Illiberalism
Poland
I had thought, with Donald Tusk’s victory,[1] the story on illiberalism in Poland was over. I was wrong.[2]
Vanessa Gera, “Conservative opposition leads Prime Minister Tusk’s party in Poland’s local races, exit poll says,” Associated Press, April 7, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/poland-local-elections-tusk-democracy-coalition-government-dde253d9ab1ccdf10d44644388e8309f
Gilead
Donald Trump
Finances
Fig. 1. Trump International Hotel, Las Vegas, undated image credited to https://www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/ [bad link], via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
The irony of Donald Trump possibly trying to sell his hotel in Las Vegas[3] (figure 1) is that I would think gaudy Las Vegas is much more his style than New York or even Florida.
That said, to read the story, there’s no apparent substance to the speculation. If anybody knows anything about a possible sale, they’re not talking. And that’s pretty much it. There’s apparently nothing more to it than that.[4] So where does this come from? As near as I can tell, ex nihilo.
Richard N. Velotta, “Officials mum about potential sale of Las Vegas Trump Hotel,” Las Vegas Review Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/tourism/officials-mum-about-potential-sale-of-las-vegas-trump-hotel-3029352/
David McAfee, “’They had a duty’: Experts erupt over Trump lawyers’ potential ‘deception’ on fraud bond,” Raw Story, April 7, 2024, https://www.rawstory.com/trump-lawyers-deception-fraud-bond/
Abortion, reproductive freedom and health
Fig. 2. Sign at demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, May 3, 2022. Janni Rye, via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Alex Leary and Catherine Lucey, “Trump Says States Should Chart Their Own Path on Abortion,” Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/politics/abortion-donald-trump-2024-election-fe641cc5
Imperialism
Israel
Palestine
Fig. 3. 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,[5] fair use.
Is this how the war ends? Not with a bang, or even a whimper, but with the [Israel Defense Forces] pulling its ground forces out of Khan Younis, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant asserting, in defiance of reality, that Hamas has “stopped functioning as a military organization throughout the Gaza Strip,” contradicting himself in the next breath, and clarifying a few hours later?[6]
At the Times of Israel, David Horovitz thinks Binyamin Netanyahu has capitulated to Joe Biden, all but ending the war on Gaza without having achieved Israel’s goals.[7] This, of course, would be the victory that Hamas sought. Skepticism is more than warranted.
William Booth and Lorenzo Tugnoli, “Inside the ruins of Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital,” Washington Post, April 1, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/01/gaza-al-shifa-hospital-israel/
Times of Israel, “Israel acknowledges killing 7 aid charity workers in ‘tragic, unintentional’ airstrike,” April 2, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-promises-probe-as-slain-aid-workers-home-countries-demand-explanation/
Yasmeen Abutaleb and Matt Viser, “Biden rebukes Israel over aid workers, but his Gaza policy is unchanged,” Washington Post, April 3, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/03/biden-world-central-kitchen-tough-statement-israel-policy/
Hafiz Rashid, “‘Unacceptable’: White House Cancels Event as Biden Struggles on Gaza,” New Republic, April 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180409/white-house-cancels-event-gaza-outcry
Haroon Siddique, Eleni Courea, and Patrick Wintour, “Former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law,” Guardian, April 3, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/former-supreme-court-judges-say-uk-arming-israel-breaches-international-law
Ishaan Tharoor, “Israel’s ‘unintentional’ strike on aid workers stirs global outrage,” Washington Post, April 3, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/03/israel-strike-world-central-kitchen-aid-workers-global-outrage/
Yasmeen Abutaleb and Matt Viser, “Biden warns Netanyahu the situation in Gaza is ‘unacceptable,’” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/04/biden-warns-netanyahu-situation-gaza-is-unacceptable/
Trinidad Deiros Bronte, “The unpunished deaths of other civilians question Israel’s willingness to clarify the attack on WCK,” El País, April 4, 2024, https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-04-04/the-unpunished-deaths-of-other-civilians-question-israels-willingness-to-clarify-the-attack-on-wck.html
Michael R. Gordon and Nancy A. Youssef, “Biden Ties Support for Israel to Civilian Protection in Gaza, ” Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-netanyahu-set-to-talk-as-gaza-aid-worker-deaths-add-to-pressure-on-israel-9dee3793
Jacob Magid, “Senior Israeli official warns of growing ‘shoot first, ask later’ culture in IDF,” Times of Israel, April 4, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/senior-israeli-official-warns-of-growing-shoot-first-ask-later-culture-in-idf/
Kate Sullivan, “Trump says Israel needs to ‘finish what they started’ and said war with Hamas is ‘taking a long time,’” CNN, April 4, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/04/politics/trump-israel-comments/index.html
Adam Taylor, “Biden’s ‘red line’ on Gaza is nowhere to be found,” Washington Post, April 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2024/04/04/biden-wck-world-central-kitchen-israel-policy-change/
Dov Lieber, Rory Jones, and Margherita Stancati, “Israel Says Troops Lacked Grounds for Strike That Killed Aid Workers in Gaza,” Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-to-allow-more-aid-into-gaza-after-biden-warning-over-u-s-support-49bc42e4
Michael Tomasky, “Is Biden Really Going to Let Netanyahu Lose Him the Election?” New Republic, April 5, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/180481/biden-israel-netanyahu-lose-election
Lazar Berman, “Israel’s begrudging approach to humanitarian aid could cost it the war in Gaza,” Times of Israel, April 6, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-begrudging-approach-to-humanitarian-aid-could-cost-it-the-war-in-gaza/
Karen DeYoung, “Six months into Gaza war, Biden confronts the limits of U.S. leverage,” Washington Post, April 6, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/06/gaza-israel-biden-war/
M. J. Lee, “Inside President Biden’s pointed phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu,” CNN, April 7, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/06/politics/biden-netanyahu-israel-gaza-war-phone-call-details/index.html
David Horovitz, “Israel’s major ground war in Gaza is over; the state of war inflicted by Hamas is not,” Times of Israel, April 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-major-ground-war-in-gaza-is-over-the-state-of-war-inflicted-by-hamas-is-not/
- [1]Monika Scislowska, “Eight years of conservative rule in Poland ends as Donald Tusk becomes prime minister,” Associated Press, December 13, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/poland-prime-minister-tusk-government-warsaw-8fd0ac25be8fee9f51ece920f493dc1f↩
- [2]Vanessa Gera, “Conservative opposition leads Prime Minister Tusk’s party in Poland’s local races, exit poll says,” Associated Press, April 7, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/poland-local-elections-tusk-democracy-coalition-government-dde253d9ab1ccdf10d44644388e8309f↩
- [3]Richard N. Velotta, “Officials mum about potential sale of Las Vegas Trump Hotel,” Las Vegas Review Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/tourism/officials-mum-about-potential-sale-of-las-vegas-trump-hotel-3029352/↩
- [4]Richard N. Velotta, “Officials mum about potential sale of Las Vegas Trump Hotel,” Las Vegas Review Journal, April 5, 2024, https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/tourism/officials-mum-about-potential-sale-of-las-vegas-trump-hotel-3029352/↩
- [5]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/↩
- [6]David Horovitz, “Israel’s major ground war in Gaza is over; the state of war inflicted by Hamas is not,” Times of Israel, April 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-major-ground-war-in-gaza-is-over-the-state-of-war-inflicted-by-hamas-is-not/↩
- [7]David Horovitz, “Israel’s major ground war in Gaza is over; the state of war inflicted by Hamas is not,” Times of Israel, April 8, 2024, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-major-ground-war-in-gaza-is-over-the-state-of-war-inflicted-by-hamas-is-not/↩