HAPPENING TODAY, AND RIGHT NOW, IN GAZA CITY, YET ANOTHER IDF-ORDERED EVACUATION, THOUSANDS ON THE MOVE CARRYING EVERYTHING THEY OWN
HEAVY SHELLING AND AERIAL BOMBARDMENT IN KHAN YOUNIS, NUSEIRAT, GAZA CITY, RAFAH
From Haitham
[7/7/24, 2:24:06 PM] Haitham: Residents were displaced from the Old City, Al-Tuffah and Al-Daraj neighborhoods after the Israeli army asked them to evacuate.
[7/7/24, 2:24:38 PM] Haitham: In Gaza City
[7/7/24, 6:28:08 PM] Haitham: It's a very very hard night. (Note: When, after nine months of shelling, Haitham says “it’s a very, very hard night,” believe him.)
[7/7/24, 6:28:47 PM] Haitham: Hard shilling and bombing everywhere
[7/7/24, 6:29:02 PM] Haitham: In Gaza City
Not Fireworks
From Haitham (lightly edited for clarity)
*In the Al-Sahaba market in Gaza City this morning, a bottle of Cola (1.25 liters) that expired months ago reached 50 shekels, or $15.
*While the price of a (quarter kilogram) of tomatoes smuggled from the south reached 160 shekels, or $46.
Hunger kills residents in the northern Gaza Strip.
Dozens of families left this morning from the north of the Gaza Strip towards the south via the Netzarim axis (the Israeli controlled road that separates north and south Gaza) from Salah al-Din Road in search of food.
Gaza War is a Boon to Terrorist Recruitment
This WashPost report is no surprise to anyone who has carefully observed U.S. actions in the Middle East — and their consequences — since the 1950s. See Wilbur Eveland’s Ropes of Sand for an account of U.S. machinations and coup-plotting written by Allan Dulles’s hand-picked Mideast agent during the 1940s through the 1970s. More recently, numerous intelligence estimates and findings have detailed the significant recruitment effect of U.S. military activities in the Middle East.
AP: A look at how settlements have grown in the West Bank over the years
You might wonder how the Israeli settlement enterprise could go on for so long, and so effectively, in the face of clearly stated opposition by both the vast majority of nations and, in particular, Israel’s biggest benefactor, the United States.
As reported earlier, the spineless Washington position on settlements always came down to two naive, indeed disingenuous, arguments:
First, Israeli government after government claimed that the settlements were not necessarily permanent and that (despite every bit of evidence to the contrary) those successive governments were committed to a two-state solution to be determined by negotiations with the Palestinians. And the U.S. government position was that we believe whatever Israel says, despite any other evidence.
As astute readers will note, Netanyahu has, for months now, been clear that he has done everything possible for more than 30 years to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. While he has surely not been alone in thumbing his nose at the United States and the international community, he has gone so far as to claim that he and he alone has been responsible for preventing a Palestinian state.
Second, every time NGOs, U.S. diplomats, Palestinians, Israeli peace activists and others reported new settlement activity, the Washington position was A) to cite as proof of Israel’s good intentions the Israeli claim that everything was subject to future negotiations, and B) insist that the settlement opponents prove that that particular newly approved settlement, by itself, would prevent establishment of a Palestinian state.
And, in reality, no amount of evidence would ever meet Washington’s standard of “proof.”
SOME OF TODAY’S DEAD
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