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Category: War

Economist Joseph Stiglitz on rethinking freedom, Trump and pro-Palestine protests at Columbia

Economist Joseph Stiglitz on rethinking freedom, Trump and pro-Palestine protests at Columbia

  Nobel Prize Laureate Joseph Stiglitz is one of the most influential economists in the world, having advised multiple Democratic Presidents of the US and the World Bank, where he worked as Chief Economist and senior Vice President. His latest book, called “The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society,” argues that the economic right’s concept of “freedom” doesn’t take into account the necessary trade-offs, that one person’s freedom often comes at the expense of another’s. And that “free”…

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Nathan Thrall on Israel’s ‘system of domination’ and Biden pausing bomb shipment

Nathan Thrall on Israel’s ‘system of domination’ and Biden pausing bomb shipment

  Jerusalem-based journalist and author Nathan Thrall has been awarded the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for his book, A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy. It tells the story of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank through one Palestinian father’s quest to seek answers and accountability after his 5-year-old son is involved in a deadly accident. We speak to Thrall about President Biden saying for the first time that he would not…

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South Africa asks World Court to order Israel’s withdrawal from Rafah

South Africa asks World Court to order Israel’s withdrawal from Rafah

Reuters reports: South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah as part of additional emergency measures over the war in Gaza, the U.N.’s top court said on Friday. In the ongoing case brought by South Africa, which accuses Israel of acts of genocide against Palestinians, the World Court in January ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no…

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Haim Saban, a ‘virulently anti-Muslim’ mega-donor, slams Biden’s decision to halt weapons shipment to Israel

Haim Saban, a ‘virulently anti-Muslim’ mega-donor, slams Biden’s decision to halt weapons shipment to Israel

The Los Angeles Times reports: Democratic mega-donor and Hollywood media mogul Haim Saban slammed President Biden’s decision to put a shipment of weapons to Israel on hold because they could be used in an offensive against a densely populated city in southern Gaza. “Let’s not forget there are more Jewish voters who care about Israel than Muslim voters who care about Hamas,” Saban wrote in an email to senior Biden aides Steve Ricchetti and Anita Dunn, Axios reported Thursday. The…

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For Biden, like Obama, every ‘red line’ turns to a shade of gray

For Biden, like Obama, every ‘red line’ turns to a shade of gray

Politico reports: After watching Israel flatten much of Gaza, President Joe Biden decided to draw the line at the city of Rafah. Now, he has to decide what to do if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crosses it. The president quietly directed his team last week to halt shipments of massive bombs to Israel to “deliver a message” to Netanyahu that no operation should move forward without a civilian protection plan in place, a U.S. official said. Then, after Netanyahu moved…

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Israel due to get billions of dollars more in U.S. weapons despite Biden pause

Israel due to get billions of dollars more in U.S. weapons despite Biden pause

Reuters reports: Billions of dollars worth of U.S. weaponry remains in the pipeline for Israel, despite the delay of one shipment of bombs and a review of others by President Joe Biden’s administration, concerned their use in an assault could wreak more devastation on Palestinian civilians. A senior U.S. official said this week that the administration had reviewed the delivery of weapons that Israel might use for a major invasion of Rafah, a southern Gaza city where over 1 million…

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Biden administration can see Israel has violated international law but doesn’t have the guts to take action

Biden administration can see Israel has violated international law but doesn’t have the guts to take action

CNN reports: The Biden administration said Friday that it is “reasonable to assess” that US weapons have been used by Israeli forces in Gaza in ways that are “inconsistent” with international humanitarian law but stopped short of officially saying Israel violated the law. The report which was drafted by the State Department said that investigations into potential violations are ongoing but noted that the US does “not have complete information to verify” whether the US weapons “were specifically used” in…

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Cornel West on Israel Hamas war, greedy ruling class and Biden vs Trump

Cornel West on Israel Hamas war, greedy ruling class and Biden vs Trump

  US Presidential candidate Dr Cornel West is a philosopher and prominent advocate for social and racial justice. He’s taught at some of the top universities in the US including Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, but has one major plan if he becomes President: to “dismantle the American empire”. The 71-year-old activist, who campaigned for Biden in 2020, has recently been vocal against both the Democratic and Republican’s party’s stance on Gaza, which he calls “morally bankrupt”. Though he faces very…

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A majority of Democratic voters believe Israel is committing genocide

A majority of Democratic voters believe Israel is committing genocide

Medhi Hasan writes: Despite President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s impassioned denials, and the self-censorship of the New York Times, almost four in 10 likely voters and more than half of all Democrats believe Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, according to a new poll of 1,265 U.S. likely voters from Zeteo and Data For Progress, conducted from April 26 to 29. Seven months after the Oct. 7 attacks, and as the Israeli military…

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A threshold crossed: On genocidal intent and the duty to prevent genocide in Palestine

A threshold crossed: On genocidal intent and the duty to prevent genocide in Palestine

In the Journal of Genocide Research, Dr Nimer Sultany, Reader in Public Law at SOAS University of London, writes: By any measure, Israel’s onslaught on Gaza is unprecedented. Israel claims that the killing of civilians is typical of warfare. Yet by the end of November 2023 it was clear that “even a conservative reading of the casualty figures” showed that “the pace of death during Israel’s campaign has few precedents in this century.” It also showed that the proportion of…

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Where are the artists and other celebrities willing to show the courage of America’s protesting students?

Where are the artists and other celebrities willing to show the courage of America’s protesting students?

The Nation reports: Honestly @macklemore’s “Hind’s Hall” is the most Rage Against The Machine song since Rage Against The Machine. — Tom Morello (@tmorello) May 7, 2024 The foremost authority on the revolutionary rock/rap band Rage Against the Machine, their own guitarist Tom Morello, tweeted this. Rage Against the Machine filled stadiums in the 1990s with its brand of radical, political fire. Now Macklemore is carrying the flame. For those who haven’t heard it, “Hind’s Hall”—named after Columbia’s renamed building…

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U.S. pauses Israel arms shipment over Rafah assault fears as Biden pushes for a cease-fire

U.S. pauses Israel arms shipment over Rafah assault fears as Biden pushes for a cease-fire

NBC News reports: The United States halted a large shipment of offensive weapons to Israel last week in a sign of its growing concern over a possible military offensive on Rafah, senior administration officials told NBC News. The decision comes as President Joe Biden pushes for Israel and Hamas to compromise and reach a cease-fire deal that would head off a large-scale assault on the city in southern Gaza, where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering in dire conditions….

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Gaza’s unexploded-bomb crisis

Gaza’s unexploded-bomb crisis

Isaac Chotiner writes: Late last month, Charles (Mungo) Birch, who oversees the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in the Palestinian territories, issued a warning about the dangers posed by unexploded ordnance in Gaza, especially if and when Gazan civilians return to the enclave’s north. (On Tuesday, the Israeli military entered the southern city of Rafah, after ordering tens of thousands of people to evacuate, and took control of the Rafah border crossing.) Birch said that more unexploded missiles and…

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U.S. has conveyed an ‘end of war’ guarantee, TV report quotes Hamas source saying

U.S. has conveyed an ‘end of war’ guarantee, TV report quotes Hamas source saying

The Times of Israel reports: The United States has conveyed a guarantee to Hamas, via Egypt and Qatar, that the war will end after the first, 40-day phase of the hostage-truce deal now being negotiated in Cairo, Israel’s Channel 12 news reports. Citing “a very senior Hamas source,” the TV station’s veteran Middle East analyst Ehud Ya’ari says the Americans have pledged, “whether Israel says yes or Israel says no, that they’ll see to it that the war comes to…

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We’ve shown Gaza’s suffering for over 200 days. Don’t look away now

We’ve shown Gaza’s suffering for over 200 days. Don’t look away now

Mohammed R. Mhawish writes: As Israel’s cruel war on Gaza surpasses 200 days, the toll it inflicts on the Palestinian people grows ever deeper. Both the land and population of the besieged Strip have been obliterated to a degree not seen since the Nakba of 1948. Famine and malnutrition have tightened their grip, leaving hundreds of thousands of families in the north and south desperate for food and medical aid as they attempt desperately to flee the bombing campaign that…

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