Dear friends,
In case you needed another reason not to drive into Manhattan, hundreds of protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza blocked tunnels and bridges into the city today. The NYPD reports that 325 people were arrested this morning for blocking traffic.
The frequency and intensity of the ceasefire protests has only grown. This is not surprising, as the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has exceeded 23,000 and the threats of a wider war have intensified.
If you’re struggling to understand why people are blocking bridges and tunnels to Manhattan, attend to the symbolism. The people of Gaza are trapped and targeted by Israeli bombs.
There’s a chilling historical backdrop to all this. Palestinians in Gaza know that if they leave, Israel is unlikely to let them return. They know this because most of them are descendants of the expulsion and flight that occurred around Israel’s founding in 1948, which Palestinians call the nakba. They live in Gaza because Israel didn’t let their families return to the places that then became part of Israel. Hundreds of thousands more Palestinians were displaced when Israel conquered the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967. It didn’t let many of those refugees return either.
The Israeli government may be telling the US State Department that they are not trying to force the people to resettle outside Gaza, but the facts on the ground and even public remarks by Netanyahu and the Israeli Defense Minister tell another story.
Tell your Congressional delegation to join the Ceasefire Resolution. This quick action is from Jewish Voice for Peace and Adalalah Justice Project.
The president’s speech at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, was disrupted by protesters today. Members of the Biden Administration as well as campaign staffers have been expressing their concerns about continued US support for Israel.
For now, the dissent does not seem to be affecting Biden’s approach or that of the close-knit circle of advisers around him. A former official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, downplayed the resignations and open letters. “Some of these criticisms resonate, but I don’t see them actually making a significant difference,” they said. “The times when it matters to this administration is when it starts to play into domestic politics and becomes a concern for the next election.”
I am concerned about the next election, as I think we all should be. I understand that Joe Biden is our best bet to maintain democracy. In a lengthy editorial, the New York Times warns that Trump
has repeatedly demonstrated a deep disdain for the First Amendment and the basic principles of democracy, chief among them the right to freely express peaceful dissent from those in power without fear of retaliation, and he has made no secret of his readiness to expand the powers of the presidency, including the deployment of the military and the Justice Department, to have his way.
The red flags are too numerous to discuss.
My first goal in protesting US support of the war against Gaza is to stop a humanitarian catastrophe and a genocidal forced migration.
My second goal is to get our elected leaders to hear us: while most of the public supports a total ceasefire, a tiny percentage of our representatives have done so. This is anti-democratic and, in the case of Biden’s prospects for reelection, it is dangerous.
Obviously, the two goals are intertwined, since the Administration and Congress will not do their part to end the war in Gaza without listening to us.
Tell the president that it is a terrible mistake to ignore public opposition to US foreign policy.
Although it’s difficult to track the uptick of Covid cases these days, I feel fairly certain that you or someone you know has had a recent bout.
There was a significant increase in Covid hospitalizations in December. Fortunately, the folks that land in the hospital are a small portion of those who get sick.
Covid hospitalizations are still far lower than they were during the peak of the first Omicron wave in January 2022, and so far only about half as high as they were during the peak of the tripledemic last winter, when Covid-19, flu and RSV cases all surged at the same time.
The long-term implications of the virus continue to be concerning.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC), nearly 80% of adult Americans have completed their primary series of COVID-19 vaccines, but only 17% have received a booster.
Roughly 15% of all U.S. adults have experienced long COVID symptoms, though figures range as high as the reported 34% in Oklahoma.
As you are probably aware, long Covid can diminish one’s quality of life for years, even if the initial illness was not acute and did not require hospitalization.
A study by the US Department of Veterans Affairs found that the health outcomes after Covid were markedly worse in nine of 10 of these systems — cardiovascular, coagulation and hematological, fatigue, gastrointestinal, kidney, mental health, metabolic, musculoskeletal, neurological, and pulmonary.
I still can’t understand why people are refusing vaccines.
Get your booster and wear your mask in crowded indoor spaces.
with love,
L