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Category: Politics

Trump’s longtime CFO lied, under oath, about Trump Tower penthouse

Trump’s longtime CFO lied, under oath, about Trump Tower penthouse

Forbes reports: Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, lied in sworn testimony on Tuesday when questioned about Donald Trump’s penthouse atop Trump Tower. Weisselberg was on the stand as part of a $250 million lawsuit that the New York attorney general is waging against Trump and his associates, including Weisselberg, accusing them of lying about Trump’s net worth to financial institutions. To arrive at inflated figures, the Trump Organization used demonstrably incorrect facts, such as…

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Humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens as Israel prepares a possible invasion

Humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens as Israel prepares a possible invasion

The New York Times reports: Six days of Israeli airstrikes have left more than 300,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip homeless, with two million residents facing critical shortages of food, water and fuel, while Israeli troops prepared on Thursday for a possible ground invasion after Hamas’s deadly weekend assault. Retaliating for the bloodiest attack on Israel in 50 years, Israel is pummeling Gaza with a ferocity not seen in past conflicts and has cut off vital supplies to the coastal…

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Majority of Israelis blame government for Hamas massacre, say Netanyahu must resign

Majority of Israelis blame government for Hamas massacre, say Netanyahu must resign

The Jerusalem Post reports: Four out of five Jewish Israelis believe the government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are to blame for the mass infiltration of Hamas terrorists into Israel and the massacre that followed, a new Dialog Center poll released on Thursday found. An overwhelming majority – 86% of respondents, including 79% of coalition supporters, said the surprise attack from Gaza is a failure of the country’s leadership, while a staggering 92% said the war is causing anxiety. Furthermore,…

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After Hamas onslaught, Trump appears to mock Israel, calls Gallant a ‘jerk’

After Hamas onslaught, Trump appears to mock Israel, calls Gallant a ‘jerk’

The Times of Israel reports: Former US president Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to mock Israel for failing to anticipate the weekend Hamas onslaught and for not going on the offensive against Hezbollah amid several deadly clashes along its northern border. He also launched personal attacks against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he accused of “letting him down,” and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, whom he called a “jerk.” His comments stood in sharp contrast to the full-throated support given to…

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How to think morally about the Israel-Hamas war

How to think morally about the Israel-Hamas war

Zack Beauchamp writes: In southern Israel, Hamas terrorists broke into a room where a family of five was hiding and slaughtered every one of them. In Gaza, a father wrapped in gauze held his child, butchered in an Israeli strike, for the last time. These scenes pose a very simple moral test: Do you believe that it is wrong for innocent people to suffer in this way? That mass death should be deplored, not defended, regardless of who its victims…

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The massacre in Israel and the need for a decent Left

The massacre in Israel and the need for a decent Left

Michelle Goldberg writes: On Tuesday evening, I was drinking on the porch of my friend and neighbor Misha Shulman, the Israel-born rabbi of a progressive New York synagogue called the New Shul. All day, he’d been on the phone with congregants deeply distraught over the massacres and mass kidnappings in Israel. Of all the people he spoke to, he said, those most devastated were either people who had lost close friends or family, or young Jews “completely shattered by the…

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Iran president, Saudi crown prince speak for first time since ties restored

Iran president, Saudi crown prince speak for first time since ties restored

Reuters reports: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on Wednesday, in the first telephone call between the two leaders since a China-brokered deal between Tehran and Riyadh to resume ties. The two leaders’ call came as Israel carried out air strikes in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a deadly attack by Palestinian Hamas militants in Israel. Raisi and the Saudi crown prince discussed the “need to end war crimes against…

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Trump claims the insurrection clause ‘does not apply’ to the president – or prohibit someone from ‘running for office’

Trump claims the insurrection clause ‘does not apply’ to the president – or prohibit someone from ‘running for office’

Law & Crime reports: Attorneys for Donald Trump this week argued that the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause does not and cannot apply to a president, or someone running for president, of the United States. “Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment does not prohibit someone from running for office—it prohibits someone from holding office, and even then, only if Congress chooses not to lift the prohibition,” a Monday filing by the ex-president’s lawyers reads. The argument was made in response to…

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Netanyahu bolstered Hamas in order to thwart the creation of a Palestinian state

Netanyahu bolstered Hamas in order to thwart the creation of a Palestinian state

Gidi Weitz writes: It’s impossible to close your eyes to the reality. There’s a clear connection between the corruption trial [of Benjamin Netanyahu], the government’s judicial overhaul, and the greatest failure since the Yom Kippur War of 1973, perhaps even since the establishment of the state. Admittedly, the intelligence agencies failed inconceivably at foreseeing the actual attack. But they warned Netanyahu time and again in recent months that Israel’s enemies had identified a historic weakness, making the likelihood of war…

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Israeli cabinet ministers heckled out of hospitals as they try to visit the wounded

Israeli cabinet ministers heckled out of hospitals as they try to visit the wounded

The Forward reports: Israeli cabinet ministers faced the wrath of anguished citizens and doctors during visits to local hospitals on Thursday. Israel is in mourning after a surprise attack by Hamas on Saturday, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 1,200 people. But the country, before the attacks, had been convulsed for months over a judicial reform package pushed by the right-wing government, which has led hundreds of thousands of Israelis to protest in the streets. “You’ve ruined…

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The attack on Israel has been called a ‘9/11 moment’. Therein lies a cautionary tale

The attack on Israel has been called a ‘9/11 moment’. Therein lies a cautionary tale

Kenneth Roth writes: Hamas’s appalling attack on Israeli civilians has been widely described as the country’s “9/11 moment”. It is an appropriate description of such wanton cruelty. But the analogy carries a cautionary note as well. The US government lost the world’s sympathy, and the moral high ground, when its response to 9/11 degenerated into a highly abusive war in Iraq, systematic torture, and endless detention without trial in Guantánamo. The Israeli government should be careful not to replicate this…

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Initial U.S. intelligence suggests Iran was surprised by the Hamas attack on Israel

Initial U.S. intelligence suggests Iran was surprised by the Hamas attack on Israel

CNN reports: The United States has collected specific intelligence that suggests senior Iranian government officials were caught by surprise by Saturday’s bloody attack on Israel by Hamas, according to multiple sources familiar with the intelligence. The existence of the intelligence has cast doubt on the idea that Iran was directly involved in the planning, resourcing or approving of the operation, sources said. The sources stressed that the US intelligence community is not ready to reach a full conclusion about whether…

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The history of Palestinian liberation movements

The history of Palestinian liberation movements

  The history of Palestinian liberation movements is paved with setbacks, betrayals and bitter rivalries. What began as an attempt to unify the resistance against Israeli occupation has over time been undermined by regional and global political interests, ideological differences and disagreements over the justification, and use, of guerilla tactics. Today the question of who represents Palestinian interests is hotly contested, with Hamas and Fatah vying for control, and a wave of dissatisfied young factions on the rise in Gaza…

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The Supreme Court appears determined to make it easy to draw gerrymanders

The Supreme Court appears determined to make it easy to draw gerrymanders

Ian Millhiser writes: The Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority spent Wednesday morning seemingly hunting for a reason to uphold a South Carolina congressional map that everyone agrees was gerrymandered to benefit the Republican Party. The case is Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. Under the Supreme Court’s precedents, federal courts are not allowed to hear lawsuits challenging partisan gerrymanders — that is, maps drawn to benefit one political party or the other. But federal courts may hear challenges to racial gerrymanders — maps drawn…

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Trump’s overrated peace plan helped enable the horrors in Israel and Gaza

Trump’s overrated peace plan helped enable the horrors in Israel and Gaza

Nicholas Grossman writes: No American president caused Hamas’ surprise assault across the Gaza border that killed over 900 Israelis—mostly in deliberate, brutal attacks on civilians, including 260 at a music festival—and kidnapping about 150 more. But U.S. policy, especially the Trump administration’s, contributed to the unsustainable situation that made an outbreak of violence more likely. Claims that “Trump brought peace to the Middle East” are almost an inversion of reality. He shifted U.S. policy fully in Israel’s favor—reducing support for the Palestinians and treating their quest for statehood…

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How Hamas duped Israel as it planned devastating attack

How Hamas duped Israel as it planned devastating attack

Reuters reports: A careful campaign of deception ensured Israel was caught off guard when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched its devastating attack, enabling a force using bulldozers, hang gliders and motorbikes to take on the Middle East’s most powerful army. Saturday’s assault, the worst breach in Israel’s defences since Arab armies waged war in 1973, followed two years of subterfuge by Hamas that involved keeping its military plans under wraps and convincing Israel it did not want a fight….

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