Imperialism
Israel
Palestine
Fig. 1. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[1] fair use.
If the State Department knows that Joe Biden is violating U.S. law,[2] then I think we can presume that Biden does or should know.
The 38-year-old [Annelle Sheline], who studied the foreign policy of Arab governments for her doctorate, said the state department was aware of plenty of evidence that Israel was violating international law in its conduct of the Gaza war, and that the [Joe] Biden administration was violating US law by continuing to supply weapons.
She pointed in particular to the Leahy laws, which forbid assistance to foreign military units implicated in atrocities, and section 620 (I) of the Foreign Assistance Act, which states that no assistance should be given to any government which “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance”.[3]
Karen DeYoung, Yasmeen Abutaleb, and Toluse Olorunnipa, “Biden-Netanyahu rift grows, as Israel cancels delegation visit,” Washington Post, March 26, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/03/25/biden-netanyahu-un-delegation-rift/
Alon Pinkas, “Netanyahu has been spoiling for a fight with the US. He may not survive this one,” Guardian, March 26, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/26/benjamin-netanyahu-joe-biden-un-security-council-resolution-ceasefire-gaza
Ishaan Tharoor, “U.S. allows U.N. ceasefire vote, but it’s too late for many in Gaza,” Washington Post, March 26, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/03/26/united-states-united-nations-veto-israel-ceasefire-gaza/
Julian Borger, “State department official’s resignation highlights rifts over US Gaza policy,” Guardian, March 27, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/27/state-department-resignation-gaza-biden-policy
Rory Carroll, “Ireland backs bid to include blocking of aid in definition of genocide,” Guardian, March 27, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/27/gaza-ireland-joins-battle-to-include-the-blocking-of-vital-aid-in-definition-of-genocide
Louis Mian and Benjamin Brown, “‘Reasonable grounds’ to believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, UN rights expert says,” CNN, March 27, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/27/middleeast/israel-committing-genocide-in-gaza-un-rights-expert-says-intl/index.html
Melanie Swan, “Israel admits it may not be able to destroy Hamas now US has turned its back,” Telegraph, March 27, 2024, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/27/israeli-intelligence-admits-may-not-destroy-hamas/
Illiberalism
Gilead
Donald Trump
Fig. 1. Donald Trump, depicted in an orange jumpsuit, reportedly by the Drudge, date unknown, via Mediaite,[4] fair use. Apparently, no mugshot was taken when he was actually arrested over hush money paid to Stormy Daniels.[5]
Two things I have to say here:
- It just keeps getting worse and worse.
- Don’t try to make sense of the senseless.
Chris Lehmann, “Trump’s New Line of Work: Bible Salesman,” Nation, March 28, 2024, https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-bibles-lee-greenwood/
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism intellectually derives from (and is often conflated with) capitalist libertarianism;[6] in terms of anarchist theory, neither neoliberalism nor capitalist libertarianism seriously object to economic power over others while both object to political power over others. Neoliberalism seems to be what happens when capitalist libertarians attain economic or political power, especially when they ‘capture’ government, and dispense with the pretense that the labor market is or should be a level playing field.
Ed Kilgore, “Joe Lieberman and the Center That Did Not Hold,” New York, March 28, 2024, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/joe-lieberman-obituary.html
- [1]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
- [2]Julian Borger, “State department official’s resignation highlights rifts over US Gaza policy,” Guardian, March 27, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/27/state-department-resignation-gaza-biden-policy↩
- [3]Julian Borger, “State department official’s resignation highlights rifts over US Gaza policy,” Guardian, March 27, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/27/state-department-resignation-gaza-biden-policy↩
- [4]Alex Griffing, “Drudge Puts Trump in an Orange Jumpsuit as Site Monitors His Potential Indictment,” Mediaite, August 29, 2022, https://www.mediaite.com/news/drudge-puts-trump-in-an-orange-jumpsuit-as-site-monitors-his-potential-indictment/↩
- [5]Sarah D. Wire and Alexandra E. Petri, “Trump charged with 34 felony counts in alleged hush money cover-up case,” Los Angeles Times, April 4, 2023, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-04-04/donald-trump-alleged-hush-money-investigation-indictment-arraignment↩
- [6]Daniel Stedman Jones, Masters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 2012).↩