A decade ago at least, when I still wrote for +972 Magazine, we said that one day police would use West Bank occupation tactics on Jewish Israelis. Happening now.
The Israeli media now confirming that the gov't did receive clear warnings from Egyptian intelligence about the imminent attack that occurred on October 7. The PM's office initially issued a flat denial after the first report, but then did an about face and admitted it.
The harrowing details in this report about the exploding pagers include one that detonated in a paediatrician's examining room while a 10-day old baby was lying on the examining table.
Nazis urinated in the offices of Members of Congress in the Capitol yesterday, according to Hakeem Jeffries (Congressman from New York). A memorial to the late John Lewis is also โmissing.โ
A Palestinian child running from Israeli police in east Jerusalem. One of the comments in response to this tweet, from a guy named Shai who includes his surname and mobile phone number in his bio, reads: โToo bad he can still run.โ
Fiona Hill -- a.k.a. Madame Unflappable and Don't Fuck With Me -- mentions that Turner and Ratcliffe have already left. Subtext: they finished grandstanding for the cameras and left because they don't actually care.
A Uyghur woman who escaped from one of China's 're-education' (read: concentration) camps recounts what she witnessed and experienced: starvation, torture, gang rape, medical experiments. It's gut churning.
"Mr. Prime Minister! Go outside, face the media, and apologize! A thousand people were murdered on your watch, sir! And where are you Ben-Gvir?! You're the world champion in bullshiting. Where are you?! Mr. Handgun on Twitter!... We will never forgive you. Never."
A Palestinian journalist, someone I've known for many years, wrote on my FB wall that he'd covered six wars in Gaza and "this one is the worst, the bloodiest and no rules." As you can see in this devastating report.
@schnitzer13
Right. Which is why I wrote โa decade ago at least.โ During the anti-wall grassroots protests in Bilโin, Nabi Saleh, etc, skunk, stun grenades, tear gas and water cannons were West Bank tactics. Now they use them in Israel/48, while shifting to bullets in the oPt.
Radical Jewish settlers attacked this 80 year old man, who is also a Jewish Israeli. They beat him with rocks and metal bars because he volunteered to help West Bank Palestinians harvest their olives. Here he recounts what happened while Palestinian red crescent medics care him.
Jeffries also told Brian Lehrer that this morning, the day after the Capitol invasion, the Nazis (again: my word) brazenly checked out of downtown D.C. hotels and strolled around in MAGA gear, maskless, smiling and drinking coffee. I want to know: who paid for the hotel rooms?
In Poland, millions of women across the country are striking after the government banned abortion. Refusing to go to work, drive, cook at home, or do anything until the ban is dropped. Poland's President today indicated they may have to change or reverse the law. โ๐ผ
British couple on holiday in Canada accidentally crossed the border into Washington State. One week later they're being held separately in Pennsylvania (!), the wife w their baby in an unheated cell, denied infant formula. ICE confirms they're being held.
Clarification: the word โNazisโ is mine. Congressman Jeffries recounted that the invaders urinated in congressional offices while speaking to Brian Lehrer (WNYC radio in New York).
In Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, racist youth chanting anti-Arab slogans are ransacking the popular Victory ice cream shop because it's owned by Palestinians. Victory has a factory in the town, employs plenty of Jews. Scenes like this are occurring all over Israel.
The ignorance in this tweet..! The Israeli army is responsible for these signs, which are directed at Israeli Jews. The PA has no control over these signs. If Israeli citizens enter these areas (A & B), which they do (I have, many times), the IDF might arrest them. Not the PA.
This is the real apartheid. The fact that Jews canโt enter into โPalestinian territoryโ. I reject this. I reject that some places are dangerous for me to enter because I AM A JEW. Enough with this hate.
#EndJewHatred
@OualidOualido
@netanyahu
I don't think he has any interest in governing 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza. But he might have thought that the warnings from Egypt implied an attack on a much smaller scale, and that a "little" war would be a distraction from the anti-government protests.
Absurd and chilling exchange just now on Ch. 12, with a Likud MK saying that Israel couldn't be responsible for the safety of any people in Gaza who "chose" to stay so they should all leave. The presenter says, "So you advocate transfer?"
He: No.
She: But where should they go?
The tenor of the saturation TV coverage and the social media posts is more dangerous than anything I've encountered in the last 18 years. People are losing their minds. I am terrified of the consequences of the discourse. Really terrified.
The mainstream Israeli media is full-on *outraged* at the total absence of the Netanyahu government in providing comfort, aid, updates, any kind of leadership statement. "Where are the ministers?" is a recurring question. There is real systemic breakdown at the top.
โThis feels more like the end of a regime than the end of a democratically elected government. The sense of collective relief is quite extraordinary.โ
"Even after Obama was elected in 2008...you didn't see crowds like this. This feels more like the end of a regime than the end of a democratically elected government."
@MattFrei
on supporters of President-elect Biden celebrating across the United States.
If there is one thing we could definitely predict, it's that asylum seeking children separated from their parents and detained at hideous facilities would be sexually abused by staff members. And so it was. So far: 4,500 reported cases.
A guy who thought covid was a scam and that mask wearers were ridiculous hosted a family reunion weekend with his partner. His first person account of what happened next is the most intense pandemic story I've read, and that's saying a lot. I'm reeling.
The most powerful part of Allen v. Farrow, episode 2, was the supercut of all those scenes of Woody Allen in his movies as a 40-and-50 something having "consensual" sexual relationships with females in that terribly vulnerable age between adolescence and young adulthood.
When I called the WSJ to cancel my subscription, I gave the opinion section as my reason. Glad I did. Also who the fuck is Joseph Epstein and how dare he refer to ANY grown woman as ยซย kiddo.ย ยป
So when I see people I know in real life, socialized with... Now claiming the abduction by armed men of an 84 year old or shooting a baby is justifiable because Israel did worse things to Palestinians and claiming ordinary Israelis never cared about them, I remember that day. 7/
I'm thinking about all those brave women who sat and allowed their photos to be taken for the 'New York Times Magazine' cover story about Cosby. Who went through all that trauma of reliving what he'd done to them when they testified in court. And how they must feel right now.
BREAKING: Pennsylvaniaโs highest court has overturned Bill Cosbyโs sex assault conviction after finding that an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged. The 83-year-old comedian has served more than two years in prison.
I belong to a group of Middle East experts who are all women. They are prominent journalists, analysts, academics, directors of think tanks & foundations. Most speak several languages & have more than a decade of experience in the field & behind a desk. There are 391 of them. 1/
@Mikel_Jollett
@andrewkimmel
Asking JEWISH journalists their ethnicity. I guarantee you that if his name had been Jones and not Feinberg, she wouldn't have asked.
I had/have this friend in Tel Aviv who's a right winger. Not a Ben Gvir fascist, but a Liberman type. We've been friends since we were 17, went to university together in Jerusalem. Never really talked politics until the Second Intifada, when she veered to the right. 1/
Not sure if Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib know this, but they are not the first to suggest that the U.S. predicate financial aid to Israel on a commitment from Israel re Palestinian rights. The first to make this suggestion were George H.W. Bush & James Baker in 1991. 1/
I'm still thinking about this photo of Boris Johnson in his office at No. 10. Can anyone imagine an obese female buffoon who sits with her feet up on her desk, surrounded by 50,000 calories in half eaten junk food, getting a job in data entry -- let alone being elected PM.
"Just go home and die." I can still hear the voice of the doctor in Tigray as he told the BBC's James Coomarasamy that his hospital had no supplies and no capacity to treat patients, and that he and his family were suffering from malnutrition.
The bottom line: poorly informed readers = poorly informed voters = poorly informed elected officials = poorly informed decision makers = BAD POLICY. Which affects you. And *that* is why *you* should care that experts who happen to be women are left out of the conversation. 7/
With Harry and Meghan's Oprah interview coming me and
@archiemanners
wanted to see if Royal Experts were always truthful with how they report on them -
Mark Zuckerberg agreed to not fact-check political posts if the Trump administration would steer clear of any โheavy-handed regulations.โ via
@thedailybeast
There was a gorgeous sunset tonight, on this warm late Indian summer evening, as we sat outside drinking whiskey and smashing Cheetos. True, said one, there are more Nazis in America 2020 than there were in Germany 1933, but today is a good day. Letโs never forget it.
I cannot stress this enough: if you keep publishing analysis by a narrow group of people whose knowledge and 'expertise' is derived from access and a career that peaked 25 years ago, you *do not know* what is going on. And if you don't know, you can't understand . 5/
.
@RepBoebert
as the mob of domestic terrorists descended on the Capitol: โMadam Speaker, I have *constituents* outside this building right now. I promised my voters to be their voice."
I was in a Montreal hospital earlier this week, recovering from major abdominal surgery. I left my wallet at home because I didn't need it. Took only my medical ID card and my phone - via which I read reports that the U.S. was *charging* people to be tested for Corona. Sickening.
I reported a few conflicts on the ground in Israel, Palestine 20000-11, and have been heavily online forever. Seen conflicts play out IRL and online. I'm far away physically now & am ambivalent about that. But I've never seen the level of online insanity that I'm seeing now.
This is the second 'graf in a profile of Carole Cadwalladr. It was pub'd in The Atlantic. I am trying to imagine anyone writing a profile of a famous, prominent, award-winning *male* journalist that referred to him as "a hysterical middle-aged conspiracy theorist."
Israeli mob and police try to break into a Palestinian familyโs home in Haifa. This is the terror Palestinians are facing right now under the Israeli state.
If Jeffrey Goldberg thinks there's a lack of women who can write 10k word features, then he's astonishingly ignorant about his peers & he should step aside for a woman to replace him. Immediately. I'm gobsmacked by this interview. Stunned. What an insult.
I think this is the first time the NYT has published the names, photos, and bio details of all the children killed during an Israeli military assault on Gaza. So important to humanize.
It is difficult to explain the significance of Palestinian citizens of Israel joining with stateless Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem to protest. But it is significant. A joining of forces with political implications.
Louis Fishman ููู ููุดู ุงู ืืืื ืคืืฉืื
Incredible sight: Thousands of Palestinian citizens in Israel make way on foot to Al-Aqsa after Israeli police blocked their buses. Tonight is the Night of Kadir, one of the holiest nights in Islam. The Israeli police are working hard again to cause chaos.
Reporter who's a member of the team that won a Pulitzer for its coverage of Yemen, can't attend the award ceremony because the State Dept won't give him an entry visa.
I'm quite disconcerted by these epic think pieces in the liberal US media about how shocked -- shocked! -- the writer are to discover there's a failing state around here. I mean, really? Where have you been living and what have you been reading? Surely not any of these books: 1/
Lahav Harkov's racism is so overt. Israeli Jewish politicians publish op-eds in the NYT all the time and she says nothing. But if it's an Arab citizens of *her* country, she freaks out.
In Jaffa just now, someone I know who lives in a โmixedโ building reports that masked youths tossed Molotov cocktails into the apartment of a Palestinian family. The apartment is destroyed and two small children badly burned.
I've got a couple of crazy stories to tell about my own interactions with Bret Stephens. In both cases, he called the manager. I'll write it for publication; if you're an editor who wants it, let me know.
@Sandmonkey
I'm not sure. My impression is that they share intelligence pretty regularly. If I were a speculating kinda woman, I'd guess the Egyptians warned Israeli military intelligence that they'd heard unusual chatter, MI passed this on to the PMO & the PMO decided it wasn't serious.
Oh, and this golden quote:
"Also at the Indian Summer dinner, according to an account on the website of Mr. Brockmanโs Edge Foundation, were the Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and Jeff Bezos, who was accompanied by his mother."
In this year-end piece, NYT opinion columnists cite readersโ comments that they found meaningful. Only Bret Stephens cites a comment from a reader who praised and agreed with him. All the others cite criticism that made them rethink their positions.
When a long oppressed people finally rise up to fight nonviolently for their freedom, the liberal middle class is always torn: yes of course I support your freedom, as long as it doesn't threaten my status. This letter does no favours to its signatories.
Israel says it wants to send aid to Lebanon via the UN, and โwould like to keep the hebrew marking on the equipment itself, so it will be clear who sent the aid.โ Not a humanitarian gesture, then. Rather: anything for hasbara.
My exclusive story on
@kann_news
: Israel is in advanced stages of transferring specific aid to Lebanon through the UN. Israel started preparing the logistics for this transfer, and would like to keep the hebrew marking on the equipment itself, so it will be clear who sent the aid
This is on Ch. 14, Israel's Fox News, and the presenter is a hardcore Bibi-ist. The couple are in the hospital with relatives shot at Kfar Azza. The man adds, "If any of you ever call any of us, whether right (he pats his chest) or left, we will never forgive you."
"Mr. Prime Minister! Go outside, face the media, and apologize! A thousand people were murdered on your watch, sir! And where are you Ben-Gvir?! You're the world champion in bullshiting. Where are you?! Mr. Handgun on Twitter!... We will never forgive you. Never."
But it's a valuable reality check. I've spent half a day following what seems like earth shattering events on Twitter, only to learn when I talk to friends and colleagues IRL that most people are not on Twitter, don't care what goes on there, and feel totally unaffected.
This is another example of the fustiness and insularity of the policy world, which is dominated by people whose influence peaked in the mid-1990s and whose knowledge is based on access -- not experience. 4/
Meanwhile, in America, a white supremacist was arrested for plotting to blow up a Colorado synagogue. Cue columns from Bret, Bari, and Brooks about the terrible dangers of antisemitism on the left.
@DavidBahnsen
My god. The self pity, the navel gazing, the utterly thoughtless focus on protecting unearned and unmerited privilege: just remarkable. You think we have Trump because liberals hurt Bret Kavanaugh's feelings? Really?
The Association of Jewish Studies announces it has stopped advertising with Tablet Magazine. This comes on the back of several years of extremist articles pubโd by Tablet, which uses its excellent culture coverage as a fig leaf for its MAGA politics.
So I told her to leave. She was incredulous. You're kicking me OUT? I'm your best friend! We'd been friends for 25 years. But I kicked her out and we didn't speak for about six months. Our friendship never really recovered, TBH. 6/
Finally, there's data to support what I've been saying for years, based on anecdotal experience: female journalists who try to interact with male peers on Twitter get frozen out of the conversation, 90% of the time.
The army is using heavy weapons and destructive tactics that they have never used in previous incursions into Gaza, according to Haaretz (Hebrew) podcast. There will be photos of horrors that we've never encountered before, adds the reporter.
One of the striking aspects of post-election political analysis in Israel is the reluctance or inability of the liberal Zionist left to grapple w the implications of the party that represents Arab-Palestinian and non-Zionist citizens becoming the third largest in the Knesset. 1/
A woman (a healthcare worker!) celebrates end of lockdown at a bar, where she and 15 friends get infected with Covid19. The bar owner announces that he'll be opening as usual the following day at 11 a.m.
The Israeli media now confirming that the gov't did receive clear warnings from Egyptian intelligence about the imminent attack that occurred on October 7. The PM's office initially issued a flat denial after the first report, but then did an about face and admitted it.
"Unnamed Egyptian officials told the site they were shocked by Netanyahuโs indifference to the news and said the premier told the minister the military was โsubmergedโ in troubles in the West Bank."
This is so horrific. Racist gangs are letting Jewish drivers through while nearly killing Palestinian drivers by pelting them with rocks. Police are nowhere in sight. Again, these are all citizens of Israel -- '48 Palestinians.
"This insistent belief in the illusion of safety is often the source of American chaos. It reflects an unwillingness to see America's flaws, and more tragically, America's possibility."
'I am caught btwn wanting to take the family outside, despite the missiles, shrapnel and falling debris, and staying at home, like sitting ducks for the American-made, Israeli-piloted planes. We stayed at home. At least we would die together, I thought.'
Watching the news now and I see the country is going into war psychosis. No thought, no plan beyond revenge. A ground offensive with no plan, Stan. So many people will die.
@nytimes
Antisemitism is real. It's a serious, perennial problem. By patrolling the discourse on Palestine w accusations of antisemitism against brown Muslim women who offer legitimate criticism of Israeli gov't policy, then we undermine the fight against antisemitism. Don't do this! 7/
Such an impressive and moving interview on the BBC this morning with
@BDUTT
, who described her father as a feminist who set his daughters free, a scientist, and a compassionate man about whom no one ever said a bad word.
Indian
@washingtonpost
columnist
@BDUTT
says her father's last words were "I'm choking. Please give me treatment." She tried her best, but he passed away due to Covid. She tells me the ambulance had no oxygen, the cremation ground had no space. Heartbreaking.