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.
Benjamin Netanyahu should have resigned after an hour, then a day, then a week and a month after the 7 October debacle, the most horrific day in Israel’s history. He did not, because he isn’t wired that way. Accountability and integrity are alien concepts reserved for the weak and feeble – not for him. He sees himself as a historic figure, responsibility as beneath him. He is not merely defiant, but terrified that his trial for corruption and bribery would proceed if he was to resign, and paralysed by the thought that he and the state will no longer be one.[2]
Binyamin Netanyahu does not want the war to end, Alon Pinkas argues, because that will likely mean an election that removes him from power and aborts his emasculation of the judiciary, which would mean that his court trial for corruption would go ahead.[3]
Yana T. R. Golding, “Tracking lost pro-Palestinian posts,” Columbia Journalism Review, November 27, 2023, https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/excessive-moderation-meta-palestinian-7amleh-nashif.php
Summer Said and Dov Lieber, “Israel, Hamas Agree to Extend Truce by Two Days,” Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/talks-to-extend-israel-hamas-truce-go-down-to-the-wire-8f1cbba9
Ishaan Tharoor, “How Israel keeps hundreds of Palestinians in detention without charge,” Washington Post, November 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/27/israel-palestine-detention-adminstrative-prisoners-jail/
Washington Post to 5-Minute Fix list, “The 5-Minute Fix: What’s behind Biden’s steadfast support for Israel?” November 27, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-fix/
Henry Bodkin, “Inside the Israeli settlement being turned into a battleground by the hard-Right finance minister,” Telegraph, November 28, 2023, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/11/28/settlement-israels-finance-minister-has-made-a-battleground/
Julia Ioffe, “The Day After the War Ends,” Puck, November 28, 2023, https://puck.news/the-day-after-the-war-ends/
Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer, “Democrats’ Israel dilemma,” Washington Post, November 29, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/29/democrats-israel-dilemma/
Ishaan Tharoor, “Why Christmas is canceled in Bethlehem,” Washington Post, November 29, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/29/palestinian-christians-christmas-ceasefire-cancel/
Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Mohammad Salem, and Humeyra Pamuk, “Hamas hands over two female hostages, others expected after truce extended,” Reuters, November 30, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/talks-intensify-extend-israel-hamas-truce-after-more-hostages-prisoners-freed-2023-11-30/
Anthony Faiola, Stefano Pitrelli, and Louisa Loveluck, “In undisclosed call, Pope Francis warned Israel against committing ‘terror,’” Washington Post, November 30, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/11/30/pope-francis-israel-war-terrorism/
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
Stephen Kalin et al., “Israel Resumes Combat Operations in Gaza as Cease-Fire Stalls,” Wall Street Journal, December 1, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/blinken-returns-to-israel-as-negotiators-race-to-prolong-gaza-cease-fire-24ae6601
United States
Henry Kissinger
Fig. 1. “Henry Kissinger and Hillary Clinton receive the Germany Freedom Award in 2009.” Photograph by Gero Breloer for the Associated Press, 2009, via Mother Jones, fair use.
Thomas W. Lippman, “Henry Kissinger, who shaped world affairs under two presidents, dies at 100,” Washington Post, November 29, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/11/29/henry-kissinger-dead-obituary/
Julian Borger, “‘Aura of credibility’: why Democrats and elites revere Kissinger despite war crimes allegations,” Guardian, December 1, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/01/henry-kissinger-death-age-100-war-crimes-allegations-democrats
Justin Sherrin, “Henry Kissinger,” December 1, 2023, https://www.patreon.com/posts/henry-kissinger-93911115
- [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]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↩
- [3]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↩