Let's recap where things are at in the Israel Gaza conflict. As I mentioned many times previously, the path forward is two step. At this point it is clear the conflict will continue to unfold aligned with these two steps -- with no possibility of starting the second step until the first is fully completed. The first step is the complete elimination of Hamas as a military and governing entity in Gaza. In Israel -- as outlined previously -- over 80% of the Jewish population says that Hamas must be totally eliminated in Gaza and no other outcome is acceptable. This also implies that any government in power in Israel -- whether conservative, moderate or liberal -- must finish the job of eliminating Hamas in Gaza to have any support whatsoever. At this point even top Egyptian officials have stated Hamas is not a legitimate entity and needs to be eliminated in Gaza. At this point, other countries in the region have come to the conclusion -- aligned with Israel -- that if Hamas is not removed from Gaza then there will never be peace or a path forward. Early in the conflict there were wildly optimistic opinions that it would be over in a month. The reality is that the military campaign in Gaza will take months and is probably only halfway done at this point. The IDF is taking a methodical approach while doing their best to avoid Palestinian civilian casualties in a very crowded urban environment where Hamas is using civilians as human shields while turning residences, mosques, hospitals, schools and other buildings into fortified fighting positions. Coupled with a tunnel network used by Hamas which also must be destroyed. This IDF slow & steady methodical approach which uses technology to increase terrorist casualties (in the thousands) while minimizing IDF casualties (with under 300 dead) also leads to a longer conflict -- and increases the total time-frame where civilians will suffer in Gaza with food, medical, shelter, and water issues. But this methodical approach is likely better than a fast military approach that would lead to a much greater civilian casualty toll. On the peace front -- the international community has put forward proposed deals for two month ceasefires which allow the Hamas leadership to leave Gaza coupled with a hostage/prisoner swap. Hamas has rejected all of these deals while demanding to stay in power in Gaza and for very dangerous violent terrorists to be released. These proposed ceasefire deals which allows Hamas leaders to leave Gaza are the only possible alternative to Israel completing their task of wiping out Hamas using the IDF. From the perspective of ending the civilian suffering in Gaza, Hamas is very foolish to reject these ceasefire proposals. However Hamas has already demonstrated they don't care about the civilians in Gaza -- except has human shields. Step 2 is the moving forward with a peace process which includes the establishment of a two-state solution. Unfortunately the current conservative Netanyahu does not support a two-state solution. His government officials have put forward proposal to move all the residents of Gaza "voluntarily" to countries deep in the heart of Africa -- while doubling down on accelerating Jewish settlement in the West Bank. None of this is helpful for establishing a path to peace. Israelis are generally dissatisfied with the Netanyahu government and they are likely to be out of office after the completion of the military operations in Gaza. Israel is not likely to change governments in middle of the war, but once the war is over it is a different story. There is a growing opinion in Israel that a two-state solution will never be achievable and no one -- even a future more moderate Israeli government will ever be able to make a Palestinian state. This is reflective of a shift and hardening in opinion across the population in Israel -- which is unfortunate in context of the desire for a peaceful path forward involving a two-state solution However the reality is that Israel will never know peace after this war if they don't step up to arrive at a two-state solution. This solution will most likely require Israel to withdraw from most of the West Bank and all of Gaza. Any deal probably needs to be aligned with the earlier deal offered to Arafat. This type of negotiation being done in good faith will only come about if a more moderate government is placed into office in Israel than the current conservative Netanyahu regime.
Israel is anti-free speech and anti American, they need to be cut off; ethnonationalism is incompatible with liberal democracies. Pro-Israel group targets Post reporter THE SCOOP Pro-Israel groups, deeply critical of American news outlets such as the Washington Post over their coverage of the war in Gaza, have been working in public and behind-the-scenes to discredit specific journalists seen as biased against Israel. SKDK, the Washington, D.C. public relations firm with close ties to President Joe Biden’s White House, has been running communications for the 10/7 Project, a consortium of five Jewish organizations founded last year to promote “continued US support for Israel and counter misinformation about the Israel/Hamas war.” Over the past several months, that work has largely consisted of sharing daily memos to journalists pointing out what the group sees as flaws in coverage, such as what it sees as under-coverage of Hamas’ sexual assaults of Israeli hostages taken on 10/7 and failures to acknowledge the US government’s assessment that Hamas had a military presence at the Al-Shifa hospital. But it also has been keeping tabs on reporters that it felt were reporting and tweeting unfairly about Israel, and putting pressure on major national news organizations to punish or remove these reporters from the beat. In particular, the group has singled out the Washington Post and its foreign correspondent Louisa Loveluck, who has covered the war in Gaza with an emphasis on Palestinian civilians impacted by the violence. In one five-page document shared with Semafor, the group included a list of grievances about Loveluck’s coverage of Gaza and tweets about the conflict. It included recent corrections and editor’s notes on her stories that it said demonstrated her “erroneous or biased reporting,” including one story an editor’s note conceded “mischaracterized some aspects of Israeli rules for permits that allowed some Palestinian women,” and a story that suggested “Doctors Without Borders accused Israeli forces of deliberately firing on a convoy carrying employees of the organization,” when the group had condemned the attack but not named a perpetrator. Loveluck also won the group’s ire by failing at times to note that Gaza’s health ministry is controlled by Hamas. But the group went further into Loveluck’s past before her time as a journalist. The document also contained a deep dive of her tweets, going all the way back to 2009 when she was a student in college. “For many years, Loveluck’s online presence was that of a far-left activist: she has voiced negative opinions about pro-Israel American leaders and Israeli leadership, has been a proponent of the anti-Israel Qatar-owned Al-Jazeera TV, and took part in the Cambridge University occupation in 2010, which protested against proposed tuition fee rises, where she attended university,” the group wrote in a memo. The tweets included tweets from 2011 saying former President George W. Bush’s memoir made her “angry,” and former President Barack Obama’s silence in Egypt’s post-Arab Spring elections was “deplorable,” and posts noting that she watched Al Jazeera with her mother. In another document shared with Semafor by the 10/7 Project, the group listed seven pages of each of Loveluck’s tweets and retweets since 10/7, categorizing them by whether they were considered critical of Israel, “supportive of the hostages,” or mentioned Hamas. The group noted that Loveluck had tweeted hundreds of times criticizing Israel, but just a handful that mentioned Hamas or was sympathetic to the hostages. In a statement to Semafor, SKDK’s Jill Zuckman said that while it was “undeniably hard for serious journalists to cover the complexities of the Israel-Hamas war,” Loveluck “repeatedly displayed bias toward the subjects of her reporting in her tweets and retweets,” justifying an examination of her coverage and personal life. “Clearly, Loveluck’s poorly reported articles did not meet The Washington Post’s standards for fairness, as its own editor’s note stated. The 10/7 Project is making it our responsibility to shine a spotlight on unfair coverage and to demand unbiased, honest reporting from our country’s leading media outlets.” In a carefully worded statement, the Washington Post notably stood by its reporting, but did not defend Loveluck’s tweets. The Post said it had consistently published explanatory reporting on where it gets data about the Israel-Gaza War, including “examinations of the Gaza Health Ministry as a source and explanations that it is an agency of Gaza’s elected government, which is run by Hamas,” and noted that it also cited Israeli government figures. The Post also pointed out that it was one of the only among major news organizations that withheld the claim that Israel was at fault in the immediate aftermath of the blast at the Al-Shifa hospital. “The Washington Post produces rigorous, in-depth journalism, and we expect and welcome scrutiny of our reporting,” a spokesperson said. “When we make errors, we take every step to correct them and to provide full transparency to our readers. The Post expects our journalists to refrain from social media postings that could raise questions about our fairness or independence. We also prioritize the security of our employees, and we cannot condone any efforts that could endanger or jeopardize their safety.” Loveluck did not return a request for comment. MAX’S VIEW It is not abnormal for interest groups to have frustrations with individual reporters, and supporters of Israel have for decades accused Western correspondents of sympathizing with Palestinians over Israel’s security demands. But the frontal confrontation between SKDK and the Washington Post over Loveluck’s work illustrates the intense pressure on journalists covering the conflict, and the scrutiny that stretches past a decade to benign college-aged tweets. The extensive research on a single reporter at the Post was emblematic of the pressure major news organizations are under from well-organized groups to keep their focus on Hamas. These groups have found some success. As Semafor previously reported, following criticism of its coverage by ADL President Jonathan Greenblatt, for several days last year MSNBC sidelined some of the hosts who had been skeptical of Israel’s forceful response to the Hamas attack. Left-leaning news outlets like the Nation have complained that the New York Times, PBS, and other outlets have “uncritically promoted” claims from groups like the ADL. News organizations, meanwhile, also face intense internal pressure from younger staffers and correspondents in the region to tilt more toward Palestinian perspectives. The Washington Post’s own cautious statement, which did not defend Loveluck’s tweets, also demonstrated the great caution many national news organizations are taking toward the conflict. But Israel’s advocates are increasingly finding that the Democratic Party in general, and the Biden White House in particular, are also shifting away from the Netanyahu government’s point of view.. SKDK has close ties to the Biden White House, and often mirrors its priorities. But Biden and his aides are losing patience with the Israeli government’s approach to the war and tolerance for high Palestinian civilian casualties, which could create a rift between him and a key outside support groups.
The only roadblock currently to a ceasefire agreement is Hamas. There may be forward progress as Hamas softens its absurd demands. A ceasefire agreement for a period of time which allows aid to be brought into Gaza to help the residents would be very beneficial to the Palestinian civilians. Hamas softens demands? The new terms of the Gaza hostage deal outline - report Reports claim ceasefire in Gaza for six weeks, 35-40 hostages to be released • Hamas 'willing to be more flexible on terms for an outline' https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-788638
Chief enforcer of gun laws fears mass shootings may make Americans numb to violence The head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says he fears that a drumbeat of mass shootings and other gun violence across the United States could make Americans numb to the bloodshed ByALANNA DURKIN RICHER Associated Press February 24, 2024 https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/chief-enforcer-us-gun-laws-fears-americans-become-107514793 LEWISTON, Maine -- The head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says he fears that a drumbeat of mass shootings and other gun violence across the United States could make Americans numb to the bloodshed, fostering apathy to finding solutions rather than galvanizing communities to act. Director Steve Dettelbach's comments to The Associated Press came after he met this past week with family members of some of the 18 people killed in October at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, Maine by a U.S. Army reservist who later took his own life. He said people must not accept that gun violence is a prevalent part of American life. “It seems to me that things that we used to sort of consider memorable, life-altering, shocking events that you might think about and talk about for months or years to come now are happening with seeming frequency that makes it so that we sort of think, "That's just the one that happened this week,'" he said. “If we come to sort of accept that, that's a huge hurdle in addressing the problem.” Dettelbach, whose agency is responsible for enforcing the nation’s gun laws, met for nearly two hours at Central Maine Community College with relatives of those killed and survivors of the Lewiston shooting. An AP reporter also attended, along other with law enforcement officials. Some expressed frustration about missed red flags and questioned why the gunman was able to get the weapon he used. Dettelbach told his audience that they can be a powerful catalyst for change. "I’m sorry that we have to be in a place where we have to have these horrible tragedies happen for people to pay attention, but they have to pay attention,” Dettelbach said. “I can go around and talk, but your voices are very important and powerful voices. So if you choose to use them, you should understand that it makes a difference. It really makes a difference.” Those who met with Dettelbach included members of Maine's close-knit community of deaf and hard of hearing people, which lost four people in the Oct. 25 shooting at a bowling alley and at a bar. Megan Vozzella, whose husband, Stephen, was killed, told Dettelbach through an ASL interpreter that the shooting underscores the need for law enforcement to improve communications with members of the deaf community. She said they felt out of the loop after the shooting. “Nothing we do at this point will bring back my husband and the other victims,” Vozzella said in an interview after the meeting. “It hurts my heart to talk about this and so learning more every day about this, my only hope is that this can improve for the future." There are questions about why neither local law enforcement nor the military intervened to take away weapons from the shooter, Robert Card, despite his deteriorating mental health. In police body cam video released to the media this month, Card told New York troopers before his hospitalization last summer that fellow soldiers were worried about him because he was “gonna friggin’ do something.” Dettelbach, in the AP interview, declined to comment on the specifics of Card's case, which an independent commission in Maine is investigating. But he said it is clear that the nation needs to make it harder for people "that everyone agrees should not have firearms, who the law says are not entitled to have firearms, to get them because it's too easy to get them now." Dettelbach's conversation with victims was part of a tour in New England that also included meetings with law enforcement and others to discuss ways to tackle gun violence. Dettelbach, who has expressed support for universal background checks and banning so-called assault weapons, said he regularly meets with those affected by gun violence. “Each one of these shootings is a tragedy that takes lives and changes other lives forever. And that’s whether it makes the news or not, whether it’s the suicide of a child or a drive by in the city, whether it’s a massacre at a parade, a spray bullets on a subway, whether it’s a man who kills his family, murders police” or a student with a rifle “shooting up their school,” he said during a speech at Dartmouth College on Wednesday. “I submit to you that it is our patriotic duty as Americans to respond, to think of these people, to have their backs, to view this tough news as a call to action.”
America seems to gave a fixation with guns. It spreads into its police force. It spreads into its communities. It spreads into its military. It spreads into the export of weapons. It spreads internationally/globally. It spreads into global and regional wars.
And imo, American politicians are numb to the violence in Gaza, which America created by arming and abetting Israel.
Think about it, the deaths of thousands of civilians, American just don't seem to care. I'm not hearing much protest from Americans! The Europeans and Africans seem to have more concern because they're not besotted with guns.
It makes me laugh when mention is made of a civil war or apocalypse in America, the usual response is "I'll survive with a gun". Right, so in the cities you'll survive with a gun, shooting deer in NY with a gun? Ohhhh, you'll go into the countryside and shoot deer? Dream on.
Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah regardless of potential cease-fire with Hamas: 'It will happen' Netanyahu says Rafah operation would mean Israel is 'weeks away' from victory By Anders Hagstrom Fox News Published February 25, 2024 https://www.foxnews.com/world/netan...rdless-potential-cease-fire-hamas-will-happen Israel will carry out an invasion of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, regardless of whether or not it reaches a hostage exchange agreement with Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday. Netanyahu made the statement during a Sunday morning appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation" with host Margaret Brennan. He stated that Israel was still engaged in hostage negotiations, but added that the Jewish state was committed to rooting out Hamas with as little harm to civilians as possible. "If we have a deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen. If we don't have a deal, we'll do it anyway," Netanyahu said of the Rafah operation. He went on to say that any Israeli operation in Rafah would signal that Israel is just "weeks away" from total victory in the war against Hamas. The new timing is a far cry from statements Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have made in recent weeks. Netanyahu had previously predicted that the war would last "many more months." The U.S. has insisted that Israel implement a plan to protect civilians in the event of a Rafah invasion. Brennan said Netanyahu told her that he was meeting "with the General Staff to discuss the ‘dual plan’ of how to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah & how to lay siege to Hamas battalions there," she said. Israel will carry out an invasion of Rafah whether or not it reaches a hostage exchange agreement with Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday. (GPO/Reuters) The Israeli government also released its post-war plan for Gaza on Friday, a deal that was immediately rejected by Palestinian officials. Under the plan, Israel would seek open-ended control over security and civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu's government has flatly rejected calls for a two-state solution, which President Biden's administration continues to push for. Netanyahu's government has flatly rejected calls for a two-state solution, which President Biden's administration continues to support. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) The Israeli Parliament backed Netanyahu's rejection of any "unilateral" recognition of a Palestinian state last week. The Associated Press contributed to this report.