israeli air and ground offensive has so far killed around 28,000 Palestinians, most of them women and minors, according to local health officials.

Roughly 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced, and the territory has plunged into a humanitarian crisis with shortages of food and medical services.

You know how much of clusterfuck this is when even the USA is expressing misgivings about Israel going I mean we all knew this day was coming, Israel be like "sucks to be you" if you happen to be a civilian in Rafah.

[Broomstick]

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT ISRAEL HAS TO SAY ABOUT THIS.

"Hamas uses ambulances to transport terrorists" - they've been saying that since their first hospital raid.

It's a genocide - no, Israel isn't saying that of course, but that's what a lot of other people are saying.

The US needs to stop supporting Netanyahu's government.

You know how much of clusterfuck this is when even the USA is expressing misgivings about Israel going I mean we all knew this day was coming, Israel be like "sucks to be you" if you happen to be a civilian in Rafah.

Netanyahu's government and the IDF does not consider any Palestinian, no matter the age or any other factor, to be a "civilian". They have shot people dead who were lying in ICU beds completely helpless. They have left premature babies to literally rot in bombed out hospitals. They set up safe zones and bombed them. It's obscene.

[Ralin]

You know how much of clusterfuck this is when even the USA is expressing misgivings about Israel going

Not really. The US government has done that before. Biden probably doesn't personally thirst for Palestinian blood. It just doesn't amount to much beyond "Hey you should tone it down a little. Looks bad."

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT ISRAEL HAS TO SAY ABOUT THIS.

"Hamas uses ambulances to transport terrorists" - they've been saying that since their first hospital raid.

It's a genocide - no, Israel isn't saying that of course, but that's what a lot of other people are saying.

The US needs to stop supporting Netanyahu's government.

You know how much of clusterfuck this is when even the USA is expressing misgivings about Israel going I mean we all knew this day was coming, Israel be like "sucks to be you" if you happen to be a civilian in Rafah.

Netanyahu's government and the IDF does not consider any Palestinian, no matter the age or any other factor, to be a "civilian". They have shot people dead who were lying in ICU beds completely helpless. They have left premature babies to literally rot in bombed out hospitals. They set up safe zones and bombed them. It's obscene.

Don't forget shooting people waving a white flag.

[Elfdart]

Cenk Uygur may be a gasbag and his campaign for President is a joke, but this ad is pure gold:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYs43NasVSY



If you're an American taxpayer, the money you give to the IRS pays for genocide in Gaza. Just remember that the next time you have to do without at the store.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Israel sets date for Rafah ground offensive in ultimatum to Hamas

Israel will launch a ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah if hostages are not released by the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan, war cabinet member Benny Gantz warned on Sunday.

The statement comes as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off growing international calls to halt Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

"If by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue to the Rafah area," Mr Gantz, a former prime minister and part of Mr Netanyahu’s three-member war cabinet, told a conference of Jewish American leaders.

“We will do so in a coordinated manner, facilitating the evacuation of civilians in dialogue with our American and Egyptian partners to minimise civilian casualties,” the former IDF chief of staff and defence minister was quoted as saying by The Times of Israel.
“To those saying the price [of an offensive] is too high, I say this very clearly: Hamas has a choice – they can surrender, release the hostages, and the citizens of Gaza will be able to celebrate the holy holiday of Ramadan,” he said.

The holy month of Ramadan begins on 10 March. Israel‘s government has not publicly discussed a timeline for a ground offensive on Rafah, where more than half the enclave’s 2.3 million Palestinians have sought refuge, but is facing mounting pressure to agree a ceasefire in the conflict that began with Hamas’s 7 October attack on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people.

The suggested timing for the Rafah offensive came as the World Health Organisation chief said southern Gaza’s main medical centre, Nasser Hospital, "is not functional anymore" after Israeli forces raided it in Khan Younis last week.

Israeli strikes across Gaza continued, killing at least 18 people overnight into Sunday, according to medics and witnesses. A strike in Rafah killed six people, including a woman and three children, and another killed five in Khan Younis, the main target of the southern Gaza offensive in recent weeks.

"All those who were martyred were those whom the Jews asked to move to safe places," a bystander after the Rafah strike, Ahmad Abu Rezeq, told the Associated Press.

In Gaza City, which suffered widespread destruction early in the war, an airstrike flattened a home, killing seven people, including three women, according to relative Sayed al-Afifi.

The US, Israel‘s top ally, still hopes to broker a ceasefire and hostage-release agreement despite talks slowing in recent days.

The US also says it will veto another draft UN resolution calling for a ceasefire, with its UN ambassador warning against measures that could jeopardise "the opportunity for an enduring resolution of hostilities”.

The vote, tabled by Algeria and backed by 22 Arab nations, demands an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and is expected to take place on Tuesday.

US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement that Washington has been working on a hostage deal for months that would bring at least a six-week period of calm to the region, "from which we could then take the time and the steps to build a more enduring peace".

She said US president Joe Biden has had multiple calls over the last week with the Israeli prime minister and the leaders of Egypt and Qatar to push the deal forward.

But Mr Netanyahu opposes Palestinian statehood, which the US calls a key element in a broader vision for normalisation of relations between Israel and regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia. His cabinet adopted a declaration Sunday saying Israel "categorically rejects international edicts on a permanent arrangement with the Palestinians" and opposes any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.

[Gandalf]

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib tells fellow Democrats: reject Biden in primary

The progressive US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has called on her fellow Michigan Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in the state’s presidential primary election – at the expense of the party’s incumbent, Joe Biden – in late February.

Appearing in a video posted to X on Saturday by Listen to Michigan, a political campaign to encourage the state’s voters to vote “uncommitted” in the 27 February primary, Tlaib justified her stark display of displeasure with Biden by alluding to Israel’s military strikes on Gaza, which local authorities say have killed nearly 29,000 Palestinians since last October.

Tlaib – Congress’s only Palestinian American lawmaker – also criticized the Biden White House’s support for Israel, which launched its military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed about 1,200 Israelis.

Speaking in front of the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center in Dearborn, which has one of the US’s largest populations of Arab Americans, Tlaib said: “It is important … to not only march against the genocide, not only make sure that we’re calling our members of Congress and local elected [officials], and passing city resolutions all throughout our country. It is also important to create a voting bloc, something that is a bullhorn to say, ‘Enough is enough.’”

Tlaib added: “We don’t want a country that supports war and bombs and destruction. We want to support life. We want to stand up for every single life killed in Gaza … This is the way you can raise our voices. Don’t make us even more invisible. Right now, we feel completely neglected and just unseen by our government.

“If you want us to be louder, then come here and vote uncommitted” rather than in support of Biden, the Democratic party’s presumptive nominee for November’s presidential election.

The congresswoman’s message echoed the calls of Listen to Michigan, whose campaign manager is Tlaib’s sister Layla Elabed.

Speaking to Business Insider, Elabed said: “Voting uncommitted is our way of demanding change, and this is going to be our vehicle to return political power back to us.”

More than 30 elected officials across south-east Michigan have already pledged to vote “uncommitted” in the state’s 27 February primary elections. Those officials include the Dearborn mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, along with city council members and state representatives.

A statement released by Listen to Michigan earlier in February said, “Let us be clear: we unequivocally demand that the Biden administration immediately call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. We must hold our president accountable and ensure that we, the American taxpayers, are no longer forced to be accomplices in a genocide that is backed and funded by the United States government.”

It also said: “Therefore, we pledge to check the box for ‘uncommitted’ on our ballots in the upcoming presidential primary election. These are not empty words; they signify our steadfast commitment to justice, dignity, and the sanctity of human life, which is greater than loyalty to any candidate or party.”

With the 81-year-old president facing increasing pressure over his handling of Israel’s military strikes in Gaza, as well as scrutiny over his age, Arab and Muslim Americans across multiple swing states – including Michigan – have organized campaigns under the slogan #AbandonBiden.

Tlaib’s latest video announcement has received mixed responses.

The former Ohio Democratic state senator Nina Turner tweeted, “Arab Americans do not want their tax dollars going to kill their family members. It’s unnerving to see the liberal response to that demand. Rashida Tlaib is absolutely justified to endorse this.”

Meanwhile, in response to Tlaib’s endorsement of Listen Michigan, the conservative group Republicans Against asked on X who among Democrats would run against the congresswoman ahead of her running for re-election in November.

Tlaib last year was censured by the Republican-led US House over her criticisms of Israel. She responded to the censure measure by saying that she would “not be silenced” and that “Palestinian people are not disposable”.

Thought this was am intriguing story when it first popped up, and keen to see how it all develops.

[Elfdart]

It's worth a try, though the DNC's reaction will be as follows:

• You're going to get Trump elected!

• Fuck you, you dirty hippie -I mean terrorist!

• You'll come around and vote for Biden in November-who are you kidding?

• You're an anti-Semite!

• All of the above.

And if Biden ends up losing in November because Georgia, Michigan and Arizona go to Trump, the scapegoating of Muslims will make the Russia hysteria after Hillary choked in 2016 look quaint in comparison.

[Darth Yan]

It's worth a try, though the DNC's reaction will be as follows:

• You're going to get Trump elected!

• Fuck you, you dirty hippie -I mean terrorist!

• You'll come around and vote for Biden in November-who are you kidding?

• You're an anti-Semite!

• All of the above.

And if Biden ends up losing in November because Georgia, Michigan and Arizona go to Trump, the scapegoating of Muslims will make the Russia hysteria after Hillary choked in 2016 look quaint in comparison.

Russia DID in fact interfere in 2016. That Hillary was incompetent doesn't change that.

[Ralin]

Can we not do this stupid tangent in the Gaza ethnic cleansing thread?