Saturday, February 03, 2024

Joni Mitchell on The Grammy awards broadcast (CBS) on Sunday

 Joni Mitchell's performing on The Grammys tomorrow night on CBS.  Don't forget.  This will be Joni's first-time-ever performance at a Grammy Awards broadcast.  From a recent NYT article on Joni:

 

Mitchell, who was given a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2002 and has won nine competitive Grammys throughout her career - going back to best folk performance in 1970 for "Clouds" - is up this year for best folk album with "Joni Mitchell at Newport," where she was joined by Brandi Carlile, Wynonna Judd and Marcus Mumford, and sang classics like "Big Yellow Taxi," "Both Sides Now" and even George Gershwin's "Summertime."

The Newport appearance - an unannounced set facilitated by Carlile - sparked Mitchell's first ticketed live performance in more than 20 years. The show, a headlining set at Carlile's Echoes Through the Canyon festival at the Gorge Amphitheater in George, Wash., in June 2023, was a nearly three-hour marathon, and "a resurrection," Lindsay Zoladz wrote in The New York Times. "To hear Mitchell hit certain notes again in that inimitable voice was like glimpsing, in the wild, a magnificent bird long feared to have gone extinct." 

  At THE GRAMMY website, Nina Frazier notes:

 

The 2024 GRAMMYs will feature a special In Memoriam segment to honor the lives of some of the incredible individuals that the music world lost this year with performances by GRAMMY-winning and -nominated artists. 

Stevie Wonder will take the stage to pay homage to the legendary Tony Bennett, celebrating Bennett's remarkable contributions to music and devotion to the Great American Songbook.

Annie Lennox will perform in tribute to Irish icon Sinead O’Connor. Joining her for this heartfelt homage will be Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman

Jon Batiste is set to honor Clarence Avant, the "Godfather of Black Music," with a performance dedicated to the influential figure's impact on music and culture. Lenny Kravitz, one of this year's Global Impact Award recipients, will also play a significant role in this segment, both participating and introducing the tribute, linking two generations of music icons.

In a tribute to the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll, Tina Turner, Fantasia Barrino will perform, capturing the spirit and energy of Turner's music. Oprah Winfrey will also be part of this segment, introducing the performance, and adding a layer of gravitas to the tribute to one of music's most powerful voices.

In addition to the In Memoriam segment, the 2024 GRAMMYs will feature breathtaking performances from the leading artists in music today. Performers at the 2024 GRAMMYs include Billie Eilish, Billy Joel, Burna Boy, Dua Lipa, Joni Mitchell, Luke Combs, Olivia Rodrigo, SZA, Travis Scott, and U2

Several confirmed GRAMMY performers will make GRAMMY history at the 2024 GRAMMYs this weekend: Mitchell will make her GRAMMY performance debut, while U2 will deliver the first-ever broadcast performance from Sphere in Las Vegas. Click here to see the full list of performers and presenters at the 2024 GRAMMYs.

 

 

Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

Friday, February 2, 2024.  Even a US court can see what Joe Biden refuses to.


The International Court of Justice is weighing whether or not Israeli action in Gaza qualifies as genocide.  Another court, a US court, heard a case this week brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights. Thursday, Amy Goodman (DEMOCRACY NOW!) noted:

In related news, a U.S. federal court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of Palestinian Americans against President Biden and other officials for failing to prevent genocide in Gaza. The court dismissed the suit on jurisdictional grounds but ruled that it is plausible that Israel is engaging in genocide. In its ruling, the court wrote the evidence and testimony presented “indicate that the ongoing military siege in Gaza is intended to eradicate a whole people and therefore plausibly falls within the international prohibition against genocide.” The lawsuit had been brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights. Click here to see our coverage of the case.

This is from CCR's press release:

According to Katherine Gallagher, Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights who argued the genocide case before the court, “The court affirmed that what the Palestinian population in Gaza is enduring is a campaign to eradicate a whole people – genocide – and that the United States’ unflagging support for Israel is enabling the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the famine facing millions. While we strongly disagree with the court’s ultimate jurisdictional ruling, we urge the Biden administration to heed the judge’s call to examine and end its deadly course of action. Together with our plaintiffs, we will pursue all legal avenues to stop the genocide and save Palestinian lives.” 

According to plaintiff Waeil Elbhassi, “My family lived through and was displaced by the first Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948, which the world has barely acknowledged. Yet in court on Friday, I testified to make a record of Israel’s horrific slaughter of my family, and the destruction of my homeland and Palestinian heritage, and to demand that the United States stop giving the Israeli government its total financial and diplomatic support for this ongoing genocide, a second Nakba.” 

Plaintiff Mohammed Monadel Herzallah said, “It is important that the court recognized the United States is providing unconditional support to Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and that a federal court heard Palestinian voices for the first time, but we are still devastated that the court would not take the important step to stop the Biden administration from continuing to support the slaughter of the Palestinian people. Currently, my family lacks food, medicine, and the most basic necessities for survival. As Palestinians, we know this is a hard struggle, and as plaintiffs we will continue to do everything in our power to save our people’s lives.” 

“To be clear, this is far from a win for the U.S. government. It is unprecedented and damning that a federal court has all but affirmed that Israel is committing a genocide while criticizing defendants Biden, Blinken, and Austin’s ‘unflagging’ support for the acts that constitute that genocide,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Diala Shamas.

The Palestinian plaintiffs, represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights, together with co-counsel from Van Der Hout LLP, are the Palestinian human rights organizations Defense for Children International – Palestine and Al-Haq; and the individuals Dr. Omar Al-Najjar, Ahmed Abu Artema, and Mohammed Ahmed Abu Rokbeh, who are in Gaza; and Mohammad Monadel Herzallah, Laila Elhaddad, Waeil Elbhassi, Basim Elkarra, and Ayman Nijim, who are U.S. residents with family in Gaza.

To watch a recording of the hearing, visit the court’s website.

To watch a recording of the plaintiffs’ press conference following the hearing, visit the Center for Constitutional Rights YouTube page.

For more information, see the Center for Constitutional Rights’ case page.
 



US District Court Judge Jeffrey White dismissed the case on procedural grounds late on Wednesday, citing the division of powers under the US Constitution. He said in his decision that “disputes over foreign policy are considered nonjusticiable political questions” and fall outside his jurisdiction.

“There are rare cases in which the preferred outcome is inaccessible to the Court. This is one of those cases. The Court is bound by precedent and the division of our coordinate branches of government to abstain from exercising jurisdiction in this matter,” he wrote.

But White added that, as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said in a provisional ruling last month, “it is plausible that Israel’s conduct amounts to genocide.”

“This Court implores Defendants to examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza.”


Julian Borger (GUARDIAN) notes, "The Palestinian groups and their lawyers said they might appeal against the dismissal of the case, but welcomed the judge’s judgment on the potential for genocide."  Marjorie Cohn (ZNET) adds, "The lawsuit alleges that Biden, Blinken and Austin transferred weapons and military equipment to Israel during its unfolding genocide. The defendants have asked Congress to appropriate $14.1 billion in military assistance to Israel — in addition to the $3.8 billion the U.S. already provides to Israel each year. Blinken authorized a $320 million transfer of military equipment to an Israeli manufacturer of precision bomb kits."


Whether or not a legal court in the US can address these issues, the court of public opinion is addressing them.  It's an election year -- a presidential election year in the US.  Donald Trump appears to be the GOP's candidate.  (Appears to be, nothing is settled for either party yet.)  And Joe Biden appears to be the Democrat's candidate.  A rematch of 2020?  That appears likely.  So you'd think both would be pulling from their supporters four years ago.  Joe's struggling.  The fact that his voters in 2020 are not any fonder of Donald four years later, the fact that the world -- not just this country, the world -- worries how bad things might get with the return of Donald to the White House, does not mean that Joe's 2020 voters are lining up behind him for 2024.  Zack Colman (POLITICO) notes:


President Joe Biden’s attempt to lock down many of the young, climate-minded voters who supported him in the last election is running aground over the war between Israel and Hamas.

Biden promised to be the “climate president” when he won the White House four years ago — and he’s making fresh attempts to woo green activists again, including by taking the dramatic step of halting new permits for natural gas exports. But that message is in danger of being drowned out as many of those youthful environmentalists voice their frustration with Biden’s refusal to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The tension over Biden’s climate outreach is just one example of the growing divide between the president and his progressive base over his staunch support for Israel — a dynamic that is also ripping across issues such as race and abortion rights. Polls show that younger voters are disproportionately likely to support both aggressive climate action and the rights of the Palestinians, complicating Biden’s efforts to get them to flock to the polls for him in November. 

Pro-cease-fire outbursts have interrupted a series of public appearances by Biden and his aides in recent weeks, including a climate speech Tuesday by USAID Administrator Samantha Power where someone in the audience urged her to “resign and speak up.”

“27,000 people have been killed,” the person called out during the former U.N. ambassador’s speech on “climate shocks” at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg Center in Washington. “You know what would cause a lot of climate shock — is the bombardment of Gaza.”

Earlier this month, audience members chanted “cease-fire now” during Biden’s remarks on extremism and democracy at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the site of the 2015 murders of nine Black churchgoers by a white supremacist. Last week, more than a dozen protesters yelling slogans such as “genocide Joe” repeatedly interrupted an abortion-rights rally that Biden was holding in Virginia with Vice President Kamala Harris.


It should be a breeze for Joe to hold on to his 2020 supporters.  Donald's not gotten any smarter, any kinder or even remotely humane.  But Joe struggles because he won't show leadership.  This is embarrassing for him as a politician -- his inability to lead.


It reminds me of Crash and Burn Clinton as one cable familiar who used to be in Bill's administration used to call the man from Hope, Arkansas.  Bill's presidency was in constant upheaval because ''the comeback kid'' needed to repeatedly take himself to the brink of destruction to bring himself back.  It was the family dynamic he was raised in and he repeated it as president.  


In 2020, Joe refused to listen to advisors and thought he pulled off a miracle.  No, he didn't pull off a miracle.  A large portion of Joe's voters did not even like him.  It was a vote opposing the 'other guy,' not  a vote endorsing Joe Biden.  Having failed to grasp that and ignoring poll numbers (approval ratings), Joe clearly has no idea just how unpopular he is.  And he's risking the state of the world with his nonsense.


Zachary Basu and Barak Ravid (AXIOS) report:


Driving the news: Biden did not meet with any Muslim or Arab community leaders in his visit to the Detroit area, where he delivered a campaign speech to UAW workers a week after receiving the union's endorsement.

  • Pro-Palestinian protests were held Wednesday night in Dearborn, Michigan — home to the country's largest Muslim population per capita — but Biden's event was not disrupted.

Zoom in: The raw anger many of these communities have expressed toward Biden's policies — including his refusal to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war — cannot be overstated.

  • Activists have organized an "Abandon Biden" campaign that plans to endorse a third-party candidate, even at the risk of boosting former President Trump — who is likely to be more hostile to the Palestinians.
  • Some Palestinian American community leaders declined an invitation to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken today, saying they "cannot imagine" what he could have to say after "nearly four unbearable months."
  • Last week, some Arab American elected officials refused to meet with Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez in Michigan — calling it "dehumanizing" to discuss electoral politics while the war is ongoing.

What they're saying: "When you send campaign staff as the first delegation to this community to meet with us for the first time, that sends a message that this is purely a political problem that you see," Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud told PBS Newshour.


Democratic Party voters in South Carolina and/or Nevada could force a wake up call on Joe if enough got behind Marianne Williamson in the two primaries to increase her support.  I don't mean enough to let her win the primary (great if she did) in either state.  But if she picked up from 4% (New Hampshire) that might be enough to force Joe to see reality.


The reality of what's taking  place is hitting home for more and more people around the world.  This realization comes despite lies and smears, attacks and distortions.  In fact, Julie Hollar (FAIR) has just completed another media analysis, this time on who the media lets speak:

At the New York Times and Washington Post, despite efforts to include Palestinian voices, opinion editors have skewed the Gaza debate toward an Israel-centered perspective, dominated by men and, among guest writers, government officials.

In the first two months of the current Gaza crisis, the Times featured the crisis on its op-ed pages almost twice as many times as the Post (122 to 63). But while both papers did include a few strong pro-Palestinian voices—and both seemed to make an effort to bring Palestinian voices close to parity with Israeli voices—their pages leaned heavily toward a conversation dominated by Israeli interests and concerns.

That was due in large part due to their stables of regular columnists, who tend to write from a perspective aligned with Israel, if not always in alignment with its right-wing government. As a result, the viewpoints readers were most likely to encounter on the opinion pages of the two papers were sympathetic to, but not necessarily uncritical of, Israel.

Many opinion pieces at the Times, for instance, mentioned the word “occupation,” offering some context for the current crisis. However, very few at either paper went so far as to use the word “apartheid”—a term used by prominent human rights groups to describe Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Clear calls for an unconditional ceasefire, while widespread in the real world, were vanishingly rare at the papers: two at the Times and at the Post only one, which itself was part of a collection of short responses to the question, “Should Israel agree to a ceasefire?,” which included strong opposition as well.

For guest perspectives, both papers turned most frequently to government officials, whether current or former, US or foreign. And the two papers continued the longstanding media bias toward male voices on issues of war and international affairs: the Times with roughly three male-penned opinions for every female-written one, and the Post at nearly 7-to-1.


Gaza remains under assault. Day 118 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." ALJAZEERA notes, "At least 27,019 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli attacks since October 7 while another 66,139 have been wounded, the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave has just said."  AP has noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  And the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."  Max Butterworth (NBC NEWS) adds, "Satellite images captured by Maxar Technologies on Sunday reveal three of the main hospitals in Gaza from above, surrounded by the rubble of destroyed buildings after weeks of intense bombing in the region by Israeli forces."   

 
Joe Biden's actions are endangering the Palestinians as well as widening the conflict.  Yesterday, DEMOCRACY NOW! explored the widening war.



 

NERMEEN SHAIKH: The U.S. military carried out new airstrikes in Yemen today, targeting 10 drones and a ground control station that it said, quote, “presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region.” The airstrikes are the latest targeting the Houthis. The group, also known as Ansar Allah, has waged a campaign of attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November 19th in response to Israel’s assault on Gaza.

On Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said its forces shot down an anti-ship cruise missile. According to CNN, the missile came within a mile of a U.S. destroyer before it was shot down, marking the closest a Houthi attack has come to a U.S. warship.

Meanwhile, the Houthis said they would stage more attacks on U.S. and British warships in the Red Sea in what they called acts of self-defense. This is Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea on Wednesday.

YAHYA SAREA: [translated] The Yemeni Armed Forces will confront the American-British escalation with escalation and will not hesitate to carry out comprehensive and effective military operations in retaliation to any British-American foolishness against beloved Yemen.

AMY GOODMAN: The Houthi campaign targeting shipping has affected a key route for global trade between Asia, the Middle East and Europe, with several shipping companies suspending transit through the Red Sea. On Thursday, Italy’s defense minister warned the shipping disruptions threaten to destabilize Italy’s economy. This comes as the European Union’s Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said on Wednesday the EU plans to launch a naval mission of its own within three weeks to help defend cargo ships in the Red Sea.

For more, we’re joined by Helen Lackner, the author of several books on Yemen, including Yemen in Crisis: The Road to War and Yemen: Poverty and Conflict. She’s been involved with Yemen for over half a century, lived there for a total of more than 15 years between the '70s and the 2010s. She's joining us from Oxford, England.

Helen Lackner, welcome to Democracy Now! Can you tell us who the Houthis are and explain what their demands are, the significance of what’s happening in the Red Sea?

HELEN LACKNER: Well, thank you very much for inviting me.

Yes, I think I’ll start with the second half of your question, which relates directly to what has been happening and the various announcements you’ve just made. And the Houthis have been extremely explicit and repeat on an almost daily basis that their attacks on ships in the Red Sea will stop as soon as the Gaza war ends and humanitarian and other supplies are allowed into Gaza, and therefore the Palestinians will no longer be under the threat and the horrors that you’ve earlier described and that most of us have seen on our screens for many, many weeks. So, the important thing is that although the U.S. and the U.K. claim that they’re only defending free movement in the Red Sea and refuse to accept any connection between this and the war in Gaza, for the Houthis it’s absolutely straightforward and explicit that, number one, they’re only targeting ships that have any connection with Israel — whether they’re going to Israel, coming from Israel, delivering stuff owned by Israelis, or whatever, any connection whatever — and that other ships are not targeted — except, of course, now. Since the U.S. and U.K. strikes have started, they are also targeting U.S. and U.K. ships. So, they’re absolutely explicit that all other ships are welcome to travel through the Red Sea and that there is — you know, there is complete freedom of movement for any ship other than an Israeli- or U.K.- or U.S.-connected one. And I think that’s extremely important.

And the reason the Houthis have taken this action in support of Palestine is that one of the very fundamental policy issues or ideological positions that the Houthis have is the support for Palestine and, more directly, being anti-Israelis. The Houthis are — the Houthis’ foreign policy is quite clearly summarized in their basic slogan of “death to America and death to Israel.” They are absolutely — you know, their positions are absolutely straightforward on these points. So, although they are willing to allow other ships through, they are actually, up to a certain point, not displeased at the fact that the Americans and the U.S. are now actually targeting their various launch positions.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Helen, could you give us some background, though? What are the origins of this movement? And how is that they came to play such a prominent role in Yemen?

HELEN LACKNER: Yeah. So, the Houthi movement started in the 1980s, 1990s. I think what you need to understand is that, in terms of religious sects, Yemen is divided into two basic sects: a Sunni sect of — called al-Shafi’is, who basically live in the majority of the country, and a branch of Shi’ism called the Zaydis, who live basically in the mountainous highlands of Yemen. And the Houthis are al-Zaydis. And in that sense — and again, within the Zaydi movement, there’s a certain variety, in the sense that the Houthis, I would say, are extremist Zaydists, and they’ve developed their ideology and their policies to strengthen their own branch of Zaydism. And they basically emerged in response to the rise of Sunni Salafi fundamentalism within their own area in the far north of Yemen. And so there have been conflicts and problems, you know, arising since the 1990s.

Between 2004 and 2010, there was a series of six wars between the Houthis facing and fighting the then-regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. And this ended, basically — each one ended with a ceasefire which was promptly broken. The reason the last one in 2010 was not broken was as the result of the uprisings in 2011 of the — you know, known as the Arab Spring in various places. And that was a moment when the Houthis joined with the revolutionaries and basically took a position against — you know, they continued their position against the regime. So, they then were for — during what was a transition — supposedly, a transition period between the Saleh regime and what should have become a more democratic regime in 2014, the Houthis then changed their alliances, and indeed Saleh changed his alliance, so they operated together against the transitional government. And then, eventually, that allowed them to take over the capital Sana’a in 2014 and then to oust the existing transitional government in early 2015.

And that’s when, really, the war started, which was then internationalized from March 2015 with the intervention of what was known as the Saudi-led coalition, which was basically a coalition led by the Saudis and the Emiratis, with a few other states with minor roles, but supported actively by the U.S., the Europeans and the British and others.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And what was the point at which —

HELEN LACKNER: So, those are really —

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Sorry, just to clarify, what was the point at which the Iranians started backing the Houthis? Was it in the moment when the Saudi-led bombing began, in 2015, or was it prior to that? And if you could also clarify the distinction between — as you said, the Yemenis are Zaydi Shias, and to what extent Zaydis are ideologically or theologically aligned with the dominant form of Shi’ism in Iran, and what that has to do with Iran’s complicity or support for Houthis, whether or not now they do as Iran says?

HELEN LACKNER: Yeah. Thank you for these, for bringing up these points. The Iranian role at the time, in 2015, when we’re in the internationalized civil war started, was minimal. The Iranian involvement with the Houthis, and prior to that and since then, has always been connected with, partly, theological connections, but differences. So, in that sense, the Houthis are differentiating themselves from other Zaydis by having adopted a number of the rituals and activities and approaches of the Iranian Twelvers. It’s all a matter of how many imams they trust or they believe in after the Prophet Muhammad. But in practice, the Houthis are getting closer to the Iranians in — to the Iranian Shi’ism over the last decades, but they are still — sorry, the last decade, but they are still, you know, quite distinct. So the alliance is much more a political alliance.

And the Iranian involvement, which was really very, very insignificant at the beginning of this war, has increased over time, and is primarily — you know, has been, for a while, mainly financial and of providing fuel and things like that to the Houthis, but more recently has been much more focused on military activities and primarily on the supply of advanced technology. If you look at the Houthi weaponry — and I’m no military expert — but the Houthi weaponry originally was basically a lot of Scuds and other Russian-supplied materials and also some American-supplied materials to the Saleh regime. And these have been upgraded and improved and changed, to some extent, thanks to Iranian support. So, in that sense, you have more — the Iranian involvement has become greater.

But it’s very important to note that the Houthis are an independent movement. The Houthis are not Iranian proxies. They are not Iranian servants. They don’t do what the Iranians tell them to do. They make their own decisions. If their decisions and their policies coincide with those of Iran, then, you know, there’s no issue. But if they don’t, they don’t do it. So it’s very important, I think, to destroy this myth of Iran-backed Houthis in a single word as if it’s kind of a conglomerate. That is not the case.

AMY GOODMAN: Helen, if —

HELEN LACKNER: I hope that briefly answered your point.

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, and we don’t have much time, but I did want to ask you about the Houthi support in Yemen, whether it’s increased, and the Houthi human rights record.

HELEN LACKNER: Yeah, great. Well, yeah, as you said, we haven’t got much time. Basically, the Houthi — the support for the Houthis in Yemen has increased, has multiplied. I can’t even imagine — find a suitable terminology to say it. The Houthis, you know, who run an extremely authoritarian and autocratic regime, which is not a pleasant regime for people to live under, you know, and was lacking support — and you have to remember that the Houthis actually rule and run the lives of two-thirds of the population of Yemen, so, you know, about 20 million people live under Houthi rule, and it’s not a pleasant place to be. There’s no freedom of expression. You know, women are oppressed. All kinds of negative features connected with Houthi rule.

But the Yemeni population are extremely supportive of Palestine. And therefore, this action of the Houthis has, you know, really, really increased their support. If you take a look and you maybe show on your screen some of the demonstrations that happen every Friday in Sana’a and in other cities, they’ve become absolutely massive, because although people may not like living under Houthi rule, they agree with the Houthi actions in support of Palestine. And so, that has increased and improved their popularity an enormous amount, not only in the area they rule, but also in the rest of Yemen, which is, you know, not ruled by them.

AMY GOODMAN: Helen Lackner, we want to thank you so much for being with us, author of a number of books on Yemen, including Yemen in Crisis: The Road to War and Yemen: Poverty and Conflict. She’s been involved with Yemen for over 50 years, has lived there for about 15.

Coming up, an investigative report by the BBC reveals new details of how American mercenaries were hired by the United Arab Emirates to run an assassination campaign in Yemen. Back in 60 seconds.

So much still that we're not going to get to this morning.  One thing we've got to include today is this from John Russell's report for LGBTQ NATION:


Republican lawmakers from Ohio and Michigan admitted on social media that the “endgame” of their efforts at restricting access to gender-affirming care is to ban such care for adults as well as minors.

Michigan state Rep. Brad Paquette (R) hosted the X Spaces meeting Friday, which brought together several Michigan state senators and representatives and Ohio Rep. Gary Click (R) to discuss policy around gender-affirming care for minors with detransitioner and anti-trans activist Prisha Mosley.

While much of the hour-long conversation focused on transgender young people, towards the end, Michigan state Rep. Josh Schriver (R) pivoted to adults.
“My whole thing is, in terms of endgame, why are we allowing these practices for anyone?” Schriver asked. “Why would we stop this for anyone under 18, but not apply this for anyone over 18? It’s harmful across the board, and I think that’s something that we need to take into consideration in terms of the endgame.”


Contrary to what Schriver said, every major medical organization in the U.S. has recognized that gender-affirming healthcare is evidence-based, safe, effective, and can be medically necessary to treat gender dysphoria in both adults and young people.

Responding to what he described as Schriver’s “very smart thought,” Click said that “what we know legislatively is we have to take, sometimes, small bites.”


I'm sure you already expected this but the 36-year-old piece of garbage Brad is also one who chips away at reproductive rights.  I know nothing about him -- but, yes, I've heard the rumors too -- but isn't it surprising that they whisper about that and not about how he looks like Lauren Hutchinson on SQUARE PEGS.  What do you say about that hair style anyway? 
 




 Fetching?

He's obsessed with bathrooms and wants to prevent children from using the bathroom of their gender if it's not the gender at birth (he's sponsored HB4510).  Another of his bill is HB4539 where he wants to make it illegal for a doctor to prescribe puberty blockers, etc and also -- pay attention here -- make "female genital mutilation" a crime and someone transporting a female to a surgery a crime.  He's really concerned about women's bodies, isn't he? Strangely, he forgot to include boys.   But he's obsessed.  HB4540 -- his bill -- is another trying to stop puberty blockers as well as to block surgery.  Does the state of Michigan really want him so obsessed with their children's genitals.  And, sorry to be that woman, but isn't their something a little sick about a  man obsessed with children's genitals?  Could we get a law passed on that?  HB4819 is another doozy from him and here he wants to --

I can't summarize this one.  No one would ever believe me.  He's that disgusting and that obsessed with other people's lives.  Here's what HB4819 wants:

(1) As used in this section and section 2837, "physical complication" means a physical condition occurring during or after an abortion that, under generally accepted standards of medical practice, requires medical attention. Physical complication includes, but is not limited to, infection, hemorrhage, cervical laceration, or perforation of the uterus.

(2) A physician who performs an abortion shall report the performance of that procedure to the department on forms prescribed and provided by the department. A physician shall transmit a report required under this subsection to the director within 7 days after the performance of the abortion.

(3) Each report of an abortion required under subsection (2) shall must contain only the following information and no other information:

(a) The age of the individual at the time of the abortion.

(b) The marital status of the individual at the time of the abortion.

(c) The race and, if applicable, Hispanic ethnicity of the individual.

(d) The city or township, county, and state in which the individual resided at the time of the abortion.

(e) The name and address of the facility and the type of facility in which the abortion was performed.

(f) The source of referral to the physician performing the abortion.

(g) The number of previous pregnancies carried to term.

(h) The number of previous pregnancies ending in spontaneous abortion.

(i) The number of previous pregnancies terminated by abortion.

(j) The method used before the abortion to confirm the pregnancy, the period of gestation in weeks of the present pregnancy, and the first day of the last menstrual period.

(k) The method used to perform the abortion.

(l) The weight of the embryo or fetus, if determinable.

(m) Whether the fetus showed evidence of life when separated, expelled, or removed from the individual.

(n) The date of performance of the abortion.

(o) The method and source of payment for the abortion.

(p) A physical complication or death resulting from the abortion and observed by the physician or reported to the physician or his or her the physician's agent before the report required under subsection (2) is transmitted to the director.

(q) Any of the following reasons for obtaining the abortion:

(i) The present pregnancy was the result of a rape.

(ii) The present pregnancy was the result of incest.

(iii) Economic reasons.

(iv) A child is not wanted at this time.

(v) Emotional health is at risk.

(vi) Physical health is at risk.

(vii) Relationship problems.

(viii) The present pregnancy involved a diagnosis of 1 or more fetal anomalies.

(r) (q) The physician's signature and his or her the physician's state license number.

(4) The report required under subsection (2) shall must not contain the name of the individual, common identifiers such as her social security Social Security number or motor vehicle operator's license number or other information or identifiers that would make it possible to identify in any manner or under any circumstances an individual who has obtained or seeks to obtain an abortion. A state agency shall must not compare data in an electronic or other information system file with data in another electronic or other information system that would result in identifying in any manner or under any circumstances an individual obtaining or seeking to obtain an abortion. Statistical information that may reveal the identity of an individual obtaining or seeking to obtain an abortion shall must not be maintained.

(5) The department shall destroy each individual report required by this section and each copy of the report after retaining the report for 5 years after the date the report is received.

(6) The department shall make available annually in aggregate a statistical report summarizing the information submitted in each individual report required by this section. The department shall specifically summarize aggregate data regarding all of the following in the annual statistical report:

(a) The period of gestation in 4-week intervals from 5 weeks through 28 weeks.

(b) Abortions performed on individuals aged 17 and under.

(c) Physical complications reported under subsection (3)(p) and section 2837.

(7) The reports required under this section are statistical reports to be used only for medical and health purposes and shall must not be incorporated into the permanent official records of the system of vital statistics.

(8) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (10), the department or an employee of the department shall not disclose to a person or entity outside the department the reports or the contents of the reports required by this section in a manner or fashion so as to permit the person or entity to whom the report is disclosed to identify in any way the individual who is the subject of the report, the identity of the physician who performed the abortion, or the name or address of a facility in which an abortion was performed.

(9) A person who discloses confidential identifying information in violation of this section, section 2834(6), or section 2837 is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 3 years or a fine of not more than $5,000.00, or both.

(10) The department may release the reports or the contents of the reports required by this section to the department of licensing and regulatory affairs for regulatory purposes only. The department of licensing and regulatory affairs or an employee of the department of licensing or and regulatory affairs shall not disclose to a person or entity outside of the department of licensing and regulatory affairs the reports or the contents of the reports required by this section in a manner or fashion so as to permit the person or entity to whom the report is disclosed to identify in any way the individual who is the subject of the report, the identity of the physician who performed the abortion, or the name or address of a facility in which an abortion was performed.




He really has no life, does he?  Just a hateful little man with a teenage girl's haircut, having a hissy fit about things that really don't concern him. 

These people are disgusting.

They've destroyed ROE and they now want to run from that.  They are so deeply stupid.  The country favored ROE.  It was a voter turn out for the Democratic Party.  So the GOP destroys it and only afterward grasps that it was a political mistake?  It's deeply unpopular.  It didn't matter to them what the American people thought.

It's the same thing here.

These hateful people -- these Glynneth Greenwalds -- attack transgender people, lie about them, lie about the medicine, lie about the research and want to impose their stupidity and hate upon the rest of us instead of learning to mind their own business.  







While madmen sit up building bombs
And making laws and bars 
They're going to slam free choice behind us


The following sites updated:


Thursday, February 01, 2024

Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, Prince, Joan Baez

 
That's Billy Joel's new song.


Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell will perform at the Grammys this month -- it will be the first time she has ever performed at a Grammy ceremony.  In addition, next fall, she'll be performing at The Hollywood Bowl.   Bhavya Balamurali (THE UBJ) reports:



The legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is set to grace the stage in Los Angeles for her highly anticipated “Joni Jam” concert at the iconic Hollywood Bowl on October 19. The performance, featuring the talented Brandi Carlile, marks Mitchell’s first headlining show in L.A. in a quarter of a century. This announcement has stirred excitement among fans, and Mitchell’s return promises an unforgettable musical experience.

Joni Mitchell’s Remarkable Comeback: After a two-decade hiatus from headlining shows in Los Angeles, Joni Mitchell is making a triumphant return with the “Joni Jam” concert. Mitchell, who joined Brandi Carlile onstage at the Hollywood Bowl in October 2022, has been gradually re-emerging into the spotlight after overcoming health challenges, including a debilitating brain aneurysm in 2015.

"Lesson In Survival" is one of my favorite Joni Mitchell songs.  It first appears on the excellent FOR THE ROSES album.  Here's a demo version of it that appears on her hidden 96 songs NOW PLAYING Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975).




Another song I'm loving right now is Prince's "Love . . . Thy Will Be Done."



One more artist to note, Joan Baez.  She has a column at THE WASHINGTON POST:





I hated school and was an outsider — different, brown, odd. Long before I picked up the ukulele and found refuge in music, I picked up the pencil and found refuge in drawing.

I drew my way through the torture known as middle school, and then on through high school. First it was five dollars apiece for portraits of Jimmy Dean (my last entrepreneurial venture), then portraits of Albert Einstein and Jawaharlal Nehru for my mom. I even drew every class project my teachers would allow me to: the study of human hair, how I imagined God to look.

Decades later, as an adult, I dabbled more with color. I worked with chalk, crayons, charcoal, pastels, watercolors, markers and colored ink, and I used brushes, fingers, hands, all in my own deliciously undisciplined fashion.

When I was in my 70s, I had a burgeoning — soon to be overwhelming — desire to use “real” paints. I assumed that would mean oils. But a local artist introduced me to acrylics, with which, at the time of this writing, I’ve now had a ten-year affair. I began with collages and worked in my kitchen on heavy, all-purpose art paper until the table was no more than a makeshift studio with no place left to put so much as a coffee mug. I moved myself and my paints into what until then had been an uninsulated pool house.



I like Joan.  But I recently noted something.  For most of her career, of course, she recorded songs by others -- starting with the folk ballads in the sixties.  But she also wrote some songs.  She wrote "Diamonds & Rust" -- one of her two top forty hits.   

Dadadadadada dah.  Or something like that.  That's the melody.  I never really grasped how it's just one series of short notes with whatever the last note is held long -- even if it shouldn't be due to the word being sung.



 

Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

Thursday, February 1, 2024.  The death toll in Gaza has now passed 27,000, Chicago stands up to demand a cease-fire, more details emerge about the War Crimes carried out in Israel's raid of a hospital, Samantha Power gets called out on her participation in genocide, and much more.


For the second day in a row, we're starting in the US and again with Chicago.  CBS NEWS reports:

With Mayor Brandon Johnson casting the tie-breaking vote, the Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, amid the monthslong war between Israel and Hamas.

The debate was so heated, Johnson cleared the public gallery after repeated interruptions from protesters, just as he did in October during a contentious vote on a resolution condemning the Hamas surprise attack that sparked the war.

With the vote among alders 23-23, Johnson's approval was needed to pass the resolution, which makes Chicago the largest city in the nation to pass a Gaza ceasefire resolution; joining Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, Oakland, and San Francisco.


Monica Eng (AXIOS) adds, "Chicago is now the largest U.S. municipality to urge President Biden to support a ceasefire, putting the Democratic National Convention's host city at odds with the administration's stance on the conflict and signaling growing discontent in the country."  Yes, seven months from now, Chicago's United Center will be hosting the party's political convention at which, it's expected, Joe Biden will be named the 2024 presidential nominee.  

March 31st.  Election year 1968, March 31st.  That's when then-sitting President Lyndon B. Johnson announced he would not be seeking re-election despite having already started his campaign.  Who knows, Joe might do the same.

He probably won't.  And Marianne Williamson probably will not get the party's presidential nomination.  



That's one of Marianne's latest videos.  She's upping her game and focusing on Nevada at present.  She is on the ballot in South Carolina -- which will be voting next.  

Again, it's very doubtful that she's going to get the nomination.  But it is possible.  

Does Marianne get on your nerves?  She gets on some people's nerves and I know that because I've known her for years and as many people ask me excitedly what she's like, I've heard the sneer in voices of those who don't like her and manage to register that in the tone in which they ask, "What's she like?"

So if you're one of those people who doesn't like her, you should be paying attention.  You'll most likely to get some joy over watching her go all out and not get the nomination.

If you like what she stands for, you should be watching as she goes deeper on the issues trying to help shape the dialogue.

If you're a poli sci student, what she's doing now should be fascinating because she's taken stock and made a left turn.  The obvious choice as this point in the campaign would be to drop out.  She's making a different choice and we should be watching that to see how it plays out because there will be so many lessons to learn from this.  

What she's doing is news and I'm surprised networks aren't grasping this David against Goliath story comes with so much built-in interest.  They really should be covering this. 

Before the 24 to 23 vote in Chicago yesterday, there was doubt that the measure calling for a cease-fire could pass.  But it did.  And it's one more step on the road.  By the same token, no one knows what impact Marianne's new strategy is going to have.  What she's doing right now is news and should be covered as such.


Johnson urged her to continue.

But as Silverstein spoke about the Oct. 7 attack, a man in the audience yelled “Wadea was murdered because of your lies.” The man then left, to applause and high-fives.

He was referring to Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy who was stabbed to death in Plainfield a week after the Hamas attack, allegedly by the landlord of the home where he lived with his mom. Authorities said the landlord’s wife told them he regularly listened to conservative talk radio and  became worried his tenants’ “Palestinian friends” would “come and harm” him before he allegedly murdered the boy.

As chants of “Cease-fire now!” continued, the mayor ordered a recess and asked the sergeant-at-arms to clear the chambers.

Protesters were moved to the hallway, then initially required to return to the lobby to be re-screened to enter the glass-shielded third-floor observation gallery. 



This week, Israeli forces attacked a hospital, they disguised themselves, entered a hospital, attacked a nurse and then with their guns waiving went on to kill three unarmed people.  One of whom was paralyzed.  What brave men, right?  Remember, when you've got someone who's paralyzed and can't move, send the 'brave' IDF in.  That's the sort of action they can handle.

The action was illegal and it is a War Crime.  From yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!




AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

Thousands of Palestinians took part in a funeral procession Tuesday in the occupied West Bank for three Palestinians killed by Israeli assassins in a shocking undercover raid on a hospital in Jenin. Surveillance footage from the Ibn Sina Hospital shows around a dozen undercover Israeli forces storming the hospital, guns raised, wearing white doctor’s coats or hospital scrubs and dressed as Muslim women wearing headscarves. One of the undercover troops carried a rifle in one arm and a folded wheelchair in the other.

The Israeli military claimed the three men it targeted were involved in planning an imminent attack and were using the hospital as a hideout, without providing evidence. Hospital officials said there was no exchange of fire and that the three men were asleep, indicating the raid was a targeted killing. One of the three men killed had been receiving treatment at the hospital since being injured in an Israeli drone attack on October 25th and was partially paralyzed.

This is Naji Nazzal, medical director at Ibn Sina Hospital.

NAJI NAZZAL: [translated] They killed the three youth — Basel and Mohammed Ghazawi and Mohammed Jalamneh — in their room while they were sleeping on their beds in the room. They were killed in cold blood with direct gunshots to the head.

AMY GOODMAN: Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 380 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7th, while more than 6,300 people have been arrested.

For more, we go to Ramallah, where we’re joined by the Palestinian physician, activist, politician Mustafa Barghouti. He serves as general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative.

Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Dr. Barghouti. If you can start off by laying out exactly what you understand about this assault on the Jenin hospital? Who was killed? Who were these undercover assassins who moved in dressed as Muslim women in headscarves, dressed as doctors and hospital staff?

DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Well, it is clear that those who assassinated the three Palestinians in the hospital are a Israeli military group, a special security group that is called the Arabists here. They usually act and dress as Palestinians in various places, and this is not the first crime they committed. But, by the way, this same group was taking photographs with the minister of internal security, the fascist, Ben-Gvir, recently, and he published that photo, and he praised them as heroes.

What they’ve done is really unacceptable and represents a very serious violation of international humanitarian law in four different issues. First of all, they dressed as doctors, as nurses, as health professionals. And they put one of them, one of the assassins, on a wheelchair and dragged him into the hospital. This way, they are endangering actually all medical personnel, because from now on nobody will be sure that he’s dealing with a doctor or somebody who’s disguising as a doctor.

Second, they penetrated the hospital in an illegal manner, very early, in the very early hours of the morning. And they have no right to enter the hospital without even notification and without any alarm. And in principle, they are not allowed to enter the hospital.

Third, they attacked a patient who was handicapped, who was paralyzed, in his bed, while he was sleeping, and shot him in the head, and shot two others who were accompanying him in the same room — three Palestinians — in an act that can only be called as an act of assassination and illegal execution of Palestinians.

In every aspect of international humanitarian law, they have violated the law. They are continuing that. They are proud about it. They’re praising themselves for doing it. And that is all happening because the world is allowing Israel to be impunitive to international law and impunitive to any law, as a matter of fact.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Dr. Barghouti, I also wanted to ask you what’s going — in terms of what’s going on in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, more than 380 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and civilians, and supposedly there is no Israeli military activity going on in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. But could you talk about that other war, that the rest of the world is not paying any attention to?

DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Yes. Actually, Israel is reoccupying the whole of the West Bank. I mean, since the 7th of October, not only they’ve killed 380 people, but more than that. They are allowing settlers to wander around with guns, and these settlers are behaving as terrorists, terrorizing Palestinian people. And in addition to that, the Israeli army has arrested, since the 7th of October, 6,300 Palestinians in the West Bank, including no less than 200 children, including women. They kidnap people, and they put them in jail without trial, without any legal process, without even charges. And in addition to that, they have divided the country in 224 small islands, with 650 military checkpoints, each of which has become a point of harassment for people and a very dangerous spot, because Palestinians could be killed for no reason. And the Palestinian Authority has lost any authority. Practically, Israel took over all of the West Bank, although West Bank is not under the government of Hamas, as they claim and regard in Gaza.

But that’s not the only thing. All these violations happen, and instead of punishing Israel or blaming Israel for its violations of international law, we see many Western governments, including United States of America, punishing the Palestinians. And if you’ll allow me to speak about that, I think the whole case of UNRWA was used by Israel to distract attention from the ICJ resolution, which indicted Israel for a plausible genocide. Instead of punishing Israel, they took up this case where Israel is claiming that some workers in UNRWA have been engaging in military actions, without any proof, without investigation. And then you found 12 European countries and United States of America and Canada and Japan cut off support to the only organization that is providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, that is the only bridge to humanitarian aid in Gaza. We are subjected to collective punishment. Palestinians, who are the victims of the Israeli aggression, of the possibility of a genocide, are subjected to collective punishment by these governments, none of whom have condemned this Israeli attack on the hospital.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to a clip of the U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller at a briefing on Tuesday. He was being questioned about the Israeli raid on the Jenin hospital by the Associated Press reporter Matt Lee.

MATT LEE: This operation that the Israelis launched in Jenin, the hospital today, what — do you have any comment on that? Is this something that you think is problematic, or is it something that you look at with envy, like this is some kind of great Mission: Impossible mission that we wish that we could also do?

MATTHEW MILLER: So, I’d say that we strongly urge caution whenever operations have the potential to impact civilians and civilian installations. That, of course, includes hospitals. We do recognize the very real security challenges Israel faces, and its legitimate right to defend its people and its territory from terrorism. Israel, of course, has the right to carry out operations to bring terrorists to justice, but those operations need to be conducted in full compliance with international humanitarian law.

MATT LEE: Well, do those operations include going into hospitals and murdering people in their beds, regardless of whether they’re —

MATTHEW MILLER: So —

MATT LEE: — you know, they are suspected or even known terrorists? Is that OK with you guys?

MATTHEW MILLER: So, there was a lot in the premise of that question. Obviously, they — we did know that they went into —

MATT LEE: Well, you don’t think that they went in —

MATTHEW MILLER: We — well, hold on. We —

MATT LEE: — and killed complete — people who were completely innocent, do you?

MATTHEW MILLER: So, let me say that this —

MATT LEE: Because if you did think that, then you would be condemning it, right?

MATTHEW MILLER: We certainly would, but I would say that Israel has said that these were Hamas operatives. They have said that one of them was carrying a gun at the time of the operation. So, I’m not able to speak to the facts of the operation. You’d have to pass some kind of legal judgment, know all of the facts of the operation. But as a general matter, they do have the right to carry out operations to bring terrorists to justice, but they need to be conducted in full —

MATT LEE: Including in hospitals?

MATTHEW MILLER: So, we want them to conduct their operations in compliance with international humanitarian law.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller being questioned by the AP’s Matt Lee. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, if you can respond to what he’s saying specifically here? And also, overall, then, talk about the attacks in West Bank and Gaza on the healthcare system, going right to Nasser Hospital, which is the largest hospital after Al-Shifa. It’s in southern Gaza, and it has been under siege for the last few days. But start with the spokesperson.

DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: There are many things to say here, but let me start by what he said about the proper legal process. Israelis should not have entered the hospital. They should not have disguised as doctors and nurses. This is all violation of international humanitarian law. But even if they wanted, they could have arrested these three guys and charged them and give them a due legal process, instead of executing them on the spot, just on the basis of their suspicion. What is the legal here? What is the legal system here? Israel now can say about anybody that he’s a Hamas terrorist or a terrorist or anything else and then kill him in the street, and nobody will condemn that. United States of America has no right not to condemn this action.

And it is unacceptable that they continue to use double standard because they don’t want to criticize Israel. Why? Because they know that they are participating with Israel in what could be perceived or condemned as an act of genocide by supplying Israel with weapons, by supplying Israel with soldiers even. They’re supplying Israel with advisers in its terrible attacks on Gaza.

And on the other hand, Gaza — Israel has been continuously persistent in attacking all hospitals, not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. They have subjected Tulkarem hospitals to attacks. They’ve subjected Jenin hospitals to attacks. They’ve subjected hospitals in Nablus to attacks. And they continue to do that in Gaza, where they’re bombarding the hospitals, bombarding the hospitals, killing patients, killing doctors, killing nurses. And add to that the fact that Israel has killed in Gaza, up to now, 304 of our colleagues, medical doctors, nurses, first aid providers. In addition, they injured 300 others while they were performing their medical duties. And they have arrested 90 of these health workers, including the director of Shifa Hospital, who is subjected now to torture in Israeli concentration camp in the Negev near Be’er Sheva.

This is the exact behavior of Israel. Do we hear any condemnation from the United States of America or from the United Kingdom? No. All the condemnation, all the punishment, all the collective punishment, is directed only at one people, which are the Palestinian people. We don’t understand how could these countries that claim that they are struggling — that they claim they support human rights, they claim they support democracy, they claim they support international law, and at the same time not only they are allowing these crimes to happen against the Palestinians, but they are actually participating in them.

That’s what’s happened in Jenin, like what’s happening now in Gaza, where, by the way, 32,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, if we include the 7,000 under the rubble, and more than 65,000 people have been injured. That is more than 4% of the population of Gaza. Had this happened in the United States of America, you would be talking about 12 million people killed or injured in less than three months. Proportionally, the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza after three months is more than all Americans killed in all America’s wars since the 18th century. Is that acceptable? Is that allowable? That is the question that should be directed to Biden administration and to the American administration. How could they continue to allow Israel to be so impunitive to international law? And how could they allow this act of collective punishment against the Palestinian population when it comes to UNRWA and other health, humanitarian services?

By the way, the International Court of Justice decided there should be support to providing humanitarian supplies to Palestinians, and Israel should be responsible for that. What do we see in reality now in Gaza? I’ve been talking to our 30 medical teams working there. They say there is a decline in the amount of support that is coming, in an unprecedented manner. What they get is absolutely not enough, less than 100 trucks daily, while what they need is 1,000 trucks daily, considering the terrible situation. We have people in the north and in the center of Gaza who are calling us, saying they are starving. They have no food. They have no medical supplies. Our colleagues have to operate on people, injured people, without anesthesia. And 600,000 people, according to the World Food Programme now, 600,000 Palestinians now in Gaza are starving. What does the United States of America do about that? Do they do anything, or just protect Israel and provide protection for this Israeli aggression?

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, we want to ask if you can stay with us 'til after break. We're going to talk about that conference that took place in Israel. Almost a third of the Israeli Cabinet was there. A number of the Cabinet members addressed the conference, calling for the Israeli resettlement of Gaza. We’re talking to Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian physician, activist and politician, who serves as general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative. We’ll also be joined by a reporter for +972 Magazine. Oren Ziv will join us from Tel Aviv. He covered the conference of thousands of Israelis. Back in 20 seconds.



In other War Crimes the Israeli government has carried out on medical care, Geneva Abdul (GUARDIAN) reports:

An Israeli airstrike hit a compound housing doctors working for UK charities in January, a month after the the Israeli military told British counterparts the site was marked protected, MPs were told earlier this week.

Conservative MP and Foreign Affairs Committee chair Alicia Kearns said the compound in Al-Mawasi, “a supposed safe zone in Gaza”, housing the UK charity Medical Aid for Palestinians and the International Rescue Committee was bombed by an F-16 airstrike in January.

Raising the incident during a parliamentary debate on Monday, days after the UN’s International Court of Justice ordered Israel to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, Kearns said:

Thankfully, the four British doctors living there were only injured, although that itself is a cause for concern.

A month before that, on 22 December, it was confirmed via UK defence channels that the IDF had logged the co-ordinates of the humanitarian base and de-conflicted it, marking it as a protected sensitive and humanitarian site. I am gravely concerned that the airstrike still took place.

Around 6am on 18 January, the missile strike severely damaged the compound, injuring a number of team members and the compound’s security guard, according to MAP, who said following their evacuation, were unable to continue their work at Nasser hospital, the largest remaining health facility in Gaza. Last week, Doctors Without Borders and Medecins Sans Frontieres warned the hospital in Khan Younis was no longer able to provide vital medical services.

MAP said in a statement:

The IRC and MAP are working with the UN to determine what has happened and to ensure the continued safety of our teams and viability of their vital humanitarian work.

Foreign minister and Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell acknowledged the strike and said it had been raised by the foreign secretary, David Cameron in Israel last week, and by the UK ambassador, Simon Walters, in Tel Aviv.

Mitchell said:

We continually remind the Israeli government of their duties under international humanitarian law. The bombing of the compound is an extremely serious matter.

The incident comes as the UK Department for Business and Trade is being challenged by the Global Legal Action Network (Glan) in a judicial review over its decision not to revoke arms export licences to Israel. Last month, court documents revealed UK Foreign Office legal advisers were unable to conclude that Israel was in compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL) in its bombardment of Gaza.

According to the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), the UK provides components to US-built equipment destined for Israel, including Head-Up Displays for F-16s.

Siobhan Allen, a senior lawyer at Glan, said:

The papers released through our legal case show that, even as the UK government continued to allow arms licenses for weapons to assist Israel in its assault on Gaza, its own Foreign Office harboured ‘serious concerns’ about Israel’s compliance with IHL.

Those concerns can now only be more acute in the face of an incident of such obvious concern as this, where UK weapons appear to have been used in a direct attack on a site Israel knew to be a de-conflicted, protected, humanitarian site.

The Israeli military has been approached for comment.




Gaza remains under assault. Day 117 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." ALJAZEERA notes, "At least 27,019 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli attacks since October 7 while another 66,139 have been wounded, the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave has just said."  AP has noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  And the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."  Max Butterworth (NBC NEWS) adds, "Satellite images captured by Maxar Technologies on Sunday reveal three of the main hospitals in Gaza from above, surrounded by the rubble of destroyed buildings after weeks of intense bombing in the region by Israeli forces."   


"South Africa’s foreign minister alleged Israel is ignoring the ruling by the United Nations’ top court last week, which ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, by killing hundreds more civilians in a matter of days in Gaza," AP notes. And you can see that in the daily headlines.  Here are just two items Amy Goodman noted on Wednesday's DEMOCRACY NOW!:


New satellite imagery shows at least 144,000 buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the Israeli bombardment began nearly four months ago — that’s more than half of all buildings in the Gaza Strip, including mosques, schools, universities and cultural sites. Corey Scher of the City University of New York told the BBC, “We’ve done work over Ukraine, we’ve also looked at Aleppo and other cities, but the extent and the pace of damage is remarkable. I’ve never seen this much damage appear so quickly.”

[. . .]




Israel has admitted it has begun flooding tunnels in Gaza with seawater despite warnings from the United Nations that the move could damage Palestinian drinking water and sewage systems. Israel said Hamas and other Palestinian groups have built as many as 450 miles of tunnels, where many leaders of Hamas are believed to live.


THE NATIONAL notes further War Crimes:

Israeli soldiers have been ordered to burn down Gaza homes “until they are rendered useless”, according to a report by Haaretz newspaper. Several hundred homes have been incinerated in the past month, the Israeli newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Three army officers leading Israel's offensive on Gaza said burning homes occupied by the military has become “common practice”, it said.

One commander told his troops to “clear your things from the house, and prep it for incineration” when leaving the area last week, he told the newspaper.


CNN adds, "The International Rescue Committee and Medical Aid for Palestinians say they have evidence that indicates Israel carried out a strike earlier this month on a compound in Gaza housing humanitarian workers in a supposed safe zone. "  ALJAZEERA notes, "The Palestine Red Cross Society (PRCS) say it still has not heard from the ambulance crew 66 hours after it was sent to rescue a six-year-old girl called Hind in northern Gaza. Hind was trapped in a car with the bodies of her family members, one of whom was killed while on the phone pleading for help from the PRCS."



Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development and a world-renowned scholar on genocide, was pointedly challenged by current and former USAID employees who during a public event Tuesday questioned her stance on the war in Gaza and complicity in the divisive U.S. policy.

“You wrote a book on genocide and you’re still working for the administration: You should resign and speak out,” said Agnieszka Sykes, a global health specialist who told The Washington Post she left her job at USAID late last week.

Sykes interrupted a speech Power was giving in Washington on climate change and natural disasters to invoke Power’s book “A Problem from Hell.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning work examines and condemns U.S. inaction on various atrocities, from Armenia to Rwanda, spanning several presidential administrations.

Like other members of President Biden’s National Security Council, Power oversees an agency deeply divided about Washington’s military support for Israel’s war in Gaza and refusal to demand a cease-fire.

This is an excerpt from a full story.


The following sites updated: