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james zogby
'Let Those Numbers Sink In': At Least 45 Palestinians Killed During Israeli Attacks on Gaza
The dead include 16 children and four women, according to Palestinian officials, who said that at least 360 others were injured.
Aug 08, 2022
Dozens of people were killed and hundreds more were wounded during Israeli attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip over the weekend, Palestinian officials said as Israel and the militant resistance group Palestinian Islamic Jihad declared a truce late Sunday night.
"It's outrageous that the Biden administration gave Israel 'full-throated support' for its murderous 'preemptive' assault on Palestinians in Gaza."
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Sunday that so far 44 people, including at least 15 children and four women, died during the 66-hour Israeli onslaught--officially called Operation Breaking Dawn--in which militants also reportedly fired at least hundreds of rockets at Israel, resulting in three light injuries. The ministry said that 360 other Palestinians were wounded during the attacks, which ended with the 11:30 pm truce.
"Let those numbers sink in," tweeted Marwa Fatafta, a Berlin-based Palestinian writer, researcher, and senior policy analyst at the digital rights group Access Now.
Jehad Abusalim, the education and policy coordinator at the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker peace group, tweeted: "Fifteen kids. Born into a brutal blockade. Their lives defined by wars, bombardments, trauma, fear, poverty, isolation, and dehumanization by the rest of the world."
A 16th child--10-year-old Haneen Abu Qaida--died Monday of injuries sustained during a Saturday Israeli attack that also killed her mother, Palestine's Wafa News Agency reports.
\u201cThe names and faces of the 15 chil\u00addren killed in Gaza https://t.co/YFb7v9vLi4\u201d— Joe Catron (@Joe Catron) 1659979200
"And we failed them," Abusalim said of the children killed. "During the last war, and the wars before, we promised not to give Gaza seasonal attention anymore. The last aggression ended, and we forgot about Gaza again. We went back to our work and busy lives, like these kids went back to their schools and whatever kids do in Gaza, but unlike the last time."
"This time," he added, "when we go back to our work and busy lives, 15 kids in Gaza won't go back to their schools and whatever kids in Gaza do. Israel killed them, and Israel will get away with it."
The Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq--one of six humanitarian associations dubiously declared "terrorist organizations" by Israel--said in a statement Sunday that Israel had "indiscriminately targeted civilians and nonmilitary structures" and that the assault constituted "a grave breach of international humanitarian law and may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity."
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, and others, said Monday that 12 members of its military wing, including two top commanders, were killed during the Israeli operation.
In a Sunday evening media briefing, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Gen. Ran Kochav said the military believes Israeli strikes killed 35 people in Gaza during the operation, 11 of them civilians.
Kochav also claimed that Islamic Jihad's rockets killed more Gazans than IDF attacks, which struck 170 targets in the densely populated strip, roughly twice the size of Washington, D.C., where more than two million Palestinians live.
\u201cBlaming Israel's killing of Palestinian children in Gaza on "human shields" is gaslighting, pure and simple. Israel is the only party in this so-called "conflict" that is documented to have used human shields. Here is the evidence: #GazaUnderAttack\u201d— Omar Baddar \u0639\u0645\u0631 \u0628\u062f\u0651\u0627\u0631 (@Omar Baddar \u0639\u0645\u0631 \u0628\u062f\u0651\u0627\u0631) 1659896580
However, observers asserted that given the IDF's record of targeting civilians and subsequently lying about it, its claims cannot be trusted.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday professed his "unwavering" support for Israel while condemning the "indiscriminate rocket attacks launched by the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad" and praising the "steady leadership" Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his government. Biden also called for a "timely and thorough investigation" of civilian casualties.
Biden added that he is "proud" of the $1 billion in U.S. support for Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system, which IDF officials said intercepted around 380 rockets fired by Gaza-based militants. The IDF also claimed that around 200 projectiles failed to clear the Israeli border and landed inside Gaza.
\u201c-Israel repeatedly bombs Gaza, an open-air prison\n-Kills journalists, women & children\n-Continues its occupation\n-Commits apartheid\n-Has a nuclear-weapons arsenal\n-Bombs neighbors\n-Assassinates scientists\n\n\u201cWe will continue to promote calm & remain committed to Israel\u2019s security\u201d\u201d— Assal Rad (@Assal Rad) 1659972715
James J. Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, tweeted that "it's outrageous that the Biden administration gave Israel 'full-throated support' for its murderous 'preemptive' assault on Palestinians in Gaza."
"Israel started it, egged it on, and Palestinians were sitting ducks," he added, lamenting that the "U.S. denounces Russia for crimes but absolves Israeli crimes. Double standard."
Since 2008, Israeli forces have waged four wars in Gaza in which more than 6,000 Palestinians were killed, according to figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Last year, during the most recent of those wars, Israeli attacks killed at least 129 civilians, including 66 children.
\u201cSilly me.\n\nI thought that after justified outpouring of support for Ukraine in the West after Russia's illegal invasion, genuine commitment to rule of law had sprung up. But as Israel bombs Gaza, at best, I hear crickets, at worst, support for Israel's right to "defend itself"...\u201d— Trita Parsi (@Trita Parsi) 1659890129
Over the course of the 21st century, more than 2,200 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli military, police, and settler-colonist attacks, according to the group Defense for Children International.
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Conservative Christians Remain Silent About Suffering Bethlehem
"To most in the West, Palestinian Christians are simply invisible. To conservative Christians, they are at best a nuisance who stand in the way of their unquestioning ideological attachment to Israel."
Dec 20, 2020
As we enter the final week before Christmas, my thoughts turn to Bethlehem, its struggling people, and the shocking disregard for them displayed by many Christians in the West. This is not to say that that these same Christians don't love Bethlehem. But the city they love is the one of the story that's 2,000 years old.
"Today, Bethlehem is surrounded by dozens of Israeli settlements, many built on land confiscated from Bethlehemites."
In that story, we are told of how Mary and Joseph, living under Roman occupation, were required to travel to Bethlehem to enroll in a mandatory census. Because the town had become overcrowded, Mary and Joseph could not find housing and were forced to stay in a cave where Mary gave birth to Jesus.
The story has been romanticized in song and poetry that have come to define our understanding of that "quiet little town," the manger where Jesus was placed, the angels, shepherds, and "wise men from the East" who came to praise the birth and bring gifts to the newborn.
In all of this, the reality of contemporary Bethlehem is ignored, as is suffering of its people. Today, Bethlehem is surrounded by dozens of Israeli settlements, many built on land confiscated from Bethlehemites. It is cut off from much of the West Bank by two Israeli bypass roads and a massive concrete wall. And just this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to advance a new settlement that, when built, will completely sever Bethlehem from nearby Jerusalem.
The resultant loss of land, the growing impoverishment of its citizens, and the hostile actions of Israeli occupation forces and settlers have forced many Bethlehemites to leave their beloved city and homeland. Given these accumulated violations of human rights and their impact on Christians and Muslims, alike, one might expect Christians in the West to speak out in defense of these residents of the little town they celebrate each year. That, sadly, is not to be--most especially (and I might add ironically) among powerful Christian conservative groups in the U.S. which, after all, claim to be the defenders of their co-religionists world-wide.
To most in the West, Palestinian Christians are simply invisible. To conservative Christians, they are at best a nuisance who stand in the way of their unquestioning ideological attachment to Israel.
I saw this up close during my four-year tenure as a Presidential appointee to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. As a Lebanese Maronite Catholic, who had traveled throughout the Middle East, I was aware of concerns of Christian communities in the region and I was excited to play a role in protecting their rights.
Despite having been charged by the White House to "push back" on the hold that conservatives had over the commission and its operations, because I was the newest commissioner, I thought it best to spend months learning the ropes, before raising any concerns of my own. I learned early on that I wasn't going to have the luxury of waiting.
In December of 2013, my third month on the commission, the staff circulated a draft opinion piece that was to be sent to newspapers under the authorship of the commission's Chair and Vice Chair. It began:
"As we enter the Christmas season, Christians look joyously ahead to celebrating Christ's birth in a manger. But across parts of the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity, followers of Jesus are under siege and live in fear, facing a rising tide of repression, intimidation, and violence...Unless circumstances change, some are pondering the unthinkable: will Christianity survive in the area of its origin?"
The piece went on to devote full paragraphs to the plight of Christians in each of the following countries: Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
Soon my inbox began to fill with notes of approval from my colleagues on the commission. I had to act quickly before a majority approved and the article would be sent out. I, therefore, wrote in response:
"How on earth can we publish an article about the plight of Christians in the Holy Land without even a mention of the concerns of the Christians in Bethlehem...and Jerusalem, etc. They too are suffering--losing their lands and ability to survive under harsh occupation. The wall, the settlement construction on confiscated Bethlehem land, and the closure of Jerusalem are choking these cities and forcing their residents to leave."
The response from some of my fellow commissioners was one of indignation. How dare I criticize Israel? Didn't I know that Israel protects Christians and allows them to prosper? And didn't I know that the problems facing Christians in the Holy Land are the result of Muslims?
After a number of further exchanges, they agreed to add a single disturbingly "no fault" sentence:
"In Bethlehem, birthplace of Jesus, many Palestinian Christians, who are part of a small and diminishing minority, feel marginalized and insecure."
This was not the last time I was to witness the gross insensitivity of my fellow commissioners to the plight of the Christians in Palestine.
The next year, I invited the Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem to address the commission. He had come to Washington seeking help on a number of issues, including stopping Israeli plans to confiscate church lands to build the barrier wall. The route for this section of the wall would separate a monastery from its vineyards and a convent and Christian children from their school. Not only did his appeal fall on deaf ears, but he and I were both shocked when two commissioners bizarrely upbraided him for not using his position to challenge Hamas!
The following year, my conservative fellow commissioners wanted to issue a statement denouncing UNESCO for honoring a Palestinian request to declare Bethlehem a World Historical Site. We were able to table this statement after a prolonged battle.
In my final year, the commission received two appeals: one from a liberal Jewish group and the other from the heads of all the Christian churches in the Holy Land--accompanied by a 192 page report compiled by a group of Palestinian lawyers arguing the case for why the commission should address Israel's violations of the religious rights of Christians, Muslims, and non-Orthodox Jews.
When a liberal Jewish colleague and I introduced a motion to consider both the requests and the report, the reaction from our conservative Christian and Jewish colleagues was near hysteria. They had two major objections: Why were we singling Israel out for criticism? And didn't we realize that if the commission were to act on this request it would lose its Congressional funding?
Deeming the latter challenge insulting, I focused only on the former and responded that we were not singling Israel out for criticism, since we had in fact joined with our colleagues in challenging violations of religious freedom in dozens of countries worldwide. In fact, it was the conservatives on the commissions who were singling Israel as the one country that could never be criticized.
Our motion was defeated.
This shocking disregard for human rights and religious freedoms is what allows Israel's behavior toward Palestinian Christians to continue. As a result, Bethlehem is being strangled and its people are in pain.
And this shameful silence continues. On this Christmas Day, the very conservative Christians who will sing of Bethlehem and tell the story of what happened in that city long ago will remain willfully blind to the current reality of that place and its people.
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Addressing Those Who Have Been Fooled All of the Time
What don't we understand about Trump supporters? How have the political experts continuously been so wrong about this president and those who believe in him?
Sep 03, 2019
It was more than a century and a half ago that Abraham Lincoln told us, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." While the wisdom behind these words is clear, what has long confounded me is, quite simply, "why can some folks be fooled all the time?"
Answering this question has never been as important as it is today because we have a president who, despite having a strained relationship with the truth, retains a hard core base of supporters who continue to believe in him.
It appears that Donald Trump can't spend a single day without using Twitter or press meet-ups to make statements that are obvious exaggeration or outright fabrication. Some of these have been dismissed as harmless or even laughably silly, while others can be legitimately categorized as dangerous acts of incitement.
Some media outlets have kept a running tally of his falsehoods--we are now somewhere in the neighborhood of 12,000 --or an average of 13 a day since he took the oath of office. The problem has become so concerning that many major newspapers and television networks have taken the unprecedented step of allowing their journalists to now describe the president's statements as "lies."
Among his bizarre exaggerations are those about the size of his rallies, the extent of his wealth, the number of jobs he has created, or the honors he has claimed to receive. There are, however, the more damaging false statements he has made targeting individual members of the media, judiciary, Congress, or vulnerable minority communities--painting them as dangerous or even anti-American, "enemies of the people."
In addition to these, there are the tweets or harangues that have caused uncertainty about our foreign policy, resulting in consternation and insecurity among our allies, and boasts or threats about trade issues or domestic policies that have created havoc in world markets.
What is troubling is not just the accumulated mass of distortions that have become even more frequent over time. More disturbing are the polls that show about 30% of the electorate saying that they believe that this president almost always tells the truth. These are the folks to whom Lincoln was referring when he spoke of fooling "some of the people all of the time." This is where we must ask the question "Why?" What don't we understand about Trump supporters? How have the political experts continuously been so wrong about this president and those who believe in him?
Ever since the early days of the 2016 contest, the pundits proclaimed Donald Trump unfit to run for president and assumed after each of his early outrages that he was finished and would never become the nominee. They then convinced themselves that he would never be elected president. And even now, there are almost daily columns by the very same commentators saying how exhausted they are with Trump's outrages, making predictions that his presidency is doomed.
They were wrong because they missed a fundamental point: there remains a sizable base of voters who despite all evidence to the contrary continue to believe that what Trump says is true and who, therefore, cling to his leadership.
In addition to the 30% who are "true believers," there are also those mainstream Republicans who support the president because, as I described on an earlier occasion, they made a "Faustian deal." They recognized the power of his base, feared confronting it, and felt that if they got behind him, they could ride on the back of his presidency to achieve their goals of deregulation, more conservative judges, and implementation of more regressive taxation - all of which they have, in fact, realized.
What was key was that they feared his base. They saw the fervor generated at his rallies. And they came to understand that given the devotion he generated, it would be dangerous to oppose him. They also came to believe that the irrational support he had earned was so strong that he could, as he himself once boasted, "shoot someone on 5th Avenue" and get away with it.
This is the problem we must understand and the dilemma we must confront. We know why the GOP's leadership supports this President--he is fulfilling his part of the "deal". But why is it that his "base"--made up of a disproportionately large percentage of lower income, less educated white folks, who are living in formerly prosperous farming, mining, or industrial communities--why do they continue to suspend disbelief and support him? And why do they stay with him despite the fact that the policies he has promulgated have not only not been to their benefit, they have proven harmful to their economic future?
He promised to protect their jobs, to provide them with better health care, to bring prosperity back to their communities, to reopen their closed mines or bring back their factories. None of this has occurred and yet they remain supporters. So while we can see Lincoln's words playing out--that indeed "you can fool some of the people all of the time"--the challenge is in understanding why, despite all the evidence to the contrary, they continue to believe in him.
If I might propose an answer, it's not because they are bad or dumb or easily misled. Rather, it is because: they are profoundly alienated from the institutions that have failed them; they are worried that they are losing control of their lives and their values in a world that is changing so fast and leaving them behind; they are angry that governing elites either look down on them or do not consider their needs; and they are desperate to believe that Trump is different because he speaks directly to them about their anger and disappointment and insecurity and their need to feel empowered.
This, as I see it, is why they continue to believe--because they need to believe in something and he's "the only show in town."
When I hear Democrats running for president make defeating Donald Trump the focus of their campaign, I am worried that they are missing the point. Even more shortsighted and dangerous are those who run against Trump's voters by disparaging them. To make this campaign about mobilizing "our voters" to become more numerous than and victorious over "their voters" may produce a short-term victory but at the cost of an even more deeply divided country and may even lead to greater social unrest.
Rather, the goal must be to address head on the anger, disappointment, alienation, and loss of control of those who feel left out of the national discussion. What is needed is a message that speaks to voters across the spectrum, telling them that they are being heard and their needs will be addressed by proposals for economic and social progress that will include and benefit everyone.
Only if they and their needs are directly addressed and their anger and alienation are understood will they be able move beyond feeling slighted and disparaged. At that point, they may be in a position to shake the dust from their eyes and realize that, all along, they had been fooled by a huckster who had exploited them.
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