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.
The reported US plan [to sanction a unit of the Israel Defense Forces notorious for human rights abuses] drew a scathing response from Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The IDF must not be sanctioned!” he wrote on X. “I’ve been working in recent weeks against the sanctioning of Israeli citizens, including in my conversations with the American administration.[2]
Oh, yeah, and Israel lies, lies, lies, and then lies again. In this case about the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA),[3] but surely we must assume more generally.
Leigh Ann Caldwell and Marianna Sotomayor, “Bipartisan House coalition advances Ukraine aid,” Washington Post, April 19, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/19/israel-ukraine-aid-house-speaker-mike-johnson/
Jared Malsin and Nancy A. Youssef, “Biden Weighs More Than $1 Billion in New Arms for Israel,” Wall Street Journal, April 19, 2024, https://apple.news/AYrD2jUG7Td29aUfmEPUWSw
Danielle Paquette et al., “House approves Ukraine, Israel aid bills,” Washington Post, April 20, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/20/house-vote-ukraine-israel-aid-johnson/
Barak Ravid, “U.S. expected to sanction IDF unit for human rights violations in West Bank,” Axios, April 20, 2024, https://www.axios.com/2024/04/20/us-israel-sanctions-idf-west-bank
Times of Israel, “Israel aghast as US said poised to sanction IDF unit with history of abuses,” April 21, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-aghast-as-us-said-poised-to-sanction-notorious-idf-unit-netanyahu-a-moral-low/
Emanuel Fabian, “‘I will always carry the pain’: IDF intel chief Aharon Haliva resigns over Oct. 7 failure,” Times of Israel, April 22, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-intel-chief-aharon-haliva-announces-resignation-over-october-7-failures/
Claire Parker, “Report says Israel has not provided evidence of widespread militancy among UNRWA staff,” Washington Post, April 22, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/22/unrwa-israel-hamas-report-palestinians/
Illiberalism
Gilead
Speaker of the House of Representatives, 2023-2024
Fig. 2. Photograph credited to Office of Congressman Kevin McCarthy, date inconsistent with title but given as November 9, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
I suppose I’ll be hearing howls of “minority rule” from the Republicans now.
Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer with Tobi Raji, “The House has a bipartisan governing coalition,” Washington Post, April 22, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/22/house-has-bipartisan-governing-coalition/
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Fig. 3. The confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, with the “Golden Triangle” and downtown Pittsburgh. Photograph by author, October 15, 2023.
The old San Francisco taxi driver in me was absolutely proof positive certain he smelled corruption in Pittsburgh:[4]
In an interview last week, [City Council Solicitor Dan] Friedson said he “can’t think of a single reason” why a March 27 [city council] meeting on deer management, for example, should have been held away from the public eye. Similarly, he raised concerns about the lack of openness for a recent off-limits gathering concerning the city budget, a hot-button issue lately as the city’s controller has warned of looming fiscal turmoil for Pittsburgh.
“There’s nothing in the Sunshine Act that says you can take the public out of the budget (discussions),” he said. “That’s a problem.”[5]
It starts at the very top. They say they like to hash things out in private before making them public. They say there’s nothing untoward happening. They admit that many of these meetings should be public.[6] And that’s what they always say. Every single fucking time.
See if this report leads to a change in behavior. If it doesn’t, you can know—take it to the bank—that something very untoward is happening.
Julia Felton, “Pittsburgh City Council’s private meetings raise questions about Sunshine Law compliance,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, April 22, 2024, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-city-councils-private-meetings-raise-questions-about-sunshine-law-compliance/
- [1]Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩
- [2]Times of Israel, “Israel aghast as US said poised to sanction IDF unit with history of abuses,” April 21, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-aghast-as-us-said-poised-to-sanction-notorious-idf-unit-netanyahu-a-moral-low/↩
- [3]Claire Parker, “Report says Israel has not provided evidence of widespread militancy among UNRWA staff,” Washington Post, April 22, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/22/unrwa-israel-hamas-report-palestinians/↩
- [4]David Benfell, “It is what it is,” Not Housebroken, March 4, 2023, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/12/31/it-is-what-it-is/↩
- [5]Julia Felton, “Pittsburgh City Council’s private meetings raise questions about Sunshine Law compliance,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, April 22, 2024, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-city-councils-private-meetings-raise-questions-about-sunshine-law-compliance/↩
- [6]Julia Felton, “Pittsburgh City Council’s private meetings raise questions about Sunshine Law compliance,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, April 22, 2024, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-city-councils-private-meetings-raise-questions-about-sunshine-law-compliance/↩