50 Comments
Oct 2Edited

Thank you for this, Qasim.

Based on the decades of experience and information which I can point to with confidence, I believe that you have summed it up the current policy position. This administration continues, in relation to the Palestinian people, "...to abandon the principles of justice, human rights, and accountability that the U.S. claims to uphold...." The tragic and unnecessary human consequences are disgusting.

People do want to begin to grasp some area of fact that begins, at least, to explain the remorseless cruelty and inhumanity of this policy thinking. A cold hard look at one factor of the many of them that are involved is provided in a Congressional Research Service publication, " Arms Sales in the Middle East: Trends and Analytical Perspectives for U.S. Policy", Updated November 23, 2020 [ https://crsreports.congress.gov R44984 ].

This one report is singled out only because it is the sort of policy analysis tool that gets lots of attention of members of Congress and of Administrations. Am I being cynical? I am not attempting to cynically simplify anything.

Let's study another relevant report, "Approaching Peace: Centering Rights in Israel-Palestine Conflict Resolution: Centering rights and human security will not only help create the conditions needed to achieve a durable political solution but also promote U.S. interests abroad", by Zaha Hassan and Yousef Munayyer, Published on April 29, 2021, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace [ https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2021/04/approaching-peace-centering-rights-in-israel-palestine-conflict-resolution ... ]. This report, early on in its presentation, asserts that what is discussed is a "...rights-based approach that espouses universal values and norms in the conduct of foreign policy...."

Consider the vast and frustrating gulf between the one and the other, that is arms-based relations as distinguished from the rights of people and the norms and values that provide living foundation for supporting the full exercise of these rights.

Your assessment, Qasim, has factual support over a very long time [filled with human tragedy]. So why do our elected officials, along with so many others, think that military arms cooperation with these nations, which includes Israel, is somehow bringing peace? Why the transparently insincere attitudes toward cooperation to bring about a durable rights-based agreement on Palestinian self-determination and on bringing Palestinians full legal protections in the many other Middle East state societies into which they have migrated or been moved?

We Americans need to make very clear that we do want VP Harris and Gov Walz to put politics completely aside in listening to our very widely shared support for the rights-based, norms and values centered conduct of American foreign policy and for the conduct of actual relations with other nations. We don't need to be trying to tell another nation what to do, but we can and we should not ignore to make the choice that we have the capacity to make to make non-negotiable our commitment to international rights-based conduct.

Americans need to stand with people of other nations. We can stand with ordinary Palestinians, just as we are standing with ordinary Ukrainians.

Thank you, Qasim, for your integrity and your candid assessments.

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I feel as if Putin isn’t challenged much because nobody really knows what he might do - he doesn’t participate in dialogue, & everyone tiptoes around him. Netanyahu argues, pontificates, goes to meetings & act like he’s reasonable, or sane, so nobody wants to punish him. I’m Jewish, and I feel like he is really alienating all the secular, reform & conservative American Jews (maybe European ones, too - and certainly many Israelis). Now GOPers are saying those of us who oppose Netanyahu are traitors. Somehow, this has got to end. Fundamentalist religion is bad for people’s health!

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Thanks, Qasim, for discussing this.

Again, Biden and important members of his Administration choose to act in bad faith. In this case, the choice allows another government, a recipient explicit and significant US supports, to act wantonly and inhumanely. The ICC decision against the Israeli government appears to have every documented support necessary to warrant it.

If Biden and/or any in his cabinet disagree with this decision, then it is the legal responsibility of the Biden Administration to give a full, factual and legal accounting. Otherwise, it appears as bad faith and as willful hypocrisy, as well as an explicit form of Administration support for willful human tragedy and willful disregard for international norms protecting people.

I do not see that Biden and his Administration can defend what are clear abuses, abuses so egregious and so targeted, so murderous.

Like you, each of us must publicly speak out against the actions and against the bad faith support for them, and each of us can also support humanitarian interventions that are still possible.

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Russia attacked Ukraine. Isreal was attacked. Isreal is a small country and Russia covers 10% of the earth's landmass and spans 11 timezones. The comparison is a difficult one.

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Israel is a small country, but they have killed nearly twenty times the number of people as Russia has. Both Russia's attack on Ukraine and Hamas's attack on Israel were provoked (I do not say justified, but provoked), Russia by a buildup of weapons and ethnic cleansing of Russians living in Ukraine, Hamas by 75 years of ethnic cleansing and apartheid of Palestinians. Yes, the comparison is difficult, because Israeli war crimes are far more heinous.

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You're one of few making sense Qasim. I'm a 64-year-old Jew who lived with my head in the sand until last October when I met a Palestinian-American and learned the truth. How do we spread the word wider to stop the slaughter??

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Because they’re all dirty and they just dunno how to come clean … so WE all can just move the f#ck on. I’m getting tired of the bullshit and it’s starting to look like UAE 🇦🇪 knows better than U.S. … but I’m just a stupid American 🇺🇸. This is the topic everyone wants to avoid.

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As an observer of politics and the almighty justification of the almighty human and its attendant belief system, this is expected. I despise Netenyahu, he isn’t anything but a weak man basking in a type of political blackmail over the United States because of our Judeo Christian mythology. I’m sure this post will receive a lot of backlash but bring it on. Perhaps research worldwide belief systems and how they came to be. Humans use these belief systems for power over others. Not any different than a church leader or a dictator. People need to be led and they know it.

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Knowing the virulent Communist hating/baiting and the Nazi powered anti antisemitism (that was already in full bloom in the good ol USA) in the lead up to WWII, it is flummoxing to see Putin and Netanyahu grinning at each other. It is also weird to see Biden so enamoured of Netanyahu. Has he been infected by the Christian Nationalist support of Israel, or by AIPAC money?

Afraid if he has consorted with AIPAC the money he keeps lavishing on the IDF is really and truly blood money that will follow him to his grave and diminish the USA even further. We have a lot of ground to make up with the rest of the free world.

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More likely Biden is influenced by the “Neocon” penchant for World Hegemony” whereby the key was thought to reside in the “Middle East” . Some say because of the fabulous amount of oil (perhaps even other vast resources of “necessary” minerals etc (probably for the vast productions of the military industrial complex. Biden has been shown on video dazzling upbeat about how ‘we would have had to invent Israel if it had not been there ‘ in order ‘to control’ the Middle East! It was apparently a long term duality strategic foreign policy position. It was put into action by the Brits, Rothchild and Balfour after the First World War to cement the Western position in that strategic area. Roosevelt gave it a boost by making a deal with the Saudis (armed protection in exchange for unlimited Saudi oil) and they agreed to the idea of a Jewish homeland in the Levantine! It has the lynchpin doctrine since the Second World War! So it would be easy to intuit why the “West” is having difficulty over their troubles with their Great Hegemony linchpin!

“World Hegemony

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Living Islam of Living Allah is of the “Al-Kitab” that gets written over your own heart through "Logical Reasoning" by the Grace of our Supernatural Father of our supernatural “Soul” Al-Ilah = Allah. No son of your tribal father, Qom, "Ilah" no son of Supernatural Father Allah = INSHALLAH ISLAM.

Only “fools” will believe in me and not in Allah.

http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/JattIslam.htm

NANAK HOSI BHI SACH.

ASK, SEEK AND KNOCK.

REAL SHARIAH-FREE ISLAM OF ALLAH - NOOR

IN HONOUR OF ROYAL SHAH SHAMS TABRIZI.

HUKUM RAZIAN CHALNA; NANAK LIKHYA NAAL.

Sants of the Fourth Panth = Millatt are “Dass”. They are the Apostles residents of the Akal Takht but today, terrorists with Guns and swords are occupying it. Remember that Akal Takht is the Holiest of the Holy Takht for the spiritual rule over the hearts of the people. Next to the Apostles are the Khalsas of the Third Panth and are of the “Singh” surnames, Gotras. And Christ Nanak was the Second Coming of Satguru Jesus, the “Christ = Satguru” and not a Brahmin “Guru” of the world – BRAHMIN HAE “GURU” JAGATT DAA; BHAGTAN KAA NAHI. The greedy Khatris have messed up the devotees so much that they did not know the First and the Second Panths.

http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/tenlights.htm 

Akal Takht for the Roving Apostles, NIRMALLAE SANTS and Harmandir Sahib for the Sikh   B hagtan are occupied by TERRORISTS. https://youtu.be/QasTTQLRs28

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Why did Sachae Patshah Gobind Singh Ji and His Tatt Khalsas never enter the Holiest of the Holy Amritsar Complex?

https://youtu.be/2UYYQ-5tKTI

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Our funding of the genocide in Gaza sickens me. We need to stop sending arms for war crimes

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As usual, such an insightful discussion on this difficult situation. I have written a number of emails to President Biden asking him to put conditions on our assistance with weapons and most recently asking that he just DEMAND Netanyahu stop blocking aid of food, water and medicine to Gazans. This alone is absolutely incredible....that on October 8, 2023 Israel blocked the flow of water, food, medicine, and fuel into Gaza and have not reversed this. And that they are currently actively targeting and killing Aid workers!!! In what world is this not genocide??? And why our government can't demand that this stop as a condition of sending weapons??? This action will not affect Israeli self defense!!! They CAN do this. And it will not affect their ability to defend themselves from Hamas and hezbollah.

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Thank you Qasim, i have been fretting about this for months. yes it is VITAL for u.s. to not be aiding and abetting apartheid- for decades- and the (42k to 2.3k) with devastation to hospitals, water supplies, sanitation along with almost every building…. 🤬 netanyahu stated his goal is to remove all Palestinians; with their Pegasus and capabilities they could realize children are not Hamas. my stepfather’s foster son, a south vietnamese boy brought to the states for medical treatment, exemplifies the incoherent destruction of “they might be the enemy “ or in the case of indigenous people ….

the lengthy history of the Palestinian people, from before and especially after 1948, the conditions they have been forced to live in, it was foreseeable the powderkeg would blow.

the many wars israel has fought against all their neighbors through the decades and now with Hezbollah ~ tragic cycle.

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The US empire has committed so many crimes against humanity that I've lost count.

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It was founded on a desire to violate peace treaties and slaughter indigenous people, so always has been.

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Hey I got own wars to deal with

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I will say this, we are facing multiple crisis and I am well aware of the financial and security repercussions of allowing the petrodollar to collapse, but if my prosperity and security must be night with the blood of the innocent, then I don’t want it.

If the Harris admin does not cut ties with Israel, I will not vote for her again in 2028. If that means our nation falls into a fascist hellscape, then we will deserve it.

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That is going further than necessary. I will never stop fighting fascism.

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I didn't say I would stop fighting, I said I won't vote for someone who fails to bring about meaningful change in an area that involves genocide. For centuries, the people of the global north have put their head down and pretended there's nothing we can do about systemic exploitation of the global south. To be frank, that's total bullshit.

People accept it because they're comfortable. I'm not willing to become comfortable with genocide, which is what our total exploitation of the south will result in, even if we stop Israel. We have at best 20 years to make serious progress on climate change before 2 billion people will be forced to migrate or die.

At some point, you have to admit that you're a part of the system making it happen. If our leaders just give us pretty words, small concessions, and continue with the status quo, then why would I want to continue being a part of that?

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Right now, not voting for Harris will equate to voting for trump. The status quo is not good, but it's a heck of a lot better than the dictatorship we will have under trumps project 2025.

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Which is why I explicitly said I would not vote for her in 2028 if she does not enact change. My friend, please stop trying to argue something that I am not saying.

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Not vote for her in 2028... got it. Praying she will win in 2024 and we will still have a real election in 2028.

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We already live in a fascist hellscape. Biden locked down the southern border and the wall is being built. Abbott and his cronies are still operating down there, illegally and getting away with it. They want blimps to monitor the Canadian border and they're building cop cities nationwide. They've also sent 40,000 more troops to the Middle East. I don't remember voting for any of this shit. I voted for the codification of Roe, voting rights, raising the minimum wage, and universal healthcare. None of those things happened. Oh, they also failed to stop the fascists because they had to "reach across the aisle" and it was just business as usual. Both parties are responsible for this nightmare we're in.

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It is possible that Canada has accepted at least as many refugees from the US as have crossed our border southwards.

We live in a bubble of ignorance and wilful denial of rights we claim for our selves (excepting of course, the idiots pushing theocracy and tyranny on this always flawed democracy. There has always been a population here that slams the doors on anyone not christian, not white and has grossly countenanced and benefited from the genocide of the original inhabitants of this land mass. It has never ceased. It is as foundational to this nation as slavery and every white settler, setting foot on this continent is the inheritor of this generational guilt., from supreme court justices to the so-called white trash . Everyone of us has profited from the bald faced thievery of our ruling classes.

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We are NOT living in a fascist hellscape. We are faced with some terrible foreign and domestic policies. The root causes of our problems are well articulated by historian/journalist Thom Hartmann; too much for here, suggest googling some of his articles.

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We have people of color being lynched, executed without evidence or proper trial (both in and outside of our slave labor prisons), near-endless wildfire ravaging the western coastal provinces, and cultural genocides taking place right now (Hawaii being one that's been happening since it was violently occupied, with their language and traditions banned and/or turned into tourist merchandise for 'exoticism'.)

So fuck right off.

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Agree terrible, but not a fascist hellscape. If you have not, pls read Project 2025.

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Oh no, the dying middle-class inside the Empire might finally get treated exactly like everyone else.

The horror.

You do realize voting won't 'save' us right? It's long past the point of needing to physically organize with your neighbors and coworkers.

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🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

Bless your privileged little heart🤣 The US is complicit in ANOTHER fucking genocide. Need I remind you the US dropped 2 ATOMIC BOMBS on civilians in Japan. Our government is a fucking crime syndicate. It was never a democracy🤣 Any country that commits NUMEROUS crimes against humanity sounds pretty fucking fascist to me🤷‍♀️ Why can't you see that? It's blindingly obvious.

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We have done terrible things. We have also done some very good things, including to save the world from fascism in WWII. Please check a study on characteristics of fascism. We are not there, yet. See Project 2025 for the blueprint of bringing actual fascism to the US.

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Bless your heart 🤣 The fascists won WWII. Can't you tell by the state of the world right now🤦‍♀️

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Read Haaretz, one of Israel’s largest newspapers, to see how there is widespread disdain there for what Netanyahu is doing.

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It's truly remarkable how the vast majority of humanity is opposed to this genocide but it persists because of 2 or 3 wealthy men.

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I think actually by a lot of hard right zionists in the Israeli cabinet, supported by many people in that country.

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