Sunday, October 6, 2024

A Year of Endless Pain

It has been a whole year now since October 7th, the biggest single massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. There is no denying the immense trauma to Israelis and to Jews around the world. There is no denying the abhorrent rise in antisemitism that has reared its head, sometimes clumsily couched in the name of “anti-Zionism”, implying that the “good Jews” get to live free of harassment. All that being said, Israel’s campaign of revenge has resulted in Palestinians experiencing such a massacre nearly every week uninterrupted. An online acquaintance just found out his dad was killed in an Israeli airstrike. A year on, Israel is not safe, Palestine is not free, millions of homes are rubble, and hundreds of thousands are dead or injured, including tens of thousands of children. And now the endless war has expanded to Lebanon, already resulting in more deaths than the 2006 Israel/Lebanon War, with a quarter of the country evacuated, a population already severely impoverished. What has become of us? What has war brought besides death and destruction? Where have words gone except to violence and revenge? I find myself at a loss for hope. Throughout the darkness there are fleeting voices for humanity, but death has won. Hatred has won. Despair has won. Revenge has won. Personally, I can’t let go of the despair, and I have not done enough to try to take action. I am myself scared of really putting myself out there, of organizing, of making myself known.

I have lamented the utter lack of compassion for Palestinians that has permeated the American political establishment and institutional Jewish organizations. The months following July have etched that further in stone. At the Democratic Convention in August, we heard the desperate pleas from Rachel Goldberg and her husband Jon for a ceasefire and hostage deal to bring their son Hersh home. Rachel said poignantly: “There is a surplus of agony on all sides of the tragic conflict in the Middle East. In a competition of pain, there are no winners.” While Rachel truly demonstrated empathy for all, the Democratic Party apparatus only seemed to have selective empathy. For months, Palestinian Americans had been pleading for a voice at the convention to recognize their suffering. While a speaker would not alleviate the suffering or the calls for change in policy towards Israel, it would have at least shown an understanding of their pain. However, their pleas were ignored, with the Democratic Party deciding that it was not even worthwhile to give a platform trot a  Palestinian to endorse Kamala Harris on stage..

Weeks after the convention, Hersh along with five other Israeli hostages was found murdered by his captors. Looking at the tragedy of Hersh and the ensuing fallout, one can see all the raw emotions-sadness, hatred, vengeance, dehumanization that have deepened throughout the last year across all sides. Hersh was just an idealistic young man, only 23 years old, with a poster in his room that stated “Jerusalem is for all” in English, Hebrew, and Arabic. He was committed to an end to the occupation and a shared future for all faiths. And yet, his tragedy was exploited by all sides in service of disgusting war propaganda.

I do not wish again to scour the dark vestibules of the Internet in showing the exploitation of Hersh’s life and death, so you will have to trust me when I say it is beyond horrible. Among the so-called “pro-Palestinian” crowd, Hersh was labeled as worthy of demise, a colonizer, an “IOF soldier”, never mind his only role in the Israeli military was that of a medic. There is no justification for his death, and it takes a contorted mind to believe that he is the bad guy. Seeing these reactions harkened me back to the jarring conversations I had in the days following October 7th where the shameful inversion of good and evil resulted in people saying that murdered peace activist Vivian Silver was the villain while Hamas are “resistance” heroes. This echoes the persistent dehumanization of Israelis, pretending that there are no innocents, that Israeli hostages are not real humans.

On the other side, Hersh was often used as an image to boost Israel’s destruction, massacre, and torture of Palestinians. Despite his own position opposed to the occupation and his parents calling for a ceasefire, many organizations and government officials used his image to boost support for “destroying” Hamas rather than bringing about an end to the war. And on the political scene, the Biden administration’s consistent contact with Hersh’s parents as well as other Israeli hostage family members has stood in stark contrast to the response to Americans who were killed by Israeli soldiers. In February, following a drone strike from Iran that hit US soldiers in Jordan, Biden stated: "if you harm an American, we will respond.” However, following the death of American activist Aysenur Eygi at the hands of Israeli soldiers, the administration’s response was muted and deferential. Biden refused to even call family members to express condolences. The US refused to conduct any independent investigation into her death (or the shooting of another American in the West Bank or the recent death of a Lebanese American likely due to Israeli airstrikes). Instead, the administration is satisfied to keep the reins in the hands of an extremist Israeli government that has shown no interest in justice or accountability.

So a year later, we are still stuck at Square One. Activists who celebrate October 7th, contend that now “Palestine is almost free” and the “Zionist entity” will be wiped out. Jewish organizations are now beating the drums as to the necessity of defeating Hamas, Hezbollah, and now Iran in the battlefield, never mind the suffering that will ensue for millions more people. My local community is full of hurt and anger and division rather than coming together to denounce all violence and injustice. There ARE voices of hope, of compassion, of inclusivity, of radical empathy. I have been fortunate to meet several of them over the past few months, among others:
  • Rotem and Osama, an Israeli and Palestinian pair who overcame their exclusionary upbringing to renounce violence and become friends.
  • Alon-Lee Green and Sally Abed, Jewish and Palestinian Israeli citizens who have led Standing Together.
  • Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger and Noor Awad, who have come together to promote peace via despite living as unequals in the Occupied West Bank
  • Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, an American refugee from Palestine, who has maintained radical empathy for Israelis dozens of his family members being killed in airstrikes, and a relative currently detained with no charges or explanation (AKA taken hostage).
  • Dahlia Scheindlin, an American Israeli who has done her best to educate the world on the disgusting toll of this tragedy.
  • My friends at SF Bay for Peace, who have gone out of their way to set up a safe space to discuss sensitive topics and mourn the loss of all lives.
  • Rula Hardal and May Pundak, leaders of A Land for All proposal for an Israel/Palestine confederation.
  • A crazy WhatsApp group I’ve been dragged into that has Jews, Muslims, and others from all over the world, including Gaza itself. While far from agreeing with each other, there is at least a shared understanding that war needs to end and children deserve to live.
  • Others in the community (both in real life an online, including Twitter acquaintances), family, and some friends who I have cried with, vented to, struggled with coping during these times.
Unfortunately, even in these comforting spaces, I see the pain and intractability of the conflict. Those who seek to humanize both sides get attacked-even getting death threats, from both sides. To some, this war seems to be a game where one can achieve safety just by killing the other side-even their babies. Caring for others is enough to get tarred as a traitor or a fake Jew. Enough. Solidarity should not be transactional. There are innocent people on all sides, no matter their political beliefs. Join an organization fighting for peace and justice for everyone. Donate to organizations devoted to the cause (see suggestions in my previous post. Tell your representatives that all lives are precious. Stop the violence, stop the hate. I am tired of pleas for violence receiving a disproportionate share of media and political attention. Let us come together to support an end to the deaths of Israelis and Palestinians, an end to the conflict, and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians everywhere.

Tuesday, July 2, 2024

Antisemitism is Real, but Dehumanizing Palestinians Only Makes Things Worse

Donation Pages (not a comprehensive list):

Humanitarian Aid for Gaza

World Central Kitchen-food aid

UN World Food Program-largest world food program

PCRF-Palestinian Children’s Relief

DOUBLE your impact for refugees | International Rescue Committee

ANERA-Humanitarian Aid

Israeli Organizations Working towards a better future, a small selection

B'tselem-exposing Israeli Human Rights violations

Adalah-legal advocates for Palestinian rights in Israel

English | standing-together: Israeli and Palestinian Peace Activism

Israeli Groups Abroad Supporting Peace

Los Angeles

Israelis for Peace NYC (@israelispeaceny) / X

SF Bay 4 Peace

Friends of Standing Together (Access to other groups)       

 

After October 7th, I was horrified to see the immediate reaction from many in the global community to be a callous lack of compassion for the humanity of the Israeli victims. In the ensuing days, as I wrote in October, many so-called “pro-Palestinian” groups predicated support for Palestinians by dismissing the real pain of Israelis, including the families of those killed or taken hostage. Among other examples, a New York University law student refused to show any empathy towards Israelis, stating “Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.” They were one of multiple “pro-Palestinian” activists who callously tore down posters of hostages, demonstrating regressive values. In my hometown of Berkeley, city council meetings have been disrupted by a crowd that demeaned and harassed councilmembers and spit on a Holocaust survivor and called her a “Zionist pig”. The hatred is real, and the dismissal of increasingly bigoted and dehumanizing rhetoric across the country and the world should not be taken lightly. But empathy should never be a one-way street, and the reality is the pro-Israel community, from otherwise liberal Jews to the president of the United States have simply shut down their compassion when it comes to Palestinians.

As horrible as October 7th was for Israelis and the sympathetic Jewish community, Palestinians in Gaza have experienced the equivalent of October 7th in death and destruction every week since. There is nowhere safe, nowhere to hide, and without thousands of dollars of bribes, nowhere to escape. There are no magic words condemning Hamas that will bring Palestinians safety. Famine has engulfed Gaza, aided by rampant Israeli obstruction of delivery and distribution of food. Most buildings are destroyed by Israeli bombs. And what do our leaders do? They deflect, deny, dehumanize all the same as those marching in the streets on October 8th. More than 35,000 dead, tens of thousands more permanently injured, at least hundreds of thousands starving, and so many who are supposed to be representing me-in the Jewish community and the Democratic Party, can hardly show a minimum level of empathy. 

Nearly every day for the last 6+ months, the Biden administration demonstrates callous disregard to what Palestinians are going through. One of the most memorable instances of this was Biden’s statement recognizing 100 days after October 7th. The statement referred to 100 days of captivity for hundreds of hostages with zero mention of the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed, not to mention thousands of others who had been imprisoned in Israel without due process for weeks, months, or years, many tortured, several killed. Nor does it mention the increased horror and despondence in the West Bank as settlers have been allowed to traipse through Palestinian villages with impunity and Israeli forces have killed hundreds more Palestinians, many of them civilians. Nothing should detract from the legitimate pain hostage families are going through, but empathy must not stop there.  

Instead of condemning and punishing Israeli settlers who are violating Palestinian human rights day in and day out, the US condemns the ICC for holding Israel at all accountable for the conduct of its leaders. President Biden said the decision to charge Israeli officials is “outrageous” and that “whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.” Instead of recognizing a Palestinian state, the US says there can be no Palestinian state until nonexistent negotiations occur. Instead of cutting off weapons that are used to indiscriminately kill civilians, the US signs a package for billions more in weapons sales and expedites weapons shipments. Despite government workers pleading that Israel is flouting humanitarian law in its denial of humanitarian aid and reckless actions in Gaza, the Biden administration deflected and denied that there are clear war crimes. The claim is that certain actions are “inconsistent with international law”, a similar statement to what is uttered in response to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. However, while the administration has plenty of time to condemn protestors, they refuse to issue such open criticism of any of Israel’s policies. Unfortunately, it often seems that even in the Democratic Party, many politicians are either in agreement with or unwilling to challenge the “pro-Israel” AIPAC lobby that won’t even acknowledge that people in Gaza are starving. 

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen has been one of the few members of the Democratic establishment to call out the state department’s contortions in its report. A longtime state department official resigned, protesting the politicized conclusions of the report. Unfortunately, such moral clarity is far from the norm. Jewish organizations that are supposed to be combating anti-Semitism and hatred have closed their hearts and decided that defending Israel is more important. The Anti-Defamation League has been more concerned with defending Israel’s every move than moving towards justice. The ADL, along with several other Jewish organizations, castigated Chuck Schumer, a consistent defender of Israel, for simply stating that Benjamin Netanyahu is an obstacle to peace. The ADL has attacked anti-Zionism and defended Israel’s war at every turn, as if that is helping combat antisemitism. While anti-Zionist activism can be rife with hatred and unrealistic solutions, going after free speech is not the solution. Moreover, the ADL has ignored the pleas of hostage families begging Jewish institutions to support a hostage deal that would end the war. ADL has refused to even speak to hostage families and has consistently attacked calls for a ceasefire regardless of the source. When ceasefire pleas are either castigated or ignored and even mild criticism of Israel is considered antisemitic, it will only push protests towards more extreme positions.

The Jewish Community Relations Council in the San Francisco Bay Area, purportedly the “largest collective voice for the Jewish community” in the region, similarly fans the flames of hatred. They are certainly more slick than the brazen displays of anti-Israeli and broader anti-Semitic messages that have permeated pro-Palestinian rallies, but they serve to regularly dehumanize the Palestinian cause. Similar to ADL and other groups, JCRC puts defense of Israel above care for Jews or the community. The term “blood libel” has been used as a shield to dismiss any allegations of war crimes on Israel’s part. Whether or not you call it a genocide, Israel, it is grossly irresponsible to deny any agency to the reality that Israeli soldiers committing horrific atrocities. As Israeli political scientist Dahlia Scheindlin put it in a January Haaretz column, “Israel has done terrible things to innocent people.”

In response to the ICC’s application for an arrest warrant for both Israeli and Hamas leaders,  JCRC tweeted "We reject the International Criminal Court's charges against Israel's leaders as absurd. However you feel about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the way this war has been waged under his watch, it is false, misleading and reprehensible to draw any moral equivalence.”  This statement shows an offensive disregard to the multitude of documented instances of disregard for humanity and attacks on civilians, which have been inflaming tensions that have spiraled throughout the months following October 7th. The idea that holding Israel accountable is “absurd” is frankly offensive in and of itself. Israel is held to a different standard compared to any other wealthy western country. In fact, Israel is held to a lower standard than Russia by US foreign policy. While many US politicians on both sides of the aisle have been quick to label Russia’s incursion into Ukraine a “genocide”, hardly anyone in power has expressed the same sentiment against Israel’s massacres, despite many statements from Israeli officials (including those opposed to Netanyahu) demeaning Palestinian lives. And it’s not just the word “genocide” that is a turnoff-oftentimes, Palestinian lives are not even mentioned.

With help from manipulating institutions, reflexive defense of Israel’s military actions has bled into the broader American Jewish community. While Jews tend to be overwhelmingly liberal Democrats, when it comes to the war on Gaza, humanity seems to have been lost. Compared to the overall American populace, Jews are more supportive of Israel and of the deadly campaign against Palestinians. 62% of Jews said in March that Israel’s fighting of the war is “acceptable” compared to 38% of the American public and only 5% of Muslims. Only Evangelical Christians are more supportive of the war. Liberal San Francisco’s “Unity March” against anti-Semitism was a jarring reminder of how insensitive many otherwise liberal Democrats are towards Palestinians. There was not a single word against the horrors Israel has released onto Gaza. There was no recognition of the suffering and dehumanization Palestinians have experienced for decades. San Francisco's mayor and state senator have every responsibility to decry anti-Semitism, but combating hatred should not come with acceptance of anti-Palestinian bigotry. While Palestinians were hardly mentioned for most of the rally, the concluding remarks were from an Israeli representative who demonized all Palestinians for the actions of a few on October 7th. A woman attending the rally claimed that no one in Gaza was innocent because she knew a soldier who found a copy of Mein Kampf in every household. There are certainly real issues with antisemitism in Palestine and throughout the Arab and Muslim world, but that does not mean everyone is a terrorist or that violent retribution is an acceptable response.

It should not be hard to acknowledge the horror that has been imposed on Gaza is not solely the fault of Hamas. It should not be hard to acknowledge the link between Israeli terror in the West Bank and Palestinian support for acts of terror  in response. Before you say “But Hamas”, consider whether you truly think that it’s okay that the country you are defending has clear patterns of torturing prisoners. A lawyer who visited one of the detention facilities called it “more horrific than Abu Ghraib”. Palestinians have been detained for months without charges. Many were non-combatants, or at least they were prior to getting tortured for months and then released. Americans should have no illusions about a war with thousands of videos posted by soldiers blatantly disregarding and disrespecting any semblance of Palestinian humanity. “In many pictures and videos that have circulated since the conflict began, and which were reposted by pro-Palestinian activists to millions of followers, IDF soldiers are seen blowing up buildings in Gaza while in combat, waving women’s underwear like flags and rifling through the possessions of Gazans with gleeful expressions.” We cannot look the other way at such a rampant display of inhumanity. This is neither a sustainable strategy to defeat terrorism nor is it okay for the Jewish community to dismiss or excuse such horrific behavior.

Within the darkness that has encompassed the world, there have been some beacons of hope. Standing Together is one organization that has stood strong for its radical inclusivity of Palestinians and Jews working together towards reconciliation and peace. Unfortunately, the forces of hate outnumber the voices for peace. Support for a Palestinian state among Israeli Jews was already underwater before October 7th and it has sunk below 25% since. And both Israelis and Palestinians largely support an exclusionary vision of Israel-Palestine that includes a combination of ethno-supremacy and ethnic cleansing. This is not a sustainable path forward. Nor does it reflect our Jewish values. Those of us privileged enough to be disconnected from the conflict should speak up more. In the United States, Israeli-lead peace vigils have drawn crowds of dozens  to hundreds compared to tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands at hate-filled marches that are devoid of compassion for the other side. Enough of the hackneyed narratives that Israeli Jews can only be considered evil occupiers or Palestinians are all terrorists. There are hard truths that need to be confronted, but we are all human beings, and we need to do better.

We must also acknowledge that the dehumanization did not start on October 7th, and the end of this war, if and when it comes, will leave many wounds that will take decades to heal. Amid the ruling Israeli coalition’s support of a far-reaching judicial overhaul threatening further degradation of Israel’s democracy, Jewish groups, including ADL and the Jewish Federations of North America did come together, with even the Conservative movement stating that the “reform” “represents a clear and present danger to the country’s independent judiciary, which may still come under further assault.” Unfortunately, the movement against judicial reform was largely devoid of any acknowledgement of the continued subjugation of stateless Palestinians, settler violence and land grabs, and rampant discrimination against the non-Jewish citizens of Israel. Palestinians have been subject to such humiliation for decades. While Israel’s political mainstream has lurched so far away from acknowledgement of Palestinian dignity, we can do our part to combat dehumanization here.

We call on you, elected and appointed leaders in the Jewish Community, supporters of organizations like the ADL and JCRC, and all who believe in the just and legitimate fight for social justice and liberation to join with us to use our power and privilege to change the conversation about Israel to one that is centered on shared humanity. 

  • Ensure that all public statements recognize the humanity of all peoples in the region. 
  • Demonstrate through votes and advocacy that our tax dollars only support actions that are consistent with international law  
  • Support federal policy to hold the Israeli government accountable for their inhumane actions
  • Support federal and state policy to block Americans from funding extremist and illegal settlements
  • Work collaboratively with groups and individuals who support a just, safe, and sustainable peace for Palestinians and Israelis 

 


Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Have We Lost Humanity?

Author's Note: Most of this piece was written on Saturday, October 14. Some material in this first draft includes events through October 17th. I may include additional updates, or follow up in additional posts.


As I write this, Israel is about to launch a massive ground invasion on the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military has told an area with over a million people who have just been hit by more than 6,000 bombs to get out. Hamas is encouraging people to stay in hopes of an even more bloody confrontation. I dread the consequences of what may be on track to be the most deadly war in Israel’s history. I have been feeling a rage of emotions, all horrible feelings at what has unfolded. I’ve been more defensive and embracing of Israel than ever. I am saddened by the completely unnecessary violence that has resulted in more than 1,300 senseless murders and cascaded into truly awful vitriol around the world. But I would be heartless to not be angered and horrified over the rage the government and military are about to unleash. And yet, while the human impact pales in comparison, I am still saddened by a burning hatred that has emerged among the legitimately aggrieved and their supporters. 


As a secular, liberal Jew-ish American, I have no strong feelings towards the idea of a Jewish state of Israel and very strong feelings against the government. I support liberal democracy, not religious ethno-states. For Israeli citizens, Israel is both a liberal democracy with respect for minorities and gay rights and a religious state that does not allow inter-ethnic marriage and gives systemic privileges to Jews. Arab citizens are second-class citizens, carefully relegated mostly to separate enclaves with little true representation in government. For Palestinians who happen to have been born in the wrong place, Israel is an apartheid state that restricts movement in the West Bank (while permitting ever-increasing encroachment of Jacksonian settlers) and locks down Gaza with an iron fist. My cousin in Israel has been protesting the government for years, telling me in 2016 that Donald Trump will be “America’s Netanyahu”. The situation in the Palestinian territories is truly untenable.


I don’t pretend to be a strong advocate for Palestinians. It is neither an issue that I am typically personally concerned about nor one that I think there are many good chances to help solve. But it is a tragedy what Palestinians have been going through for the better part of the last century. The US has been Israel’s biggest benefactor for decades and has rarely exerted any influence to even nudge Israel to stop its illegal fixation on violent annexation in the West Bank. Meanwhile, Israel’s “center” in its governing coalition has slowly drifted further and further into explicitly genocidal aims, while its far right flank is proud of them. The Democratic Party has failed to stand up to the scourge of AIPAC even as Israel’s conservative government has fully embraced the Trump-led Republican Party. Israel’s government has a lot more support from American Christians than American Jews, albeit there is still a segment of Democratic voters who do blindly support Netanyahu. While I am no fan of the far-left’s purely anti-American position, I think that there are many legitimate grievances about American foreign policy, including the US’s unbridled support for Israel. On its face, Boycott Divest and Sanction movement is a totally legitimate nonviolent resistance to Israel, though one with hardly any tangible success. Sadly, the left and the Palestinian activist movement have shown a much, much darker side in response to the indefensible. 


I cannot take it in stride when the response to mass murder of Israelis from the left is deflection, indifference, and glee. Organizations promoted rallies for “martyrs” with the image of a person on a hang glider, the same transportation Hamas used to sweep in a massacre a peaceful kibbutz and a music festival. If there are two places where no one is looking to get into a fate, these are the perfect spots. Hamas swooped in indiscriminately killing soldiers, babies, women, kids, students, peace activists. This was an attack that was bound to receive sympathy towards Israel from its biggest ally and to galvanize support for Israel from a typically tepid European Union. There was nothing that should be celebrated about this gruesome attack that has been met with an unfathomable response from Israel. Israel’s response killed more people than the US killed during some months of the Iraq War, and a full-scale ground invasion could kill tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people. This is a horrifying prospect, but utterly unsurprising response from an extreme right-wing government to the most deadly single attack on Israel since 1949. People who have been suffering in the Palestinian territories have reason to feel indifference when they are attacked and demonized and have nowhere to go. This should not extend to college-educated American students who intentionally mock the feelings of their classmates.


It is simply not true that Israel’s situation is merely a case of the oppressor versus the oppressed minority in Palestine. It is simply not the case that Israel is fully made up of white colonialist settlers. Israel is a highly racially and ethnically diverse country that has grown as a refuge for Jews oppressed around the world. It is never easy to leave your hometown, yet hundreds of thousands of Jews came to Israel from Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Ethiopia, Yemen, and other parts of the world where they have been denigrated and forced to leave their home country. The Jews who fled Nazi Europe to Israel escaped unspeakable horror and it is no surprise they did not wish to return after the war ended. There were thousands of Jews living in what is now Israel even prior to the pre-World War II settler movement, and the land has obviously a biblical history. There are many different reasons why today’s Jews landed in Israel, ascribing a single mentality to millions of people is repugnant. Not to mention many of the people living there now simply happened to be born there and want to live their lives.


I hope that one day there is a single Democratic country in Israel/Palestine with minority rights, citizenship for all current residents, and a functioning democracy. If that is truly what activists envision by the chants of “Palestine will be free from river to sea”, then I am fully supportive of this vision. If it means vengefully expelling millions of people who had no say in wars from many decades prior, then that cannot and should not ever be allowed to happen. The global leftist movement has supported Palestinian right to resist by any means, with tepid if any sympathy towards Israeli civilians who have been killed. Palestinian activists have explicitly denied that any Israeli is a civilian, a chilling justification for mass murder. Democratic Socialists have responded by mocking Jews grieving and hearing for their safety after rallies including people chanting “Gas the Jews”. Before any retaliation last week, there were posts celebrating the attacks as “decolonization”. People claiming to represent the cause of civil rights broadly insulted a grieving Jewish community. People who claim to be virtuous shed no tear over the death and kidnapping of peaceful socialists living on a commune. It saddens me to see such hate towards people for simply existing in the wrong place, the exact same hate that activists rightly decry when it is directed towards every other less fortunate minority. Some of these so-called left-wing activists would truly feel no sympathy if my cousin who votes for the Arab Communist Party was murdered by terrorists. I actually do think that the distinction between “civilian” life and others is a problematic framing but that is because all loss of life is truly horrifying. Of course civilian deaths are tragic and deaths of vulnerable women and children are highlighted as especially evil, but it is also horrible when soldiers are killed, horrible when terrorists are bred to preach hate and revel in “martyrdom”, and horrible when any leader feels that it is okay to use human beings as pawns to achieve political aims. 


I should save some space for the right-wing vitriol directed at Muslims. Frankly, I haven’t been following it so much now because Islamophobia and bloodlust is nothing new. I know that the American right has been made of morally bankrupt xenophobes who have shown no compassion towards innocent people and have been pushing for a bloody war with Iran with no regard to humanity. They have shown who they are many times over the last 20 years since I have been following politics. Some Jews at rallies in New York and at Israel’s government have been giddy at the prospect of mass extermination of Palestinians. Israel president Isaac Herzog’s implication of the collective responsibility of Gazan civilians to oppose Hamas was even more jarring given that he comes from the now-crippled center-left Israeli Labor Party. A young boy was murdered by his landlord who had been a family friend until he got brainwashed by non-stop Islamophobia on Fox News. In response to some disturbing displays of pro-violent and anti-Semitic rhetoric, several countries in Europe have banned pro-Palestinian rallies, even peaceful ones. These forces will only further inflame tensions that are already boiling over.


I feel that in this world of anger and retribution, some of the only sensible people left are the liberal American Jews, the people who are pilloried globally by conservatives as all-powerful bankers and Soros agents, and attacked by the left for stopping short of supporting a violent uprising in Israel. The greatest heroes are the people on the kibbutz who were actually attacked last week, who recognize that we cannot have any hope of peace if there is no compassion, only revenge. Here is the brave tale of a 19-year old woman who survived to and has continued her resolve to advocate for peace. Unfortunately, Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin considers a ground invasion a near certainty unless Hamas lays down its arms. The war will rage on and the same people who celebrated the initial attack will beg for an end to hostilities and many will take it a step further in calling for Israel's surrender and forfeiture of all of its lands. Israel will try to browbeat Palestinians into submission, but likely will end up breeding another generation of terrorists. Hatred will reign supreme until people look themselves and their "enemies" in the distance to see both sides have lost their humanity.



Links for some material used for this commentary:



DAY OF RESISTANCE TOOLKIT (imgix.net)

Highlighted Section


The occupation, the day to day and the existence of Israel is not peaceful; there is no ‘maintaining the peace’ with a violent settler state. 

◆ Settlers are not “civilians” in the sense of international law, because they are military assets used to ensure continued control over stolen Palestinian land. 

◆ Responsibility for every single death falls solely on the zionist entity. They do not care one bit for the Geneva Conventions but demand Palestinians follow them to the letter. ● Gaza as the cradle of resistance 

◆ Gaza broke out of prison. Resistance fighters captured one of the bulldozers used to destroy Palestinian homes, and used it to breach the illegitimate border fence back into ‘48 Palestine. 

◆ Gaza is being subject to collective punishment because the occupation knows liberation is inevitable


Twin Cities DSA Statement:

https://twincitiesdsa.org/2023/10/twin-cities-dsa-statement-of-solidarity-with-palestine/


https://komonews.com/news/local/israel-hamas-war-palestine-gaza-rally-uw-university-washington-seattle-red-square-middle-east-attack-flyer-paraglider-militants-death-toll-protest-campus-students-hayim-katsman-president-administration




Stanford lecturer suspended after showing Jews as “colonizers”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/stanford-suspends-lecturer-accused-making-124218096.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFtc2BAhr3FfZGoYRtse9TBUBKSfjl7j4CmUXbzjfluSjPMpobdZzQz_BU9Khcap2ikjiTG4Mn7X-maJIkVJhIb8h2zciTyGyycdidl4PLXzT7SZUSgb8-HY0yraqaiPPFKDLT1NzBqiFF7Fri5pGoLCaHpwHVcj_IfoJCmT0J2w


NYU Law student very intentionally condemning everything except brutal attacks by Hamas

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nyu-bass-association-leader-loses-220000561.html


BLM Chicago (similar with LA)

https://twitter.com/__jacker__/status/1711779655089295847?fbclid=IwAR0XHeXMcwul3LPClhZ_dlFTjZBLJVx2E_aU5kS3ArTkQlOnijpkgoUf3RY

London rally cheering Israeli deaths




Harvard letter not explicitly supporting violence but showing lack of compassion: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/10/10/psc-statement-backlash/


Israel president hinting at justification for collective punishment https://www.yahoo.com/news/israeli-president-says-no-innocent-154330724.html


6 year old boy killed in Chicago suburbs by landlord brainwashed by Fox News

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/16/us/chicago-muslim-boy-stabbing-investigation/index.html



 

Monday, July 18, 2022

Joe Manchin is the Best We've Got


Democrats are sleepwalking their way to a paralysis of Republican control and for all the outrage over the last year, last six years, last ten years, it sure sounds like the party as a whole is about to give up. Nearly twelve years on from Joe Manchin literally shooting a cap-and-trade bill for a campaign ad, he appears to be the last remaining barrier of climate legislation today. After angrily shutting down the more expansive hodgepodge of progressive priorities making up the Build Back Better Act, Manchin has taken an ax to over $300 billion climate and energy spending and subsidies as well as hundreds of billions in tax increases on the wealthy and corporations The only pieces left are a temporary extension of healthcare subsidies and allowing Medicare to negotiate for prescription drugs. The eulogies have been written and the attacks have reigned down: Joe Manchin has ruined the planet and doomed humanity to failure. A day later, Manchin gave a quixotic denial of completely shutting the door on further negotiations, saying he could still vote for the climate and tax provisions in September if inflation cooled down. It appears many Democrats have taken that as a nonstarter, but I don’t think we have any other choice. Manchin isn’t to be trusted, but he’s the best chance we’ve got.

The death of cap-and-trade, at one point supported by both major party candidates in 2008, was not inevitable, and neither is the current predicament. For over a year now, Democrats have been locked in endless squabbles over what signature legislation there should be. I think that the so-called “moderates” have been an unhelpful dagger to the ambition of Democrats, but this should have been obvious for progressives and activists in the beginning. Any Democratic priorities that are to be passed with a simple majority are only going to get Democratic votes. There has been no effort to engage with or no interest at all from Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, or Mitt Romney supporting any of the Democratic agenda, despite their purported support for at least some of the key elements of healthcare, childcare, and clean energy. That leaves a bill that must earn the votes of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, as well as several more red state Democrats and an obnoxious faction of House Democrats from New York and New Jersey.

If the climate emergency were truly the number one priority, Democrats didn’t always act like it. Senator Tina Smith helped draft up a transformative Clean Electricity Performance Program that would set a nationwide carbon intensity standard for electrical generation, a clever plan that could have been a reconciliation-friendly cap-and-trade of sorts. Joe Manchin was apparently never involved in these negotiations and not surprisingly, he was not supportive of a bill that would likely end coal generation in the not-too-distant future and would enact a cruder version of the same concept he shot down in his initial Senate run. The Build Back Better Act also included a plethora of partially funded programs, many of them important. It could have helped millions of Americans afford school, children, housing, and sickness. Nothing that would have ushered in a permanent Democratic majority, but it could have been the most transformative social program since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.

The Progressives conceded there would not be a full-scale Green New Deal, but at its most ambitious, the reconciliation package included free community college, an extra year of preschool, continued pandemic-level child tax credits, a government-backed childcare program, an ambitious clean energy spending package, money for affordable housing, and more. However, many of these programs-childcare and the Child Tax Credit for example, were only funded for a year or two in order to please the purported deficit hawks. The legislation would be paid for via tax hikes on the rich and corporations, closing tax loopholes, increased IRS enforcement, and healthcare savings from prescription drug negotiations. Unfortunately, the tax increases were shot down by various Democratic factions-Manchin and Sinema, but also Jon Tester, Bob Menendez, and many members of Congress have opposed meaningful tax reform, including plans to tax dividends, end inheritance subsidies, or simply increase rates for the wealthiest or corporations, The most significant piece of the 2017 tax bill that many Democrats have seemed eager to “reform” has been the most progressive part of it. Presumably thinking there is nothing more important than pleasing the donor base, most Democrats have gleefully touted efforts to remove or significantly raise the cap on state and local tax deductions. Even in the highest income states, the vast majority of benefits of tax deductions flow to the wealthy. Amidst a debate over a climate emergency, many so-called “progressives” and Joe Biden have also called for a suspension of the gas tax that will starve the government of revenue, increase driving, and given global supply constraints, would do more to increase oil company profits than provide relief.

I do not know exactly what is in the current reconciliation proposal on the table, but all discussions have pointed to a similar framework as the original Build Back Better Act. The bulk of the package was $320 billion in clean electricity tax credits, including for wind, solar, and nuclear energy, providing developers a boost in profitability through 2031.The majority of emissions reductions were in the tax credits, but there were other significant measures, including carbon capture and storage, electric vehicle incentives (which Manchin does not seem too fond of), wildfire mitigation funding, clean energy grants, and billions of dollars to bolster federal procurement of electric vehicles for the USPS and fleets. All told, this was projected to contribute to US GHG emissions reduced approximately 50% below 2005 levels by 2030, versus an estimation of approximately 20% today. These measures are not literally the difference between apocalypse and keeping global warming under 2 Degrees, but every bit does help. It is also not impossible that global circumstances, state policies, and private sector innovation will bring us to these targets without any government help, but that is not something we can count on.

Many Democrats and environmental advocates have pushed Biden to give up on negotiations with Manchin and pivot to executive orders. This is nothing more than a wild shot at the end of the game. Sheldon Whitehouse said that Biden should go into “executive beast mode” to combat climate change, proposing a range of key actions:



He as well as anyone else should know that few if any of these efforts will pass Supreme Court muster. While the Supreme Court issued a relatively narrow ruling limiting the EPA’s ability to regulate GHG emissions from power plants, there is plenty more opportunity for a further beatdown of the administrative state. There is no way that Biden will be able to implement a wide-ranging Social Cost of Carbon rule, require carbon capture, sue oil companies like they are oil companies, or institute a carbon border tariff without any Congressional approval. Biden has the ability to attempt these measures regardless of the status of reconciliation negotiations. However, I do not think it is worth spending too much effort on pursuing policies that are practically guaranteed to be rejected before they have a chance to take effect. If the Supreme Court does not reject these efforts out-of-hand, whatever lives by executive action also dies by executive action of any future Republican president.

It’s hard to know what would have gotten passed without Manchin in the way and whether Democrats would be better off politically than they are now or whether they even would have gotten anything more done with Sinema the deciding vote. Manchin was and is right to be concerned about inflation, but his opposition to even modestly raising taxes on the wealthy now is completely inconsistent with that stance. I believe Democrats can and should do more to combat inflation, including any measures that can be taken (though there are not many) to increase short-term energy supplies. In the short term, the best fiscal policy is to tamper demand via higher taxes; though not a popular sentiment, raising taxes, instead of providing “stimulus” or “gas tax” rebates, may avert a catastrophic recession or depression later. Local and state leaders could do a lot more to promote reducing consumption in these times. This includes encouragement of continuing work-from-home rather than forcing office workers back while there are sky-high gas prices and record inflation. Additional measures can be taken to promote carpooling, a transportation mode that has been in a long, slow decline and significantly increased US gas consumption. Finally, there is significantly more action that can be taken to reduce regulatory red tape such as reducing trade barriers allowing import of products that meet European or Canadian safety standards. Congress and the Biden administration can take measures to increase legal immigration, suspend tariffs, and suspend the Jones Act in a time of record low American unemployment and record-high prices. Congress can also do more to bend a reconciliation bill to Manchin’s will by delaying some spending projects while many materials are in short order and supply chains still have not recovered.

The unfortunate reality is there is little chance of Democrats keeping the House of Representatives come 2023. It is not impossible, but we should be doing everything we can now and be realistic about the future. While there has been a modicum of bipartisan cooperation in the Senate, there are fewer and fewer House Republicans who have any semblance of moderation, and none of them are willing to cross leadership to work on Democratic legislation. What’s done is done, though I fear that the politically and policy-ignorant tribalism is here to stay. The question though is what can be done in another four months. The hard truth is that without Democrat Joe Manchin from West Virginia, there is nothing that would have happened in the Senate in Biden’s presidency. Without a Democratic House, there will more likely be a government shutdown than a better climate and energy bill. If Joe Manchin had wanted to become a Republican, he could easily have pulled a Jeff Van Drew in 2020, switched parties, and committed himself for Trump. Instead, Manchin has been a reliable vote for judicial and executive branch nominations, including supporting clean energy advocates unanimously opposed by Republicans. He voted for a Democrat-only COVID relief package in 2021 and there is no other 50th senator at the negotiating table to come up with any significant clean energy package or prescription drug reform. Joe Manchin rose to power through Democrat failure to win seats in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, and North Carolina in 2016, 2018, and 2020 and failure to garner any sympathy from Collins, Murkowski, or Romney. The Senate environment in 2024 and beyond is difficult to say the least, with a nontrivial chance that Republicans end up with 60 seats. Hate him or despise him, Joe Manchin is the best we’ve got.