December 2023 – Irregular Bullshit

07_09:10:47-2
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.

Emma Graham-Harrison and Julian Borger, “UN security council backs resolution on large-scale aid to Gaza but not ceasefire,” Guardian, December 22, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/22/un-security-council-backs-resolution-on-large-scale-aid-to-gaza-but-not-ceasefire

James Politi and Felicia Schwartz, “Biden’s troubled Gaza strategy: ‘the US looks feckless,’” Financial Times, December 22, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/edebf6ef-155e-4aad-a41b-7e31016cad96

Robin Stein et al., “A Times Investigation Tracked Israel’s Use of One of Its Most Destructive Bombs in South Gaza,” New York Times, December 22, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-bomb-investigation.html

Adam Taylor, “More than 20,000 dead in Gaza, a historic human toll,” Washington Post, December 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/22/gaza-israel-war-20000-dead/

Deborah Danon, “‘The safest place to be Jewish’: 2,600 people have moved to Israel since Hamas invaded,” Times of Israel, December 23, 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-safest-place-to-be-jewish-2600-people-have-moved-to-israel-since-hamas-invaded/

Evan Hill et al., “Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza,” Washington Post, December 23, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace/

Vivian Salama, Dion Nissenbaum, and Benoit Faucon, “Biden Convinced Netanyahu to Halt a Pre-Emptive Strike Against Hezbollah,” Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/how-biden-averted-a-second-front-by-convincing-israel-not-to-attack-hezbollah-on-oct-11-e14a0a3b

Neri Zilber, “Benjamin Netanyahu vows to fight on despite mounting Gaza death toll,” Financial Times, December 24, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/6e7a8788-6a30-4686-abd4-0b7496e86bff

Polina Ivanova, “Benjamin Netanyahu visits Israeli troops in northern Gaza and tells them war will not stop,” Financial Times, December 25, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/40c6e678-eeca-4346-9c1b-83d90e38f823

Neri Zilber and Raya Jalabi, “Israel warns of regional conflict risk as Iran tensions increase,” Financial Times, December 26, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/6932a369-f3f6-46e5-be1f-ce47e14e5ece

Bethan McKernan, “Israel widens offensive in central Gaza as Netanyahu refuses to discuss postwar plan,” Guardian, December 27, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/27/benjamin-netanyahu-israel-refuses-to-discuss-postwar-plan-for-gaza-strip

Shira Rubin and Ruby Mellen, “Israel’s war in Gaza threatens to spill into Lebanon and beyond,” Washington Post, December 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/27/israel-lebanon-gaza-hamas-palestinians/

Polina Ivanova, “Israel’s Benny Gantz threatens to intensify military action against Hizbollah,” Financial Times, December 28, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/dd48d1c3-da86-4e52-a934-c76fc31e63e1

Ruby Mellen et al., “Findings in hostage killings, Gaza deaths put Israeli tactics in focus,&rdquo: Washington Post, December 29, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/29/israel-gaza-investigation-hamas-hostage/

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

2023

Fig. 1. Donald Trump booking photograph by Fulton County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office, August 24, 2023, via New York, August 25, 2023,^[2] public domain.

There is now a 2024 page. It doesn’t have anything on it yet, but I figure even if Donald Trump dies tonight, there will be fallout from the coup attempt stretching into the new year.

I mean, seriously, if Michael Cohen, who had seemingly repented,^[3] is still playing games—no, I don’t buy his protestations of innocence—like using artificial idiocy to write pleadings citing hallucinated cases,^[4] you gotta know this is going to drag on for years.

Hush money

Fig. 1. Cartoon by Jesse Duquette, undated, via “Minneapple23” [pseud.] on Imgur, April 1, 2023, fair use.

Pranshu Verma, “Michael Cohen used fake cases created by AI in bid to end his probation,” Washington Post, December 29, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/29/michael-cohen-ai-google-bard-fake-citations/

^[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]Margaret Hartmann and Nia Prater, “All the Mug Shots of Donald Trump and His Alleged Co-Conspirators,” New York, August 25, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-mug-shot-gallery.html ↩
^[3]Bess Levin, “That Sound You Hear Is Donald Trump Shitting Several Bricks Over Michael Cohen’s Grand Jury Testimony,” Vanity Fair, March 13, 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/03/michael-cohen-donald-trump-stormy-daniels-hush-money-grand-jury ↩
^[4]Pranshu Verma, “Michael Cohen used fake cases created by AI in bid to end his probation,” Washington Post, December 29, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/29/michael-cohen-ai-google-bard-fake-citations/↩

Donald Trump may be off Maine primary ballot

December 28, 2023benfell

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

2023

Fig. 1. Donald Trump booking photograph by Fulton County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office, August 24, 2023, via New York, August 25, 2023,^[1] public domain.

The size of the coup attempt page seemed to have gotten too large. I finally managed to get in to edit it, and have subdivided it into four pages:

A page for 2024 can be expected soon.

Marshall Cohen, “Michigan Supreme Court rejects ‘insurrectionist ban’ case and keeps Trump on 2024 primary ballot,” CNN, December 27, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/27/politics/michigan-supreme-court-rejects-insurrectionist-ban-case-and-keeps-trump-on-2024-primary-ballot/index.html

Patrick Marley, “Donald Trump removed from Maine primary ballot by secretary of state,” Washington Post, December 28, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/12/28/maine-trump-primary-ballot/

^[1]Margaret Hartmann and Nia Prater, “All the Mug Shots of Donald Trump and His Alleged Co-Conspirators,” New York, August 25, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-mug-shot-gallery.html ↩

Forever war in the Middle East

December 28, 2023December 28, 2023benfell

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
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.

Playing innocent,

“We are now at a fork in the road,” Eylon Levy, spokesman for the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Wednesday. “Either Hezbollah backs off from the Israeli border, in line with U.N. Resolution 1701, or we will push it away ourselves.”

“Hezbollah and its Iranian warlord patrons are dragging Lebanon into a totally unnecessary war, into the war that Hamas started,” Levy said. “Our region does not deserve a broader war.”^[2]

Spare me. Ministers in the government have been desperate—Joe Biden’s administration has had to restrain them—for a wider war,^[3] blatantly to forestall an election which they know they will lose. They are so desperate for a war they can prolong indefinitely they can taste it.

And there should be no mistake: This is a chosen war.

Summer Said, Margherita Stancati and William Mauldin, “Hamas Rejection Sours Israeli Bid to Revive Hostage Talks,” Wall Street Journal, December 20, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-offers-one-week-cease-fire-in-exchange-for-more-hostages-336ae59a

Ishaan Tharoor, “Israel is struggling to destroy Hamas, but it’s destroying Gaza,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/20/israel-battlefield-gaza-defeat-hamas/

Julian Borger, “US says it is ready to support amended UN resolution aimed at boosting aid to Gaza,” Guardian, December 21, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/22/un-security-council-resolution-boosting-aid-gaza-usa-america-support

Louisa Loveluck et al., “The case of al-Shifa: Investigating the assault on Gaza’s largest hospital,” Washington Post, December 21, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/21/al-shifa-hospital-gaza-hamas-israel/

Paul Rogers, “Israel is losing the war against Hamas – but Netanyahu and his government will never admit it,” Guardian, December 21, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/21/israel-losing-war-against-hamas-netanyahu-idf

Andrew Silow-Carroll, “What is antisemitism? At a Jewish studies conference, scholars use the archives as a guide — and a warning,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 21, 2023, https://www.jta.org/2023/12/21/ideas/what-is-antisemitism-at-a-jewish-studies-conference-scholars-use-the-archives-as-a-guide-and-a-warning

Adam Taylor, “More than 20,000 dead in Gaza, a historic human toll,” Washington Post, December 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/22/gaza-israel-war-20000-dead/

Neri Zilber, “Benjamin Netanyahu vows to fight on despite mounting Gaza death toll,” Financial Times, December 24, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/6e7a8788-6a30-4686-abd4-0b7496e86bff

Human Science

Inquiry

Quantitative

Artificial intelligence idiocy

Fig. 1. Image credited to David Blaikie from Hampshire, UK, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Angela Palumbo, “Microsoft and OpenAI Are Sued by New York Times for Copyright Infringement,” Barron’s, December 27, 2023, https://www.barrons.com/articles/microsoft-openai-new-york-times-ai-lawsuit-a32dd304

Illiberalism

Israel

Fig. 1. “Sara Netanyahu, wife of the Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu signing the visitors book, at Teen Murti Chowk, in New Delhi. . . . The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi is also seen.” Photograph credited to Prime Minister's Office (GODL-India), January 14, 2018, via Wikimedia Commons, GODL-India.

Jeremy Sharon and Michael Bachner, “Bombshell leaked draft ruling shows High Court set to nix key judicial overhaul law,” Times of Israel, December 28, 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/high-court-said-set-to-nix-key-judicial-overhaul-law-bombshell-leaked-draft-ruling/

^[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]Shira Rubin and Ruby Mellen, “Israel’s war in Gaza threatens to spill into Lebanon and beyond,” Washington Post, December 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/27/israel-lebanon-gaza-hamas-palestinians/↩
^[3]Polina Ivanova, “Israel’s Benny Gantz threatens to intensify military action against Hizbollah,” Financial Times, December 28, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/dd48d1c3-da86-4e52-a934-c76fc31e63e1; Shira Rubin and Ruby Mellen, “Israel’s war in Gaza threatens to spill into Lebanon and beyond,” Washington Post, December 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/27/israel-lebanon-gaza-hamas-palestinians/; Vivian Salama, Dion Nissenbaum, and Benoit Faucon, “Biden Convinced Netanyahu to Halt a Pre-Emptive Strike Against Hezbollah,” Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/how-biden-averted-a-second-front-by-convincing-israel-not-to-attack-hezbollah-on-oct-11-e14a0a3b; Times of Israel, “National security adviser indicates war against Hezbollah likely once Hamas is defeated,” December 9, 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/national-security-adviser-indicates-war-against-hezbollah-likely-after-defeat-of-hamas/; Neri Zilber and Raya Jalabi, “Israel warns of regional conflict risk as Iran tensions increase,” Financial Times, December 26, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/6932a369-f3f6-46e5-be1f-ce47e14e5ece ↩

No matter how many must die, Binyamin Netanyahu is determined to delay an election

December 27, 2023benfell

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
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 Washington Post analyzed satellite imagery, airstrike data and U.N. damage assessments, and interviewed more than 20 aid workers, health-care providers, and experts in munitions and aerial warfare. The evidence shows that Israel has carried out its war in Gaza at a pace and level of devastation that likely exceeds any recent conflict, destroying more buildings, in far less time, than were destroyed during the Syrian regime’s battle for Aleppo from 2013 to 2016 and the U.S.-led campaign to defeat the Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, in 2017.

The Post also found that the Israeli military has conducted repeated and widespread airstrikes in proximity to hospitals, which are supposed to receive special protection under the laws of war. Satellite imagery reviewed by Post reporters revealed dozens of apparent craters near 17 of the 28 hospitals in northern Gaza, where the bombing and fighting were most intense during the first two months of war, including 10 craters that suggested the use of bombs weighing 2,000 pounds, the largest in regular use.^[2]

The Washington Post report emphasizes damage Israel’s bombs have done to hospitals. These bombings are almost certainly war crimes.^[3] The evidence the Israeli Defense Force offered from the al-Shifa hospital is not even remotely exculpatory.^[4] The absence of medical facilities forces a population to leave a territory^[5]—ethnic cleansing is indeed the goal.^[6]

Binyamin Netanyahu has promised Israeli troops that the war on Hamas will continue until total victory has been achieved.^[7] As this is unlikely to be an achievable end,^[8] and Netaanyahu wants a wider war anyway,^[9] the war will continue indefinitely. I suppose that’s one way of avoiding an election.

When that election happens, Netanyahu likely loses his job, but it remains my expectation that Israelis will elect another right-wing government because Zionists are getting away with calling their detractors names—“terrorist,” “anti-Semite”—rather than being forced to acknowledge their own social justice traditions and to do the hard moral thinking that those traditions demand.

Adam Taylor, “More than 20,000 dead in Gaza, a historic human toll,” Washington Post, December 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/22/gaza-israel-war-20000-dead/

Neri Zilber, “Benjamin Netanyahu vows to fight on despite mounting Gaza death toll,” Financial Times, December 24, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/6e7a8788-6a30-4686-abd4-0b7496e86bff

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Fig. 1. Donald Trump booking photograph by Fulton County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office, August 24, 2023, via New York, August 25, 2023,^[10] public domain.

^[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]Evan Hill et al., “Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza,” Washington Post, December 23, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace/↩
^[3]Evan Hill et al., “Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza,” Washington Post, December 23, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace/↩
^[4]Louisa Loveluck et al., “The case of al-Shifa: Investigating the assault on Gaza’s largest hospital,” Washington Post, December 21, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/21/al-shifa-hospital-gaza-hamas-israel/↩
^[5]Evan Hill et al., “Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza,” Washington Post, December 23, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2023/israel-war-destruction-gaza-record-pace/↩
^[6]Ryan Grim, “Netanyahu’s Goal for Gaza: ‘Thin’ Population ‘to a Minimum,’” Intercept, December 3, 2023, https://theintercept.com/2023/12/03/netanyahu-thin-gaza-population/; Ishaan Tharoor, “Israel’s Gaza war raises fears of a Palestinian exodus into Egypt,” Washington Post, December 12, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2023/12/12/gaza-displacement-egypt-palestine-israel-flee-rafah/↩
^[7]Polina Ivanova, “Benjamin Netanyahu visits Israeli troops in northern Gaza and tells them war will not stop,” Financial Times, December 25, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/40c6e678-eeca-4346-9c1b-83d90e38f823 ↩
^[8]Loveday Morris, “Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas. Yet the group remains largely intact,” Washington Post, December 5, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/05/israel-military-offensive-hamas-destruction-gaza/; Alon Pinkas, “Netanyahu is stuck as he battles Hamas: he can’t afford to lose, yet can’t find a way to win,” Guardian, November 30, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/30/netanyahu-hamas-lose-win-israeli-public-us; Paul Rogers, “Israel is losing the war against Hamas – but Netanyahu and his government will never admit it,” Guardian, December 21, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/21/israel-losing-war-against-hamas-netanyahu-idf; Jeremy Scahill, “This Is Not a War Against Hamas,” Intercept, December 11, 2023, https://theintercept.com/2023/12/11/israel-hamas-war-civilians-biden/; Ishaan Tharoor, “Israel is struggling to destroy Hamas, but it’s destroying Gaza,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/20/israel-battlefield-gaza-defeat-hamas/↩
^[9]Vivian Salama, Dion Nissenbaum, and Benoit Faucon, “Biden Convinced Netanyahu to Halt a Pre-Emptive Strike Against Hezbollah,” Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/how-biden-averted-a-second-front-by-convincing-israel-not-to-attack-hezbollah-on-oct-11-e14a0a3b; Neri Zilber and Raya Jalabi, “Israel warns of regional conflict risk as Iran tensions increase,” Financial Times, December 26, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/6932a369-f3f6-46e5-be1f-ce47e14e5ece ↩
^[10]Margaret Hartmann and Nia Prater, “All the Mug Shots of Donald Trump and His Alleged Co-Conspirators,” New York, August 25, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-mug-shot-gallery.html ↩

Preventing a wider war

December 24, 2023benfell

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
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.

Joe Biden gets criticism from both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict.^[2] But he has apparently prevented a wider war that would likely have drawn in the U.S.^[3]

What needs to happen is that Israel needs to start playing by some rules. Withdrawing from the territories it occupies and conforming to international human rights law and the laws of war would be good. And U.S. aid absolutely must stop being unconditional.

Adam Taylor, “More than 20,000 dead in Gaza, a historic human toll,” Washington Post, December 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/22/gaza-israel-war-20000-dead/

Neri Zilber, “Benjamin Netanyahu vows to fight on despite mounting Gaza death toll,” Financial Times, February 24, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/6e7a8788-6a30-4686-abd4-0b7496e86bff

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Fig. 1. Donald Trump booking photograph by Fulton County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office, August 24, 2023, via New York, August 25, 2023,^[4] public domain.

Chris Geidner, “With Trump cases, the courts now must play their role in accountability,” Law Dork, December 24, 2023, https://www.lawdork.com/p/trump-cases-courts-and-accountability

^[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]James Politi and Felicia Schwartz, “Biden’s troubled Gaza strategy: ‘the US looks feckless,’” Financial Times, December 22, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/edebf6ef-155e-4aad-a41b-7e31016cad96 ↩
^[3]Vivian Salama, Dion Nissenbaum, and Benoit Faucon, “Biden Convinced Netanyahu to Halt a Pre-Emptive Strike Against Hezbollah,” Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/how-biden-averted-a-second-front-by-convincing-israel-not-to-attack-hezbollah-on-oct-11-e14a0a3b ↩
^[4]Margaret Hartmann and Nia Prater, “All the Mug Shots of Donald Trump and His Alleged Co-Conspirators,” New York, August 25, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-mug-shot-gallery.html ↩

Who killed Yevgeny Prigozhin?

December 23, 2023December 23, 2023benfell

Imperialism

Russia

Ukraine

Wagner mutiny

Fig. 1. Yevgeny Prigozhin. Screen capture from video by УлПравда ТВ, June 13, 2023, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.

Joe Barnes, “Putin ally ‘behind bomb’ that killed Wagner boss,” Telegraph, December 22, 2023, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/22/putin-ordered-death-of-wagner-boss-prighozin/

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
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.

Adam Taylor, “More than 20,000 dead in Gaza, a historic human toll,” Washington Post, December 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/22/gaza-israel-war-20000-dead/

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Infrastructure

Fig. 2. Post-collapse scene at the Fern Hollow Bridge, photograph by National Transportation Safety Board, January 29, 2022, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

This is a city that flatly does not take care of business:

The city of Pittsburgh knew at least 11 bridges required high-priority repairs in late 2017, about four years before the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed, according to documents released by PennDOT relating to spans owned by the city.

Specifically, PennDOT chided the city for dragging its feet on making priority repairs to Fern Hollow Bridge in 2014 and was critical of the city’s response to necessary repairs on 10 other bridges in 2018.^[2]

Money was a problem^[3] but this cannot be accepted as an excuse: If you can’t fix shit, you need to shut it down and close off any hazardous areas. That’s simply not optional.

Paula Reed Ward, “Fern Hollow Bridge documents reveal PennDOT’s concern over city’s lack of action,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 22, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/fern-hollow-bridge-documents-reveal-penndots-concern-over-citys-lack-of-action/

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Fig. 3. Donald Trump booking photograph by Fulton County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office, August 24, 2023, via New York, August 25, 2023,^[4] public domain.

It’s worse, by far, than Ryan Cooper says:

No other American defendant would get this kind of kid-glove treatment. Ordinary schlubs get railroaded into plea bargains with outrageous charge-stacking, routine pretrial detention, and the most brutal sentences in the rich world. In the rare case that they can appeal a conviction, the Supreme Court almost never hears their case, and even when they do, the appeal is almost always a failure. Donald Trump, by contrast, gets to threaten the lives of actual judges, prosecutors, and their staff, with the only punishment being that some, but not all, of his unsubtle incitements to violence are a no-no. Or rather, maybe they are, pending appeal.^[5]

Well, actually, yes, wealthy perpetrators do almost invariably get kid-glove treatment, with white gloves no less, at an earlier stage such that they aren’t even criminal defendants but rather—sometimes—civil respondents.^[6] Attorney General Merrick Garland agonized even over getting a search warrant even to recover highly classified material^[7] before finally appointing Jack Smith as special counsel.^[8] It was so bad that in their response to Smith’s gambit to accelerate a Supreme Court hearing on Donald Trump’s immunity claim, Trump’s attorneys pointed to the three years (actually more like two and a half^[9]) it had taken for the Department of Justice to file charges over the January 6 coup attempt.^[10]

Adam Liptak, “Colorado Ruling Knocks Trump Off Ballot: What It Means, What Happens Next,” New York Times, December 19, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/19/us/colorado-trump-legal-questions-supreme-court.html

Patrick Marley, “Donald Trump is barred from Colorado’s 2024 primary ballot, the state Supreme Court rules,” Washington Post, December 19, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/12/19/trump-off-colorado-ballot/

Nick Coltrain, “Colorado’s Trump ruling sets off political firestorm, raising legal stakes and putting state at center of debate,” Denver Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.denverpost.com/2023/12/20/donald-trump-colorado-supreme-court-ballot-ruling-political-fallout/

George T. Conway, III, “The Colorado Ruling Changed My Mind,” Atlantic, December 20, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/dont-read-the-colorado-ruling-read-the-dissents/676920/

Ryan Cooper, “The American Judiciary Is Failing Its Trump Test,” American Prospect, December 20, 2023, https://prospect.org/justice/2023-12-20-american-judiciary-failing-trump-test/

Chris Geidner, “Colorado high court rules Trump is disqualified from being president, cannot be on ballot,” Law Dork, December 20, 2023, https://www.lawdork.com/p/colorado-high-court-rules-trump-is

Ruth Marcus, “The Supreme Court should toss the Colorado case,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/20/colorado-trump-ballott-supreme-court/

Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer, “Trump’s lawyers tell Supreme Court to stay out of immunity dispute in 2020 election case for now,” Associated Press, December 20, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/trump-justice-department-jan-6-special-counsel-feb63a4ce7a807c11b523ded62a42881

Rachel Weiner, “Judge says Rudy Giuliani must pay $148 million judgment immediately,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/12/20/giuliani-judgment-pay-immediately/

Craig Mauger, “Trump recorded pressuring Wayne County canvassers not to certify 2020 vote,” Detroit News, December 21, 2023, https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2023/12/21/donald-trump-recorded-pressuring-wayne-canvassers-not-to-certify-2020-vote-michigan/72004514007/

Robert Barnes and Perry Stein, “Supreme Court won’t expedite ruling on Trump’s immunity claim,” Washington Post, December 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/12/22/supreme-court-trump-immunity-expedition-denied/

^[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]Paula Reed Ward, “Fern Hollow Bridge documents reveal PennDOT’s concern over city’s lack of action,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 22, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/fern-hollow-bridge-documents-reveal-penndots-concern-over-citys-lack-of-action/↩
^[3]Paula Reed Ward, “Fern Hollow Bridge documents reveal PennDOT’s concern over city’s lack of action,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 22, 2023, https://triblive.com/local/fern-hollow-bridge-documents-reveal-penndots-concern-over-citys-lack-of-action/↩
^[4]Margaret Hartmann and Nia Prater, “All the Mug Shots of Donald Trump and His Alleged Co-Conspirators,” New York, August 25, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-mug-shot-gallery.html ↩
^[5]Ryan Cooper, “The American Judiciary Is Failing Its Trump Test,” American Prospect, December 20, 2023, https://prospect.org/justice/2023-12-20-american-judiciary-failing-trump-test/↩
^[6]Steven E. Barkan, Criminology: A Sociological Understanding, 3rd ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006).; Jeffrey Reiman, The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, 7th ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2004).↩
^[7]Sadie Gurman and Aruna Viswanatha, “Merrick Garland Weighed Search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for Weeks,” Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/merrick-garland-weighed-search-of-trumps-mar-a-lago-for-weeks-11660601292 ↩
^[8]Aruna Viswanatha and Sadie Gurman, “Jack Smith Named Special Counsel to Lead DOJ Probes of Donald Trump,” Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/garland-to-name-special-counsel-to-determine-whether-trump-should-face-charges-11668796152 ↩
^[9]Devlin Barrett et al., “Trump charged in probe of Jan. 6, efforts to overturn 2020 election,” Washington Post, August 1, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/01/trump-indictment-jan-6-2020-election/↩
^[10]Robert Barnes and Perry Stein, “Supreme Court won’t expedite ruling on Trump’s immunity claim,” Washington Post, December 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/12/22/supreme-court-trump-immunity-expedition-denied/↩

Supreme Court declines Jack Smith’s gambit on Donald Trump’s immunity claim

December 22, 2023benfell

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Fig. 1. Donald Trump booking photograph by Fulton County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office, August 24, 2023, via New York, August 25, 2023,^[1] public domain.

I was assuming the Supreme Court would agree to Jack Smith’s request to expedite a hearing on Donald Trump’s immunity claim. I was wrong. It didn’t.^[2]

Ruth Marcus, “The Supreme Court should toss the Colorado case,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/20/colorado-trump-ballott-supreme-court/

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
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,^[3] fair use.

Adam Taylor, “More than 20,000 dead in Gaza, a historic human toll,” Washington Post, December 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/22/gaza-israel-war-20000-dead/

^[1]Margaret Hartmann and Nia Prater, “All the Mug Shots of Donald Trump and His Alleged Co-Conspirators,” New York, August 25, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-mug-shot-gallery.html ↩
^[2]Robert Barnes and Perry Stein, “Supreme Court won’t expedite ruling on Trump’s immunity claim,” Washington Post, December 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/12/22/supreme-court-trump-immunity-expedition-denied/↩
^[3]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/↩

How long can Israel keep this up?

December 22, 2023benfell

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
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.

Quite a long time ago—it’s been decades—I read a book, which I’ve long since completely lost track of, which explained about “terrorism” and asymmetric warfare. I have not since seen anything to refute the following takeaways:

So-called “terrorists” resort to “terror” when they feel they have nothing left to lose. It is desperation that produces “terrorism.” It means we have pushed people too far.
“Terrorists” defeat technologically and quantitatively superior forces because colonizers have difficulty distinguishing between indigenous civilians and indigenous fighters in communities where the civilians are often sympathetic to the fighters. Eventually and almost inevitably, public opinion will tire of the conflict or the colonizer will commit an outrage against civilians and public opinion will compel withdrawal.

My dim recollection is that the book focussed on the Algerian revolution against France but as the death toll in the Israel-Hamas War surpasses 20,000,^[2] for an increasingly doubtful outcome,^[3] the lessons clearly apply to Israel in Palestine.

A third lesson might be that colonizers never learn.

Adam Taylor, “More than 20,000 dead in Gaza, a historic human toll,” Washington Post, December 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/22/gaza-israel-war-20000-dead/

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Fig. 1. Donald Trump booking photograph by Fulton County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office, August 24, 2023, via New York, August 25, 2023,^[4] public domain.

Ruth Marcus, “The Supreme Court should toss the Colorado case,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/20/colorado-trump-ballott-supreme-court/

^[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]Adam Taylor, “More than 20,000 dead in Gaza, a historic human toll,” Washington Post, December 22, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/22/gaza-israel-war-20000-dead/↩
^[3]Paul Rogers, “Israel is losing the war against Hamas – but Netanyahu and his government will never admit it,” Guardian, December 21, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/21/israel-losing-war-against-hamas-netanyahu-idf; Ishaan Tharoor, “Israel is struggling to destroy Hamas, but it’s destroying Gaza,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/20/israel-battlefield-gaza-defeat-hamas/↩
^[4]Margaret Hartmann and Nia Prater, “All the Mug Shots of Donald Trump and His Alleged Co-Conspirators,” New York, August 25, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-mug-shot-gallery.html ↩

Which matters more? The ‘rule of law’ or so-called ‘democracy?’

December 21, 2023benfell

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Fig. 1. Donald Trump booking photograph by Fulton County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office, August 24, 2023, via New York, August 25, 2023,^[1] public domain.

Ruth Marcus’ column^[2] actually advocates the exact opposite of what the headline suggests. Marcus writes that “the Supreme Court should take this case.” She disagrees with the proposition that the plain language of the 14th amendment should be used to limit voters’ choices and wants an 8-0 (with Clarence Thomas recusing himself) decision that section 3 of the 14th amendment is not self-executing (the Colorado Supreme Court disagreed), requiring enabling legislation from Congress, and affirming Trump’s eligibility.^[3]

Indeed, as David Leonhardt and Ian Prasad Philbrick write in a New York Times newsletter,

The clearer philosophical argument against the lawsuit is democratic rather than technical: If the American people do not believe Trump is fit to be president, they can vote against him next year. For that matter, the Senate, an elected body of representatives, had the power to convict Trump during the impeachment trial over his Jan. 6 actions and bar him from future office, and it did not do so.^[4]

Leonhardt and Philbrick are right to distinguish between legal (technical) and so-called “democratic” arguments. Setting aside that the U.S. is not, no way, no how a “democracy,”^[5] they clarify that there are, in fact, two major questions here:

Does the vaunted “rule of law” apply to Trump? If so, when should he face charges, what should the penalties be, and when should he have to serve his time, if any?
Should voters, largely the same bunch who voted Trump in, in the first place, have a say?

Those who believe in our constitutional oligarchy will be inclined toward emphasizing the second question. But as Leonhardt and Philbrick also note,

[T]he Constitution already restricts the voters’ judgment in other ways, as Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a law professor at Stetson University, told us. Nobody under the age of 35 can become president, nor can Barack Obama or George W. Bush again, because both have served two terms. And a judge in New Mexico last year barred a county commissioner from holding office because of his role in the Jan. 6 attack.

For another thing, Trump may represent a threat to the national interest that no politician in decades has. He has encouraged violence, described his critics as traitors, lied constantly, used the office of the presidency to enrich himself, promised to target his political rivals for repressions and rejected basic foundations of American democracy. He is, according to this argument, precisely the kind of autocratic figure whom the founders wanted the Constitution to prevent from holding power even if voters felt otherwise in the moment.^[6]

The Colorado Supreme Court ruling, which I believe should be upheld, was refreshing for its forthright analysis of the issues, while other rulings have, as Marcus nearly concedes,^[7] unreasonably split hairs in a plain desperation not to remove Trump from the ballot. Meanwhile, George Conway takes on the dissents in the Colorado Supreme Court ruling. I’m using a stronger word than he does, but it’s pretty obvious he thinks they’re inane.^[8]

This plain desperation is intellectually dishonest, conforming the rulings to a predetermined conclusion—We “can’t remove Trump!—rather than to where evidence and the law lead.

Ruth Marcus, “The Supreme Court should toss the Colorado case,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/20/colorado-trump-ballott-supreme-court/

Competitive authoritarian regime project

Fig. 2. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Clarence Mitchell during signing ceremony of the voting rights act. Yoichi Okamoto, August 6, 1965, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

The methodology in Justin Jouvenal’s article^[9] strikes me as suspect:

The analysis found that 76 percent of defendants whose race or ethnicity could be identified were Black or Hispanic, while White people constituted 24 percent of those prosecuted by the units.

Registered Democrats made up 58 percent of those charged whose party could be identified, while registered Republicans were 23 percent. In the rest of the cases, the defendant was not registered with a particular party.

The [Washington] Post was able to determine a defendant’s race, ethnicity or political party in roughly 70 percent of cases.^[10]

That 30 percent of cases where the Washington Post was unable to identify race, ethnicity, or political party is easily enough to throw these numbers off. But the limited conclusion we can draw is that so-called “voter integrity” efforts appear to have targeted voters who could not readily be identified as both white and registered Republican.

That’s a little different from the headline claim that the efforts “overwhelmingly target[]” minorities and Democrats.

Justin Jouvenal, “GOP voter-fraud crackdown overwhelmingly targets minorities, Democrats,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/12/20/voter-fraud-prosecutions-2020/

Imperialism

United States

Fig. 1. “American Progress,” painting by John Gast, 1872, digital version 2006, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Michael Fox, “Panamanians remember 1989 US invasion and continue to demand justice and accountability,” World, December 20, 2023, https://theworld.org/stories/2023-12-20/panamanians-remember-1989-us-invasion-and-continue-demand-justice-and

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
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,^[11] fair use.

If you have not read David Halberstam’s The Powers That Be, especially about the “Five O’Clock Follies,” in which high-ranking military officials would paint rosy pictures of the Vietnam War which was, in fact, going very, very badly,^[12] then Paul Rogers’ op-ed, suggesting that Israel may not in fact be prevailing against Hamas,^[13] might surprise you.

For a specific example, here’s Al-Shifa Hospital, which U.S. and Israeli sources swore was a Hamas command center. The Washington Post investigated and found the evidence supporting that claim rather severely wanting.^[14] They say truth is the first casualty in war, and we’re most certainly seeing that here.

^[1]Margaret Hartmann and Nia Prater, “All the Mug Shots of Donald Trump and His Alleged Co-Conspirators,” New York, August 25, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-mug-shot-gallery.html ↩
^[2]Ruth Marcus, “The Supreme Court should toss the Colorado case,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/20/colorado-trump-ballott-supreme-court/↩
^[3]Ruth Marcus, “The Supreme Court should toss the Colorado case,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/20/colorado-trump-ballott-supreme-court/↩
^[4]New York Times to Morning list, “Trump, the voters and the Constitution,” December 21, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/↩
^[5]David Benfell, A constitutional oligarchy: Deconstructing Federalist No. 10,” Not Housebroken, July 3, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/04/22/a-constitutional-oligarchy-deconstructing-federalist-no-10/↩
^[6]New York Times to Morning list, “Trump, the voters and the Constitution,” December 21, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/↩
^[7]Ruth Marcus, “The Supreme Court should toss the Colorado case,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/20/colorado-trump-ballott-supreme-court/↩
^[8]George T. Conway, III, “The Colorado Ruling Changed My Mind,” Atlantic, December 20, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/dont-read-the-colorado-ruling-read-the-dissents/676920/↩
^[9]Justin Jouvenal, “GOP voter-fraud crackdown overwhelmingly targets minorities, Democrats,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/12/20/voter-fraud-prosecutions-2020/↩
^[10]Justin Jouvenal, “GOP voter-fraud crackdown overwhelmingly targets minorities, Democrats,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/12/20/voter-fraud-prosecutions-2020/↩
^[11]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/↩
^[12]David Halberstam, The Powers That Be (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, 2000).↩
^[13]Paul Rogers, “Israel is losing the war against Hamas – but Netanyahu and his government will never admit it,” Guardian, December 21, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/21/israel-losing-war-against-hamas-netanyahu-idf ↩
^[14]Louisa Loveluck et al., “The case of al-Shifa: Investigating the assault on Gaza’s largest hospital,” Washington Post, December 21, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/21/al-shifa-hospital-gaza-hamas-israel/↩

What will the U.S. Supreme Court do?

December 20, 2023benfell

Illiberalism

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Fig. 1. Donald Trump booking photograph by Fulton County (Georgia) Sheriff’s Office, August 24, 2023, via New York, August 25, 2023,^[1] public domain.

I’d settle for denying the writ of certiorari.

Imperialism

Israel

Palestine

07_09:10:47-2
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,^[2] fair use.

Hamas is entrenched and difficult to defeat. Even after waging one of the most intense, heavy military campaigns in recent history, Israel has only neutralized a fraction of the militant group’s armed strength. And, in the process, it has ravaged the embattled territory where Hamas has held sway, displaced close to 90 percent of the population, flattened whole neighborhoods, triggered a sprawling humanitarian disaster and found itself flailing in a losing battle for global public opinion.^[3]

“A fraction” does a lot of work here. The connotation is of a small fraction, but a larger proportion would not contradict the claim. And the truth is, I seriously doubt we know even in the most general terms how much damage Israel has inflicted on Hamas.

That may seem pedantic, but the remaining question of proportionality—Israel has killed nearly 20,000 people^[4] while the Hamas attack killed about 1,200 people^[5]—will be about whether the force applied is proportionate to the desired result. A failure to achieve that result suggests the force was misdirected. Such would not look good before a war crimes tribunal.

Edward Luce, “Biden’s mounting self-harm on Israel,” Financial Times, December 15, 2023, https://www.ft.com/content/cfb4660f-de36-4453-9b44-531996c6ec9e

Anat Peled, “Israeli Military Says It Accidentally Killed Three Israeli Hostages in Gaza,” Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israeli-military-says-it-accidentally-killed-three-israeli-hostages-in-gaza-2acebecc

Times of Israel, “White House ups pressure on Israel to end ‘high-intensity’ fighting in Gaza soon,” December 15, 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/white-house-ups-pressure-on-israel-to-end-high-intensity-fighting-in-gaza-soon/

Patrick Wintour, “Biden in a bind as Netanhayu ready to flout any US attempt to rein in Israel,” Guardian, December 15, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/15/biden-in-a-bind-as-netanhayu-ready-to-flout-any-us-attempt-to-rein-in-israel

Karen DeYoung, “Biden’s support of Israel could come at a cost to U.S. foreign policy,” Washington Post, December 16, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/12/16/biden-netanyahu-israel-support-gaza/

John Hudson, “Killing of USAID contractor in Gaza fuels internal protest,” Washington Post, December 16, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/12/16/usaid-contractor-hani-jnena-killed-gaza/

David Ignatius, “In the West Bank, I saw how peace will require confrontation with Israel,” Washington Post, December 16, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/16/west-bank-settlers-violence-peace/

Summer Said and David S. Cloud, “Israel Says Its Soldiers Killed Israeli Hostages as They Held Up White Flag,” Wall Street Journal, December 16, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-and-qatar-explore-revival-of-deal-for-gaza-hostages-ff7af151

Shayndi Raice and Carrie Keller-Lynn, “Hostage Deaths at Hands of Israeli Soldiers Raise Questions About War Strategy,” Wall Street Journal, December 17, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israeli-militarys-hostage-killing-raises-questions-about-war-strategy-8dda768d

Andrew Silow-Carroll, “Among Jewish Americans, a ‘quiet middle’ has growing qualms over the war in Gaza,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 17, 2023, https://www.jta.org/2023/12/17/ideas/among-jewish-americans-a-quiet-middle-has-growing-qualms-over-the-war-in-gaza

Times of Israel, “Pointing to Hamas’s ‘little state,’ Netanyahu touts his role blocking 2-state solution,” December 17, 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/pointing-to-hamass-little-state-netanyahu-touts-role-blocking-2-state-solution/

^[1]Margaret Hartmann and Nia Prater, “All the Mug Shots of Donald Trump and His Alleged Co-Conspirators,” New York, August 25, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-mug-shot-gallery.html ↩
^[2]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/↩
^[3]Ishaan Tharoor, “Israel is struggling to destroy Hamas, but it’s destroying Gaza,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/20/israel-battlefield-gaza-defeat-hamas/↩
^[4]Ishaan Tharoor, “Israel is struggling to destroy Hamas, but it’s destroying Gaza,” Washington Post, December 20, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/20/israel-battlefield-gaza-defeat-hamas/↩
^[5]Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, “A Majority of Israelis Think Netanyahu Should Resign,” New Republic, October 12, 2023, https://newrepublic.com/post/176200/majority-israelis-think-netanyahu-resign ↩