Dear friends,
The threat of a wider war in the Middle East is not good news for anyone.
A drone strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander, just a day before Ismail Haniya, a Hamas leader, was killed in Iran. Israel claimed credit for Shukr’s assassination, but not for Haniya’s.
In characteristic form, Netanyahu has asserted Israel’s right to respond forcefully to attacks on his country, while expressing indignation that others might take revenge for attacks on their soil.
In an interview published yesterday on Drop Site, Mouin Rabbani, a former UN official and a special advisor on Israel-Palestine, dismissed Netanyahu’s “pipe dream” that Hezbollah would not respond forcefully.
Of course, if there is now significant further Lebanese-Israeli escalation, this has a much higher risk of directly bringing in Iran than what we’re seeing in Gaza. That possibility has been exponentially amplified by an attack conducted within some 12 hours of the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas Politburo.
The US is knee-deep, at least, in Israel’s mess. Given the “extraordinarily close intelligence relationship” between the US and Israel, Rabbani believes that the US likely knew about both attacks in advance, in spite of denials.
Rabbani believes that the open question of who will lead the US after the coming election has created a unique opportunity for Netanyahu, who has
come to the conclusion that [Israel] is not going to be restrained by the United States and its Western allies, that there are not going to be any repercussions for Israel for conducting these kinds of premeditated escalations.
Rabbani notes that Haniya was involved in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations and that his assassination seems like a deliberate effort on the part of the Israelis to derail ceasefire talks.
President Biden can still take action
to prevent the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah from spinning out of control. The US and its western allies must insist on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza – and that Netanyahu stop escalating regional attacks and goading Iran and its allies into a devastating war.
Tell the president to insist on an immediate ceasefire and use the US-Israeli relationship to stop Netanyahu from escalating the conflict.
American corporations are profiting from weapons sales to Israel and they must be held accountable.
[C]ontinuing arms transfers to Israel may be seen as knowingly providing assistance for operations that contravene international human rights and international humanitarian laws.
Tell Atlas Air CEO to stop arming Israel! This quick action is from JFREJ.
And for those on X, here’s a super-quick action from the Oil & Gas Network:
Send a quick tweet calling out Chevron for profiting from Israel’s genocide and apartheid, and tell everyone to #BoycottChevron
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion two weeks ago on the question of whether Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory — the West Bank and East Jerusalem — is unlawful. The ICJ concluded that it is.
One of the court’s findings is that
“Israel has the obligation to make reparation for the damage caused to all the natural or legal persons concerned in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
If you’re like most people in the US, you have a clearer idea of what’s been happening in Gaza than what’s been happening in the West Bank.
Watch John Oliver explain the history of Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank and the US role in these violations of human rights.
Oliver provides a sketch of the history: that what the Israeli’s call their war of Independence is known as the Nakba (catastrophe) to Palestinians, more than 700,000 of whom were violently driven from their homes. Some Palestinians became refugees in neighboring countries and others were forced to resettle in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
Oliver offers some chilling details about what life is like for Palestinians in the occupied territories now and includes footage of Israelis explaining their reasons for settling in those territories. The Israeli government’s role — subsidizing Israeli settlements and denying permits to Palestinians wishing to build homes — is a big part of the story.
Finally, he points to the things that we, as Americans, can do. First among them is to stop sending military aid to Israel, I started to write a separate action for the Vice President — more tailored to the situation in the West Bank — but this quick one is solid and hits the main point.
Tell Vice President Kamala Harris not to send any more weapons to Israel! This quick action is from JFREJ.
Two more journalists were killed in Gaza this week, in what Al Jazeera has called “a targeted assassination.” The Committee to Protect Journalists has counted 113 journalists killed since October 7, all but five of whom were Palestinian.
Based on estimates of the war’s toll, that means medical workers have been killed and detained at higher rates than Gazans generally, a severe blow to a health care system whose facilities have been devastated by war, and a population weakened by hunger, lack of clean water and the rampant spread of diseases.
In addition, there is evidence that medical workers who have been released were tortured in detention.
Famine is imminent in parts of Gaza and Israel is using starvation as a weapon:
Currently, the Rafah Crossing is completely closed and aid deliveries have slowed to a trickle. The food, the drivers and the trucks are all ready and waiting across the border. Some have been waiting for months. The food is rotting under the Egyptian sun and worms and insects are eating up shipments of food originally meant for the people of Gaza.
Israel is killing the people who tell the story and the people who care for the civilian population. They are starving Palestinians by blocking aid. This is genocide.
Tell Congress to end the Gaza genocide. This quick action is from the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
Cori Bush has been one of the strongest critics of US-funding for Israel because of its grievous violations of human rights.
Congresswoman Cori Bush is under attack from AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In addition to spending $7 million to defeat Bush, a staunch advocate for peace in Gaza, AIPAC paid for a mailer that used a distorted photograph of Bush.
The original photograph, first published by a nonprofit news organization, was used and altered without permission to make Bush look as though she has a sloping forehead and a prominent jaw. Bush has called on her opponent, Wesley Bell, to condemn AIPAC and apologize to the voters for the advertisement.
“In Wesley Bell’s name, AIPAC is peddling racist caricatures to attack Missouri’s first Black Congresswoman in a disgusting new low even for them,” said Justice Democrats spokesperson Usamah Andrabi. “Bell should immediately condemn these racist pieces of mail and apologize to the people of St. Louis for allowing his biggest financial backers to promote outright racism in this Democratic primary.”
Join a phonebank for Congresswoman Cori Bush. Support Bush with a donation to the Justice Democrats.
It’s been another crazy week on earth. Stay cool and get some rest.
with love,
L