Benjamin Netanyahu has warned the people of Rafah in the Gaza Strip to evacuate, signaling that he intends to invade that city. Such military action would be a disaster for the people who are sheltering there and for Israel as well, whose military aggression has turned it into a pariah state.
Netanyahu’s initial response to the atrocities of October 7 was justifiable under the principle that a nation has the right to defend itself. The war has continued for seven months, with tens of thousands of civilian casualties.
Meanwhile, the Israeli hostages continue to die, many killed by Israeli bombs.
Nothing that I write here will affect what happens in the Middle East. Nor do campus protests affect what happens.
I have condemned both Netanyahu and Hamas for failing to stop the killing. Both remain intransigent. Both find reasons not to sign a peace agreement.
The culture of death and destruction must end.
I hope, I wish, I pray that Netanyahu steps back from the brink and pursues peace as tirelessly as he has pursued war and death.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I wish I had an answer. Asymmetric warfare four hours before the last ceasefire ended, How much was the? Hamas was already firing rockets at Israel. Today Hamas fired rockets at the checkpoint where food and aid was coming in. Yes what Israel is doing is horrible but what alternative do they have?
Ronald,
I have written before that neither side seeks peace. Hamas is willing to sacrifice the lives of Palestinians, and Netanyahu is acting stupidly, seeking vengeance instead of peace without regard to the lives of Palestinians, Israelis, or the Israeli hostages.
“Asymmentric warfare” means that one side has an army, navy, air force and virtually unlimited U.S. funding and arms while the other side has stones and rockets, and you think the side with the stones and rockets is fighting unfairly. I can’t even.
On October 7, the other side had AR-15s, not stones. Hamas has been funded by Iran for years. Maybe that’s why Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the Emirates protected Israel when Iran sent hundreds of missiles and drones.
I read a headline and lead paragraph for the latest Hamas rocket attack but there was no mention the Hamas rockets hit the checkpoint where food and aid comes in for the Palestinians. All it said is the Israel had closed the food and aid entry into Gaza after the attack killed and wounded some Israeli troops, making Israel sound like the bad guy for cutting off food to the Palestinians for the loss of a few soldiers.
Was that fact covered in the real news media (I’m not talking about FOX fake NEWS.)?
When I say covered, mentioned in headlines and the 1st lead paragraph. If that fact is buried near the end or missing, I think that was deliberate.
Still, don’t blame the reporter. Maybe blame an editor, for sure the publishers or the CEOs. Editors edit and revise according to upper management’s edicts from the top down. When the grunts, the front line troops, don’t do what they are told to do, they could lose their jobs.
90% of the traditional media is owned by SIX corporations. Who are the CEOs?
BTW, what would stop the assault on Gaza is a lack of U.S. funding. The protests aim to do that by getting their universities to divest from Israel (which was a very significant contribution to ending Apartheid in South Africa), and pressuring the U.S. government to stop the funding. The first aim has already been successful at a handful of colleges.
Dienne,
You may find this hard to believe, but the protests against the Gaza war are ineffective. Few universities have agreed to divest, and their ties to firms that work with Israel (Google, Amazon, Meta) are not large. Most are tied up in mutual funds and impossible to separate.
The main effect of the campus protests will be to elect Trump on a law-and-order claim (ironic to hear from a guy who is on trial). He has pledged to close down the protests by sending in the National Guard.
After the protests of 1967-68, Nixon was elected to restore law and order.
Diane, tell me, how do you think the LGBTQ community achieved the breakthroughs they have? Do you think they just asked nicely? You of all people should know that they were far more radical and militant (and violent) than anything these students are doing .
In any case, neither you nor I can predict the future. These protests are garnering world-wide support and they’re putting the U.S. and its power structure in a very bad light for a country that claims to be a democracy. Will they end the slaughter? Maybe so, maybe not, but they are showing the world who everyone is when militarized cops in riot gear beat, tear gas and shoot rubber bullets unarmed student protesters who are simply saying that killing women and children and bombing hospitals and food supplies is not okay.
And finally, since you oppose protesting, boycotting and everything else that’s been tried, what’s your suggestion for how to end the slaughter? And before you say anything about Hamas, no one in this country has any control over Hamas. Our government is, however, financing and arming Israel, so we do have power there.
The LGBT community achieved its biggest breakthroughs in the courts. Edie Windsor sued and won a decision in the Supreme Court:
“She was the lead plaintiff in the 2013 Supreme Court of the United States case United States v. Windsor, which overturned Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act and was considered a landmark legal victory for the same-sex marriage movement in the United States. The Obama administration and federal agencies extended rights, privileges and benefits to married same-sex couples because of the decision.”
Jim Obergefell won the right to marry his same-sex partner in the Supreme Court:
“James Obergefell (/ˈoʊbərɡəfɛl/ OH-bər-gə-fel; born July 7, 1966) is an American civil rights activist who was the lead plaintiff in the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States.[1] Obergefell had sued the state of Ohio in 2013, due to the state’s lack of legal recognition of Obergefell’s marriage to his husband, John Arthur (1967–2013).[2]”
As I have written here before, I support peaceful protests. I think there should be protests against Netanyahu and against Hamas. Neither side wants peace. Hamas is a terrorist organization. Netanyahu is reckless and brutal. I certainly want the war to end.
The difference between us, Dienne, is that I want Israel to elect peace activists to power. You want Israel to be eliminated. That is not going to happen. As soon as this war is over—and I hope it’s very soon—Israel will forge alliances with major Arab nations.
Furthermore, I will not post any comments that advocate for the destruction of the state of Israel.
The LGBTQ community would have had no chance of reaching the courts without the massive efforts to raise public awareness, which started with the Stonewall Riots and included many, many other militant acts, including by your son’s group, Act Up, which in its day did a lot of what the student protesters are doing today. Don’t whitewash history. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did. It never will. - Frederick Douglass
The Stonewall Riot was a response to a police raid on a gay bar. No one there made plans to fight the police. My son was active in ACT UP. He was trained in the tactics of nonviolence, in the spirit of MLK.
Violence causes a backlash. Violence and civil disorder provoked a rightwing backlash.
The greatest victories for LGBT occurred not on the streets but in the courts. Popular opinion was not on the side of LGBT until after the court opinions and the recognition by many people that members of their own families were gay.
What you’re missing is that the protesters haven’t been violent – no more so than Act Up. Yes, many of the protests have gotten violent (as did many Act Up protests), but that’s been because they’ve been attacked or infiltrated by Zionist activists and because the cops have been violent. The students have just been sitting in tents. There is ample video documenting all this, but if you can find video evidence of the protesters initiating violence, I’m open to seeing it. The broken window at Columbia is the only “evidence” I’ve seen and it’s unclear who did it – the fully-masked perpetrator in the video has not been identified and looks suspiciously beefy to be a student protester. In any case, the cops did far more property damage trying to end the protest than the protesters did.
The protestors are acting on behalf of a terrorist organization.
Participants in ACT UP were trained for nonviolent protests. They did not hide their faces. They prepared to be arrested.
BTW, the Stonewall RiotS were a series of protests, not just the initial fight outside the Stonewall bar. The on-going protests were planned, not just a spontaneous reaction.
No one was killed at the Stonewall Riots. The riot was a response to a police crackdown on a gay bar. How you can compare that to demonstrations on behalf of Hamas “from the river to the sea” is incomprehensible. The Stonewall protests lasted three or four days. They were demands for basic rights. The bigger victories were in the courts.
The fundamental problem in the Middle East has been the refusal of Arab states to accept the existence of Israel. In the 1967 war, Israel was attacked by all its Arab neighbors, hoping to extinguish it. Israel won.
By the way, an Arab Christian woman was selected as leader of the University of Haifa today: https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/18703/first-arab-christian-woman-to-head-israel-s-university-of-haifa
Could that happen anywhere else in the Middle East?
The biggest breakthroughs, besides the courts, happened steadily with the passage of time as the stigma of being openly gay reduced enough to lead more gay people to come out, which in turn reduced the stigma further as more and more people had gay co-workers and friends and relatives and realized they were normal people just like everyone else.
There’s probably little overstating of the positive effects of Will and Grace on the gay rights movement.
Probably degeneres, too.
Thanks, FLERP
Oh, also, if Trump is elected, how exactly do you see him using this new virtually unchecked police power that Biden supports? Don’t you think maybe Biden should be restricting that power before Trump can misuse it?
Read Trump’s lips. He has said he will crack down on campus protestors. He will mobilize the National Guard. Oh, I forgot that you hate Biden more than Trump.
When was the last “peace activist” elected in Israel? The closest they’ve ever had was Rabin and Israeli right-wingers assassinated him. Since then it’s been Sharon, Bennett and Netanyahu – all virulently militaristic right-wingers. The Knesset has passed dozens of extremely racist right-wing discriminatory laws, the settlements have continued to expand (as they did in Rabin’s day too for that matter), the settlers have become more violent and the prisons have filled up. Do you seriously see a chance for “peace activists” to be elected?
The Israeli electorate has been forced to choose between peace and security because of the Intifadas. When you see terrorists blowing up weddings, markets, pizza parlors, and buses, it makes ordinary people long for a strong man. Netanyahu promised complete security, and he failed.
Israelis don’t want to live in constant fear of men and women wearing suicide vests. They would choose peace and security if they could.
Why do you think there were suicide bombers? I know you think it’s just because Arabs hate Jews, but if you actually look at Israeli history, you’ll find that there is ample reason for that hatred, and that the hatred is not nearly as intractable as it’s made out to be. Hamas, for instance, are the sons and grandsons who have grown up since the six day war watching their homes get destroyed and their families get bombed, slaughtered and imprisoned year after year.
Again, I’m going to suggest that you read THE GENERAL’S SON by Miko Peled. Peled’s father was considered a heroic fighter in 1948 and a leading general in 1967. Peled was raised as an ardent Zionist believing all the same things you do. But when his own niece was killed by a suicide bomber, instead of turning to fear and hatred, he began looking into the truth. He began meeting with Palestinians and seeing them as humans with their own history and insecurity. Please, read the book.
So, let me get this straight. In addition to being a Vladimir Putin fan girl, you approve of suicide bombing. Do I have this right?
I cannot believe that you do. The mind balks at something so horrific. But why, then, would you excuse it? Why would you say, well, you want to know why this is done, just look at the history. NO HISTORY MAKES THIS ACCEPTABLE.
A reality check. If the IDF does not pursue Hamas into Rafah, Hamas will survive to fight another day. If Israeli forces leave Gaza, Hamas will take over all of Gaza and eventually build up its forces for another attack on Israel. All public opinion polling has shown that a large majority of Israelis favor destroying Hamas, and the war Cabinet – not just Netanyahu – favors such action. Your argument is with the Israeli public – if Netanyahu left office today the Rafah invasion would still proceed.
How can Israel achieve peace with a group that vows to destroy them, a group that is motivated by religious fanaticism that they can’t be persuaded to abandon? The tradeoffs here are awful no matter what Israel does regarding Hamas.
If, by some miracle, Israel “destroyed” Hamas, another group would quickly, bordering on immediately, spring up to pick up the fight. Hamas is simply today’s flavor.
The first thing to understand about the Middle East is that truth is an unheard-of commodity. And peace is desired by damned few in power. On any side.
I wish I could say that anti-Semitism is not happening, but several synagogues in NYC have received bomb threats.
I have a solution that will work, but it will require surrender of sovereignty.
1. We place a massive UN force in Gaza and the West Bank that forces everybody to quit fighting
2. We disarm the area completely. Nothing more powerful than toenail clippers.
3. We institute a program that will not place poverty beside riches for generations to come.
No I do not think it will work.
You lost me at “we”.
I’m seeing reports that Hamas has accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal.
https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-war-humanitarian-aid-8659eae6e0a7362504f0aa4aa4be53e0?taid=6639097624895000019b40e0&utm_campaign=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter
Followup from the NYTimes:
“Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas’s political wing, said on Monday that the group had agreed to a proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza, but it was unclear what terms it had accepted. A senior Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hamas had not agreed to the terms of the latest Israeli proposal.
Mr. Haniyeh’s statement was posted on Hamas’s official Telegram channel. It came on the same day Israel ordered people in one part of the city of Rafah to evacuate before a promised offensive there, and a day after Hamas fired rockets near the Kerem Shalom crossing in the border region between Israel and the southern Gaza Strip, killing four soldiers.”
The aim of the student protests in the US is to get their colleges and universities to divest from any financial arrangements with Israel. A very few school administrations have agreed to sit down and talk to the students about compromises or at least to have a discussion about the issues.
Israel has a right to defend itself but what about the right of the Palestinians to live, to be able to eat and protect their families? Gaza is being reduced to rubble, children are being slaughtered and dying from a whole host of ills including famine.
And Israel is being attacked by missiles from southern Lebanon as well.
Solutions to these horrible multiple tragedies are in short supply or non-existent.
In Pursuit of Peace
If you pursue peace with a weapon in hand,
Will peace run away as fast as it can to avoid
Your apparent violent intent?
Correction:
The war has continued for seven months, with THE ZIONISTS CAUSING tens of thousands of civilian DEATHS, THE MAJORITY BEING INNOCENT WOMEN AND CHILDREN.”
And sadly, many more to come.
“It would be my greatest sadness to see Zionists do to Palestinian Arabs much of what Nazis did to Jews.”
Albert Einstein
Unlike the rest of you, I know exactly what’s being said in the confidential negotiations. No wait, come to think of it, I don’t know either.
Netanyahu has powerful reasons to continue the war – it’s keeping him out of jail.
The problem is that both Hamas and Netanyahu stay in power as long as this travesty continues. The citizens in Gaza do not matter to them. A cease fire would diminish both adversaries. Hamas will just be happy sitting atop the rubble and Netanyahu will make Israel a pariah state to most of the world. We have to stop giving arms if there is any hope to stop this war.
Paul,
You are so right. To both Netanyahu and Hamas, civilians are no more than collateral damage. Each offers “peace” terms that the other won’t accept.