No Boots on the Ground, but Feet in the Water? Cardin/Trone & AIPAC today...Red lines for Ukraine but not for Israel? Washington's Farewell Address, 1796: did he "anticipate" AIPAC's nature?
No Boots on the Ground, but Feet in the Water? Cardin/Trone & AIPAC today...Red lines for Ukraine but not for Israel? Washington's Farewell Address, 1796: did he "anticipate" AIPAC's nature?
While Gaza lies in ruins and is starving, the Kerch Bridge to Crimea Still Stands...Biden's State of Union Address: cuts late credit card fees, silent on outrageous card interest rates...
In a rather timely fashion, no sooner had I put Senator Schumer front and center in my first comment, but on Thursday, March 14th, he took to the Senate floor to give a long and objectively dramatic and strategic speech on Israel, Gaza and the Netanyahu administration. On a nature hike yesterday, I was musing about how Meliville's Captain Ahab might be the right analogy for the Israeli Prime Minister, because he seems to me, and apparently many others, bent on taking his whole nation and perhaps the US down with the Pequod in his pursuit exterminating the White Whale of Hamas.
Today Schumer after a long justification of his creditentials to speak as someone who loves Israel and gave it long historical justifications "to be there" in addition to the Palestinians, said that Netanyahu had to go via new elections, along with his policies crushing civilians in Gaza: he was dragging down Israel's reputation among the nations. Schumer, given AIPAC et al, I think has struck a courageous stance, and of course was condemned by the Republican Right, with Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell leading the way in blasting Schumer's recommendations. Here's the NY Times account: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/us/politics/schumer-netanyahu-israel-elections.html
This is rare: high level policy advocating against the conduct of a long time ally in public, not behind closed doors or the usual hidden diplomatic channels. Whatever one thinks of Schumer's problematic relation to Wall Street and the ethereal heights of Neoliberal capitalism, is a smart man, and on the whole, a decent one.
No surprise, AIPAC has attacked Schumer for this speech. A week ago, Schumer was addressing AIPAC and the nature of the conflict in Gaza in terms that upset a lot of progressives, in religious terms of the Torah, and apparently minimizing Palestinians historical claims. Very complex grounds here, so it must have been shocking to AIPAC and the Republicans to hear Schumer's speech earlier today. Peace and a lasting solution seem very far away, as do even a meaningful ceasefire, and to break the strangle hold of previous positions of both Hamas and a Right-wing dominated Knesset, there is going to have to be statemanship, not politics of the highest order, and risk taking on the order of Sadat's - in the Arab world and inside Israel. And here in the US as well. Tragic that it takes 100,000 casualties to begin to shake everyone out of their pre-existing stances. And inside Hamas...? We have no idea, it's like a sealed tomb.
It doesn't tell you anything new beyond what I've just reported with my copies of the fund raising efforts from Working Families and Justice Dems to stop AIPAC, and the transformation of a mainly FP lobbying organization into a full spectrum conservative effort to smash the liberal left in Congress. I took much note of Senator Schumer's comment at the very end of the article: "As long as Hamas exists...no chance for a two-state solution." Well, fair enough, but it supposes no changes possible in either side. I read it this way and just passed this read on to Schumer's office which listened with politeness: If killing 1/3 of Hamas's 30,000 fighters - which is about where the stats and analysis put the situation today, has cost 30,000 dead Gazians and 70,000 wounded, to get the other two thirds of Hamas fighters, we're looking at maybe 90,000 dead and 210,000 wounded. I asked if those numbers, which are logical projections, were acceptable to Senator Schumer? Of course you don't get answers to questions like that. I closed by saying that the Senator is a very smart man whom I respect...Do the math, Senator, is that acceptable to you? I would also note that these are not dynamic figures, they're static projections. Everytime a see a newly bombed heap of rubble in Gaza, I see hundreds of fighting age men not in any uniforms trying to peel away the debris to get at survivors. What is the ongoing action adds 50.000 new fighters to the HAMAS total, which, psychologically to me is an equal if not higher proposition that 50,000 young Gazian men turn out to demand all Hamas leadership step down. Go figure.
In a rather timely fashion, no sooner had I put Senator Schumer front and center in my first comment, but on Thursday, March 14th, he took to the Senate floor to give a long and objectively dramatic and strategic speech on Israel, Gaza and the Netanyahu administration. On a nature hike yesterday, I was musing about how Meliville's Captain Ahab might be the right analogy for the Israeli Prime Minister, because he seems to me, and apparently many others, bent on taking his whole nation and perhaps the US down with the Pequod in his pursuit exterminating the White Whale of Hamas.
Today Schumer after a long justification of his creditentials to speak as someone who loves Israel and gave it long historical justifications "to be there" in addition to the Palestinians, said that Netanyahu had to go via new elections, along with his policies crushing civilians in Gaza: he was dragging down Israel's reputation among the nations. Schumer, given AIPAC et al, I think has struck a courageous stance, and of course was condemned by the Republican Right, with Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell leading the way in blasting Schumer's recommendations. Here's the NY Times account: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/us/politics/schumer-netanyahu-israel-elections.html
This is rare: high level policy advocating against the conduct of a long time ally in public, not behind closed doors or the usual hidden diplomatic channels. Whatever one thinks of Schumer's problematic relation to Wall Street and the ethereal heights of Neoliberal capitalism, is a smart man, and on the whole, a decent one.
No surprise, AIPAC has attacked Schumer for this speech. A week ago, Schumer was addressing AIPAC and the nature of the conflict in Gaza in terms that upset a lot of progressives, in religious terms of the Torah, and apparently minimizing Palestinians historical claims. Very complex grounds here, so it must have been shocking to AIPAC and the Republicans to hear Schumer's speech earlier today. Peace and a lasting solution seem very far away, as do even a meaningful ceasefire, and to break the strangle hold of previous positions of both Hamas and a Right-wing dominated Knesset, there is going to have to be statemanship, not politics of the highest order, and risk taking on the order of Sadat's - in the Arab world and inside Israel. And here in the US as well. Tragic that it takes 100,000 casualties to begin to shake everyone out of their pre-existing stances. And inside Hamas...? We have no idea, it's like a sealed tomb.
The NY Times, seemingly a step or two behind the AIPAC situation and the liberal-left groups rallying to oppose it, ran the following story today: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/13/us/politics/aipac-israel-gaza-democrats-republicans.html
It doesn't tell you anything new beyond what I've just reported with my copies of the fund raising efforts from Working Families and Justice Dems to stop AIPAC, and the transformation of a mainly FP lobbying organization into a full spectrum conservative effort to smash the liberal left in Congress. I took much note of Senator Schumer's comment at the very end of the article: "As long as Hamas exists...no chance for a two-state solution." Well, fair enough, but it supposes no changes possible in either side. I read it this way and just passed this read on to Schumer's office which listened with politeness: If killing 1/3 of Hamas's 30,000 fighters - which is about where the stats and analysis put the situation today, has cost 30,000 dead Gazians and 70,000 wounded, to get the other two thirds of Hamas fighters, we're looking at maybe 90,000 dead and 210,000 wounded. I asked if those numbers, which are logical projections, were acceptable to Senator Schumer? Of course you don't get answers to questions like that. I closed by saying that the Senator is a very smart man whom I respect...Do the math, Senator, is that acceptable to you? I would also note that these are not dynamic figures, they're static projections. Everytime a see a newly bombed heap of rubble in Gaza, I see hundreds of fighting age men not in any uniforms trying to peel away the debris to get at survivors. What is the ongoing action adds 50.000 new fighters to the HAMAS total, which, psychologically to me is an equal if not higher proposition that 50,000 young Gazian men turn out to demand all Hamas leadership step down. Go figure.