That's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Harrison Loves Josh." I love that comic and that's how we need to treat the hate merchants.
Let's move over to music.
So Diana Ross is on tour and getting raves like here at THE PORTLAND PRESS HERALD. And wowed them in Atlanta as noted by THE ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION:
Chastain Park Amphitheatre, which currently has the corporate name Cadence Bank attached to it, opened in 1944 as Atlanta’s first sizable outdoor music venue and it remains beloved to this day.
That same year, Diana Ross entered the world in Detroit. She would carve out a luminescent superstar career, first with the Supremes in the 1960s, then as a solo artist in the 1970s and 1980s. And she, too, remains beloved to this day.
[. . .]
So at 8 p.m. sharp, the show opened with an eight-minute video retrospective of her illustrious career, an appetizer of sorts as lines of fans were still waiting to enter the nearly full 6,900-seat open air theater. And just as she’s done for almost every concert since 1980, she opened with her joyous dance classic “I’m Coming Out,” setting the stage for a fast-paced, shimmery ride through decades of amazing tunes.
She efficiently ran through a laundry list of Supremes songs and solo hits including “Stop! In The Name of Love,” “You Can’t Hurry Love” and “Baby Love,” along with solo smashes like “Touch Me in the Morning” and “The Boss.”
Ross was radiant, her voice still
bringing a silky effervescence. Her nine-piece band and four back-up
singers provided a dynamic backdrop. She doesn’t run around the stage
the way she did in the 1980s, but she can still shimmy her hips with a
smile while singing “Upside Down.”
Rodney Ho wrote the AJC review, by the way. Gabrielle Calise (TAMPA BAY TIMES) reviewed her concert last week:
Ross’ return to Clearwater, her first Tampa Bay show since 2019, felt like a warm reunion even for those seeing her for the first time. The Motown star filled her hour-and-a-half set with the hits she knew people wanted to hear, from her solo songs to the best of The Supremes. But it didn’t feel like Ross was going through the motions on some nostalgia tour. Instead, she made it clear: This concert was a big thank you for the loyal listeners.
[. . .]
Ross proved she’s still “the boss,” with a velvet-smooth voice that sounds just as strong and sweet as it did back in the 1960s. As the last living original member of The Supremes, Ross made sure to spend time on hits like “Baby Love” and “You Can’t Hurry Love.” She flaunted tunes from her acting days: “Ease on Down the Road” from “The Wiz” and a sultry number out of the Billie Holiday-inspired film “Lady Sings the Blues.”
There were covers aplenty, including her electric version of Gloria Gaynor’s disco staple “I Will Survive.” Ross briefly shared songs from her 2021 album “Thank You,” which was written during a pandemic-induced touring pause.
Oh, yeah, that's another thing. Her Grammy nominated THANK YOU. Her best album in years. For me, her classic albums are: diana, SWEPT AWAY, THE BOSS, SURRENDER, EATEN ALIVE, EVERY DAY IS BRAND NEWS, FORCE BEHIND THE POWER, TOUCH ME IN THE MORNING and THANK YOU. And her top three albums?
3) SWEPT AWAY
2) diana
1) THANK YOU
I love every song on THANK YOU but especially on days when I need a lift "If The World Just Danced" is my go-to.
Friday, she'll be performing in New Jersey:
Catch Diana Ross live in concert at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Friday, May 17th.
Diana Ross is a radiant icon, the ultimate entertainer who has blazed a trail of glory across the decades. Legendary. Iconic. Flawless. She’s captivated the world with dazzling glamour. Her expansive song catalog of hits spans decades and music genres. “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “Upside Down,” “I’m Coming Out,” “Where Did Our Love Go,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” and “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.” An evening of music, memories and magic with the one and only Ms. Ross!
She's getting raves on this tour so make a point to check her out if she's in your area.
And I'm really hoping that one of the streamers or HBO or somebody is planning to broadcast a concert on this tour.
Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Thursday, June 16, 2024. The slaughter in Gaza continues, War Criminal Netanyahu sees some splinters in his administration, another US official resigns from the administration over its refusal to stop the assault in Gaza, and much more.
This morning, Hadya al-Alawi (THE NATIONAL) reports:
Arab and world leaders have been arriving in Manama on Wednesday and Thursday for the 33rd Arab League summit, focusing this year on reaching a consensus to help stop the Israeli war on Gaza.
Bahrain's Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad, who is also Prime Minister, received Jordan's King Abdullah II, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and Egyptian President Abdul Fattah El Sisi in Manama.
Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has arrived and was received by Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Personal Representative of King Hamad and President of the Supreme Council for the Environment.
Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad, Bahraini King Hamad's representative for Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs, welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The final text of the summit, expected on Thursday, will announced "a tougher stance against Israel", a source told The National.
The preparatory meeting of Arab League foreign ministers on Tuesday saw a unanimous vote to adopt the “Bahrain declaration” calling for a peace conference on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
As the slaughter continues, the world's objection increases and grows louder. Dr Mahmoud Sabha writes at THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:
As an American doctor, I felt called to help Palestinians who have faced a collapsing healthcare system in Gaza. My first trip was in March and I returned for another mission earlier this month, before the Israeli military assault on Rafah, in southern Gaza, which has been catastrophic. Now we have no way out.
Israel’s seizure of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt has complicated our medical team’s departure from Gaza, which was coordinated with the World Health Organization and scheduled for Monday.
We have been at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, near Rafah. If we leave, and no new mission can get in, the patients here will be abandoned and terrified. More than 1 million people had taken refuge in Rafah during the Israeli bombardment of northern Gaza, and hundreds of thousands have now been forced to flee the area amid Israel’s offensive here.
Our patients ask me where they should go, to which hospital. They tell me that some facilities are still open and ask my opinion of them. What do I say? The patients know full well about the destruction of the Al Shifa and Nasser hospitals. They know patients have been killed with IV lines and catheters still inside, and they believe that will be their fate as well if they are left alone and vulnerable to the Israeli forces.
As the horrors continue, another US official resigns. AP reports, "An interior department staffer on Wednesday became the first Jewish political appointee to publicly resign in protest of US support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the interior department, accused Joe Biden of using Jewish people to justify US policy in the conflict." Ron Kampeas (JTA) notes, "While Greenberg Call is the first Jewish Biden administration staffer to resign publicly over the war, others in her movement say she isn’t alone in her sentiments. In memos, in internal staff meetings, and in occasional bursts of public protest, a cadre of mid-level D.C. bureaucrats is dissenting from the Biden administration’s backing for Israel in the war. They describe crushing disappointment in an administration that they feel is committed to defending innocents from carnage elsewhere — most notably in Ukraine — but not, they say, in Gaza." Sanjana Karanth (HUFFINGTON POST) adds:
In her resignation letter, Lily Greenberg Call, the special assistant to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s chief of staff, Rachael Taylor, called President Joe Biden out by name and criticized his administration’s lack of condemnation.
“I joined the Biden Administration because I believe in fighting for a better America, for a future where Americans can thrive: one with economic prosperity, a healthy planet and equal rights for all people. I have dedicated my career to candidates who I believed would further this vision,” Call wrote in her resignation letter to Haaland.
“However, I can no longer, in good conscience, continue to represent this administration amidst President Biden’s disastrous, continued support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”
Call has served as a special assistant to Taylor since February 2023. She was appointed to her position after working as a field organizer for Vice President Kamala Harris’ primary campaign in 2019 and then for Biden’s campaign in 2020.
On Tuesday, Amy Goodman (DEMOCRACY NOW!) noted:
A U.S. Army officer working at the Defense Intelligence Agency has resigned to protest what he called the United States’ “unqualified support” for Israel’s war on Gaza. Major Harrison Mann wrote in a post online that the U.S. has “enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians.” He went on to write, “As the descendant of European Jews, I was raised in a particularly unforgiving moral environment when it came to the topic of bearing responsibility for ethnic cleansing.”
My grandmother’s experiences during the Nakba, when the majority of Palestinians were expelled from their homeland during the establishment of the state of Israel, have taken root so deeply in my heart that I have often felt that her memories were my own. Of all her grandchildren, I was the closest. I even called her “Immi,” which means “my mother,” copying what my aunties called her, though her given name was, ironically, “Hejar,” derived from the word “Hejjra,” meaning “migration.” I drank in her stories about the Nakba. I never imagined that I would actually live the same terror and displacement that Immi did.
My home in the western part of Gaza City was first struck by Israeli bombs on October 9. Terrified, my family groped our way out through dust and gunpowder, forgetting to grab the emergency backpacks I had prepared. We returned the next morning, and found jagged holes from airstrikes in the walls and ceilings. The windows and doors were blown out, and the kitchen entirely destroyed. Indeed, the entire street had been targeted. As we extracted the backpacks and important documents from the rubble, I remembered my grandmother describing mortar shells falling from the sky without warning in May 1948, and how she and my grandfather grabbed their children and fled for their lives, leaving all their valuables behind in their beautiful two-story home in Yaffa. How could Immi not carry her important belongings with her? I used to wonder. That judgment has entirely evaporated; in its place is my grandmother’s hard-earned wisdom that I cling to now.
My grandmother had moved to Yaffa some years earlier, after growing up in Gaza, where her father owned tracts of land planted with wheat and groves of olive trees. She had moved to the coastal city after marrying my grandfather, her cousin, who owned a tannery there. In 1948, the eldest of her (then) six children was ten years old, and the youngest was one month. I say a prayer of gratitude each time my four children survive a near miss, remembering the panic that rose in Immi’s voice as she recounted nearly losing her little girl.
As the bombing in Yaffa grew closer, my grandparents hastily lifted their children onto a passing truck, climbing up behind them. My grandmother counted her children, realizing that five-year-old Naema was missing. “Stop the truck!” she cried out desperately. They scrambled down, and my grandmother frantically stopped every passing truck, until finally she located Naema, who had been sobbing by the side of the road when another family found her and took her with them.
Netanyahu can lie but he can't stop reality from emerging. That includes within his own government. From last night's THE NEWSHOUR (PBS).
Geoff Bennett:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back today against criticism of his Gaza strategy from within his own government.
Israel's defense minister accused Netanyahu of indecision and leading Israel down a — quote — "dangerous course." The public infighting comes as the Biden administration this week said Israel did not have a political plan for what's next in Gaza.
Nick Schifrin has been following this, and he's here with us now.
So, Nick, what happened today in Israel? It looks like the private infighting has burst into public view.
Nick Schifrin:
For months, the Israeli military has been pushing Benjamin Netanyahu to look beyond individual military operations and lay out a political plan for the future of Gaza, lay out the goals that the military operations that he's ordered are designed to achieve.
And, today, Gallant, the defense minister, said that, since October, he and military commanders have been pushing for a plan to have governance in Gaza led by Palestinians with international actors, and that would presumably require the Palestinian Authority to participate.
And, today, Gallant said that his proposal was never even debated and no alternative had ever been proposed.
Yoav Gallant, Israeli Defense Minister (through translator):
Indecision is, in essence, a decision. This leads to a dangerous course which promotes the idea of Israeli military and civilian governance in Gaza. This is a negative and dangerous option for the state of Israel, strategically, militarily and from a security standpoint.
We must make tough decisions for the future of our country, favoring national priorities above all other possible considerations, even with the possibility of personal or political costs.
Nick Schifrin:
Those personal or political costs that he's speaking about is a direct reference to Netanyahu.
There are senior U.S. officials who I speak to, Geoff, who are increasingly concerned that Netanyahu is prolonging the war in order to remain prime minister. Netanyahu, of course, denies that. And he said today that his plan was to install Gazan families unaffiliated with either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, but that plan had been blocked by Hamas.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister (through translator):
Therefore, all the talk about the day after, while Hamas remains intact, will remain mere words devoid of content. Contrary to what is being claimed, for months, we have been engaged in various efforts to resolve this complex problem.
In any case, there's no alternative to military victory. The attempt to bypass it with this or that claim is simply detached from reality. There's one alternative to victory, defeat, military, diplomatic and national defeat.
Nick Schifrin:
Detached from reality. He's speaking about his own defense minister's comments there.
It's important to note that Netanyahu is worried about his coalition staying intact, members of which have been called — have called for the reoccupation of Gaza and a much more punishing military operation in Gaza.
One of them today, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, tweeted this. He said that "Gallant failed on October 7. He continues to fail now and must be replaced."
Geoff Bennett:
So, how does the Biden administration view all of this?
Nick Schifrin:
The Biden administration has been pushing Netanyahu to accept the Palestinian Authority to run Gaza after the war, and that would unlock some of the larger proposals that the Biden team has been pursuing, especially unlocking Arab participation in the day-after plan.
And, this week, Jake Sullivan made another criticism public. He said that Netanyahu needed to embrace some kind of political strategy, those goals to — that he wanted to achieve in order to win this war. And U.S. officials tell me that call has not been heeded.
THE WASHINGTON POST reports, "The International Court of Justice will hold hearings Thursday and Friday on South Africa’s request that the court order Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah." ALJAZEERA notes:
South Africa’s minister of social development says the country is returning to the ICJ, where it will today request additional measures to end Israel’s Rafah invasion because it cannot leave its job undone as Israeli attacks intensify in the enclave’s last refuge.
South Africa went to the ICJ in January to try to “halt this genocide, but unfortunately, this has not happened”, Lindiwe Zulu told Al Jazeera.
“There’s been absolutely no respect for the action that we took … no respect for the ICJ,” she said, adding that Israel has only “escalated” its attacks on Gaza since the court’s ruling in January. “We believe we cannot leave it halfway.”
This comes as another analysis finds genocide is taking place. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) reports:
The University Network for Human Rights on Wednesday released and sent to United Nations offices a 105-page report that it called "the most thorough legal analysis" yet to find "Israel is committing genocide" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The network partnered with the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law, the International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School, the Center for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, and the Lowenstein Human Rights Project at Yale Law School for the analysis, which draws from "a diverse range of credible sources" and the territory's history.
"After reviewing the facts established by independent human rights monitors, journalists, and United Nations agencies, we conclude that Israel's actions in and regarding Gaza since October 7, 2023, violate the Genocide Convention," the report states. "Israel has committed genocidal acts of killing, causing serious harm to, and inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, a protected group that forms a substantial part of the Palestinian people."
As of May 1, Israel's assault had killed "more than 5% of Gaza's population, with over 2% of Gaza's children killed or injured," the analysis notes. In recent days, Israeli forces have ramped up their attack on Rafah—where over a million people from other parts of the besieged enclave sought refuge—and the total death toll has risen to 35,233, according to Gaza health officials, with another 79,141 Palestinians injured.
"Israel's military operation has destroyed up to 70% of homes in Gaza, and has decimated civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, universities, U.N. facilities, and cultural and religious heritage sites," the document says, noting the "staggering" number of forced displacements. "Civilians in Gaza face catastrophic levels of hunger and deprivation due to Israel's restriction on, and failure to ensure adequate access to, basic essentials of life, including food, water, medicine, and fuel."
Dropping back to yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
As many as 20 American doctors and healthcare workers on a medical mission at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, in Gaza, are trapped after Israel closed the Rafah border crossing into Egypt. The Intercept reported on the Palestinian American Medical Association’s situation Monday, describing, quote, “Monica Johnston, a nurse volunteering at the hospital, said that a primary concern of those who will be leaving is that new humanitarian workers be allowed in, otherwise the hospital campus is more likely to get overrun by the Israel Defense Forces. The plan, she said, is for the U.N. to do a test run from the hospital to the border Tuesday, only carrying U.N. staff. If those staff are not killed by the IDF — as one international employee was on Monday — then on Wednesday two medical staff will be taken to the border, and two new volunteers will be allowed in to replace them, and so on in coming days,” she said.
For an update, we’re joined by Dr. Adam Hamawy. He is a plastic surgeon, Army veteran from New Jersey who’s part of the volunteer mission with the Palestinian American Medical Association at European Hospital in Khan Younis. Twenty years ago, in 2004, he saved the life of Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois when she was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade while serving in the Iraq War, losing both of her legs and partial use of her right arm. She told NBC News Tuesday, quote, “We’re shaking every tree, calling everyone to make sure we do everything we can to ensure safe passage of these doctors to whatever crossing we can get them to,” Senator Duckworth said.
Dr. Hamawy, thanks so much for being with us. Explain where you are and the situation you’re in right now.
DR. ADAM HAMAWY: Thank you very much for having me.
I am in the European Hospital in Gaza, which is in Khan Younis, on the border of Rafah. We’ve been over here over about two weeks now. And we are continuing to work the best we can with the resources we have. There’s no new updates about our status. So far, we have not been cleared to leave. We’ve heard many rumors, on and off, over the last few days about test runs and having, you know, two people leave, like you were just explaining. We were supposed have two people do a test run on Monday, but that did not happen, and I haven’t heard anything since. So we are currently on standby.
We’re continuing to do our job. We came here to help the people, to provide medical care and assistance. And we’re still here, and we’re still doing that. We are doing it with the limited supplies that we have, the limited resources that we have. It’s tiring, but, you know, this is exactly what we need to be doing at this time, because they have nothing else.
We are kind of their hope here in terms of safety. They feel secure that our presence is here, as well as the hospital, because of what happened at places like Shifa and Nasser. They feel that as long as there are foreigners here, that they are protected. They are concerned also that what happens when we leave. So, we completely understand that it’s not just about us leaving. We want to make sure that there’s continuous aid coming here and that we are replaced with another team with more supplies and resources, so that they feel safe and that we can also make this place function like a hospital.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Doctor, could you compare the situation in other war zones you have worked in, such as Iraq, to the situation in Gaza right now?
DR. ADAM HAMAWY: When I was in Iraq, I had the resources of the United States Army behind me. So, we had, you know, a combat support hospital. We had multiple specialists. We had a supply chain. Even though it might have been limited at some times, we continued to have that. And we were dealing basically with combat. You know, I was dealing with people who got injured because they were either soldiers, combatants. There were civilians that were injured, but it’s nothing compared to what I’m seeing right now. Ninety percent of who I see are civilians. And the injuries are just massive.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And in terms of your —
DR. ADAM HAMAWY: Hello?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: — your ability to access electricity, internet, phone lines and communication to the outside world, what’s it been like?
DR. ADAM HAMAWY: So, we have intermittent internet at times. Electricity also is on and off. Electricity has been even worse over the last, I would say, four or five days, just because the fuel for the hospital is running out and they’re trying to conserve it. So they’ve been cutting off electricity to some of the wards and trying to preserve it for like the operating room and the ICUs in order to make it last as long as it can go. There is — again, I have almost no cellular service. The wireless does get internet in some locations, and it’s like random. So, like, I was having a little trouble before getting on the show, so was a little frantic trying to find a good spot, and finally got it, so I’m glad I’m here.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we really appreciate you making that contact with us. If you can describe the situation with the Israeli military moving into Rafah, cutting off the border crossing, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are displaced from all over Gaza now heading back north, and what’s happening in the hospital you’re in, in Khan Younis, and particularly the children that you’re treating?
DR. ADAM HAMAWY: So, most of my patients are children. My average patient is about 12 or 13 years old. They range from — the youngest one I’ve taken care of is about 4. And the age goes up to like mid-sixties or seventies. The people — since the invasion of Rafah, we’ve had a lot of the hospital personnel leave, because they are trying to get their families out of Rafah. Many of them have either moved there from other parts of Gaza, or they have, you know, lived there and are trying to flee.
I just saw a nurse this morning. I met him the first week that I was here. He hasn’t been around for seven days, and I just saw him. He looked dehydrated. He looked completely exhausted. He basically broke down and cried, telling me what he went through. He basically went to take his family out of their home and take them basically along, you know, out into like a clear area that was a designated safe zone. He took his wife. He has two daughters, one that’s 2 years old, another that’s 3 months old. They went to a place that had absolutely no shelter. He basically said it’s like the desert there. He said that they had no tent, they had no water, they had no food. The other day, he had to stand in line from dawn to about sunset just to get a jug of water for the family. He says that he has, like, absolutely no electricity. He has no water. And he basically broke down and cried, because, he said, like, “I feel like an animal. I don’t know what to do. When we go to the bathroom, I dig a hole in the ground, and we go there.” And, you know, he says his family, a week before, like his extended family, his uncle and his cousins, were hit by a strike, an airstrike, during the night, which killed most of them, except one of his nieces and another cousin. So, he said that they all passed away and died, were killed while they were sleeping. He said, “I wish that would have happened to us, because at least we wouldn’t have to go through what we’re going through.”
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dr. Hamawy, 20 years ago, you provided lifesaving care to now-Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois when she was wounded in Iraq. Have you had conversations with her office about the situation there?
DR. ADAM HAMAWY: Yes, her office has been in contact with me, and I know she’s doing everything she can to try to help us not only leave, but to provide that humanitarian aid into Gaza, as well. I really appreciate everything she’s doing.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the United States, where you come from? On the one hand, you have President Biden announcing he’s halting a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs because he doesn’t want them used in Gaza. He also said he wants Israel out of Gaza. At the same time, on the eve of today, he announced $1 billion of weapons to Israel. If you could speak with President Biden today, what would you tell him, Dr. Hamawy?
DR. ADAM HAMAWY: I would tell him, like, “What difference is it from a 2,000-pound bomb from a 500-pound bomb?” They’re both going to kill civilians. He could stop this war right now. All he has to do is say, “We are not going to give anything, and you need to stop. I don’t care if you are our friend.” If my best friend is a serial killer, I’m going to stop being his friend, and I’m going to tell him to do something.
This doesn’t — this isn’t who we are. This isn’t our country. This is not how I was raised, not any of us, you know, what we were taught what our nation is supposed to be. We’re supposed to stand for freedom. We talk about that all the time. We claim to be the banner carriers for freedom across the world. And yet we have this foreign policy that is so hypocritical in terms of providing a little bit of aid and a lot of bombs, and we’re supposed to be — you know, we’re supposed to be, like, the United States of America. I mean, really, that’s — this is— it’s disheartening. It’s going to haunt all of us when the truth — you know, I’m here. I see it with my own eyes. At some point in time, everyone’s going to see it.
I went out to Khan Younis, and it is flattened. It looks like a nuclear bomb hit the center of town. There is not one building standing. And every building was entered in after it was bombed and completely vandalized. There’s gunshots. There’s like, you know, graffiti everywhere that was placed after it was destroyed, making it completely uninhabitable. This is not a war against —
AMY GOODMAN: Making it — vandalized by who, Dr. Hamawy?
DR. ADAM HAMAWY: Well, all the words on there are in Hebrew.
AMY GOODMAN: We only have 30 seconds. Why did you go to Gaza? You are risking your life.
DR. ADAM HAMAWY: I am a surgeon. I have skills. I have been in war, and I’ve been on humanitarian missions in the past. I feel that I can make a difference. I’ve been trying to come here, actually, since December. I’ve reached out to many medical organizations, seeing who is coming and who has a slot. And I was offered one, and I came as soon as that opportunity was offered.
This is who we are. You know, we try to help people. This is what I do. I did this, you know, when I was in Iraq. I was proud to be with a team of U.S. Army doctors that took care of everyone that came into our combat support hospital. We took care of U.S. military, we took care of contractors, we took care of Iraqis, and we took care of other nationals. It didn’t matter who they were, because we treat human beings. I had the best job in the country there, and this is what I continue to do. I treat people as humans. And the way I am seeing this war conducted is not how we conduct wars, and this is not how we are taught in the United States, and this is not who we should be supporting.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Adam Hamawy, plastic surgeon, Army veteran, now trapped at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, in Gaza, where he’s volunteering with the Palestinian American Medical Association. Again, 20 years ago, in 2004, he saved the life of now-Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, whose legs were blown off when she was serving in Iraq.
Gaza remains under assault. Day 223 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "At least 35,272 Palestinians have been killed and 79,205 injured in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 7, the enclave's Health Ministry said on Thursday. In the past 24 hours, 39 people were killed and 64 injured, the ministry added." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:
We’re talking about a three-storey building that housed not only residents but also dozens of other displaced Palestinians in Rafah that made it to Nuseirat three days ago.
I met the neighbours. I met the family. I met one of the relatives of people still trapped under the rubble earlier today. They were telling me heartbreaking things.
Imagine escaping the air strikes in Rafah, looking for a safe space but being killed after three days of evacuating – not only being killed but being trapped where the Civil Defence teams do not have any equipment to remove or pull these people from under the rubble.
I saw Civil Defence teams doing their best to pull people from under the rubble. They were digging with their bare hands, with very basic tools. This was not the first time we have seen this scene. We have been seeing this for more than seven months now.
Unfortunately, it may come to a point where the Civil Defence teams will give up on this house because there are more people being targeted every single hour across the Gaza Strip.
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