Peace with Justice in the Middle East

My Reading and Listening since 10/07/023

Introduction

I have tried to speak out publicly via letters to the New York Times and Cleveland Jewish News, and news account of the Palestinian Voices event at City Club for the Washtenaw Jewish News, but last fall I started a substack with this in the My Beats section. I am not an expert of the region and do not speak Hebrew or Arabic. But I have been learning.

My bibliography of items I’ve read/listened to since 10/07/23 is here: https://tinyurl.com/MEPJMostRecent. My YouTube playlist titled Middle East Peace with Justice is here https://tinyurl.com/Middle-East-Peace-With-Justice. In both cases, inclusion does not mean agreement. In both cases, inclusion does not mean agreement. Here is a link to the indepensable J Street News Roundup: https://jstreet.org/news-roundups/. It is valuable to read this pamphlet from J Street about their vision for what I call a Middle East Peace with Justice.

Readers are encouraged to send links to items to add, including books, to michaelalandover@gmail.com with Lagniappe Links in the subject. Minor updates do not produce subscriber notificaitons, only new posts, so readers are encouraged to subscribe (at no cost). Send comments to the above email please. Following are my periodic commentaries.

6/25/25: Dropsite on possible Israel/Gaza ceasefire.

6/25/25: Harold Myerson on Israel as a hegemonic state.

6/22/25: Haaretz on the day after the US attack on Iran. I fear that Trump’s recklessless will result in the creation of a literal market for tactical nuclear weapons, with stolen weapsons from Pakistan, something Noan Chomsky has long feared, acquired somehow by Iran or by terrorist actors.

6/12/25: CNN reports on the Global March to Gaza arriving in Egypt today.

6/5/26 Ilan Goldenberg of J Street discusses a reckoning that is coming in Israel. He sheds light on contradictory polling results: “Something else that I found on this visit was an Israeli society that was at the beginning of a deep reckoning, with conflicting and contradictory views. On two things Israeli society is clear. First, they don’t like Netanyahu and this government and poll after poll shows it. Second, 70% of the population supports ending the war. They believe that this is the best way to get the hostages out, and that for them is the first priority, which was evident by the pictures of the hostages that we saw everywhere. They are also deeply skeptical of Netanyahu’s pronouncements that total victory is right around the corner, having heard that for more than a year, and then watching their loved ones who serve in the reserves going back to war again and again and again and fighting again and again in the same Gaza neighborhoods, which were supposedly cleared months ago.

However, when you start to talk about what needs to happen after the war ends and the hostages come home things get much more confusing. I saw some polling that showed that 60% of Israelis were willing to pursue a strategy that included a proposal by President Trump to end the war, get the hostages out, get a deal with the Arab states that includes integration into the region with Saudi Arabia and others, and as part of that support a demilitarized Palestinian state. That seemed too good to be true. Separately a poll released while I was in Israel found that 82% of Israelis support expelling Palesitnians from Gaza. That seemed too bad to be true. But really what it shows is how fluid the moment is in Israeli society and how people are so undecided about where to go that asking the question a certain way can lead to such wildly different results.”

6/5/25 Dropsite News reports on the mosquito protocol where the IDF uses human shields.

6/1/25: Dropsite again scoops the mass media, publishing the text of the Hamas response to the the Israeli proposal. Meanwhile, a poll conducted by Penn State draws ghastly conclusions about Israeli Jewish public opinion, per Haaretz report. The article links to earlier criticism of Jewish Israeli public opinion. And see this from February also in Haaretz. This is an English language liberal/left Israeli publication saying these things; why is there not constant debate and concern in our US Jewish community? Why so few sermons taking this issue on? Of course, reports like this just stoke further dismissal from the US far left of any possibility of a two-state solution, and drives many especially younger US Jews into a new identity as “anti-Zionist” I explore elsewhere in my thread under Beats on anti-ZionISTism and anti-Palestinianism.

Below, I mention a wounded Israeli hostage who appeared in a Hamas video. Here is Haaretz report of him: “HOSTAGES/CEASE-FIRE: Ofir Angrest, brother of hostage Matan, told a Knesset committee it was unacceptable to leave him in captivity. "Two months ago a video was released by Hamas of my brother, I saw there a person I do not recognize – broken, wounded and hopeless."

5/31/25: Jim Williams alerted me to this Haaretz (gift) report of demonstrations in Haifa calling for ending the war, two-state solution, recognizing Palestine. So much for the idea the two-state solution is dead. The German left (Die Linke) makes continued support for a two-state solution a basic point of unity, but noooo, not the US far left.

5/31/25: Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s piece (Haaretz Gift), in which he definitively accuses Israel of war crimes. On the ceasefire front, Hamas is insisting on changes in the ceasefire agreement Israel approved, per NYTimes gift. This is disastrous; I fear Israel will refuse. Israel is just not going to commit to a permanent ceasefire at this time. Perhaps it would were the additional hostages actually released, and international pressure grew—during the ceasefire—on both sides to end the war. It appears to me that Hamas ran into opposition from one or more of its partners. BBC is more definitive: “A senior Hamas official has told the BBC the Palestinian armed group will reject the latest US proposal for a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. The White House said on Thursday that Israel had "signed off" on US envoy Steve Witkoff's plan and that it was waiting for a formal response from Hamas. Israeli media cited Israeli officials as saying it would see Hamas hand over 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 dead hostages in two phases in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The Hamas official said the proposal did not satisfy core demands, including an end to the war, and that it would respond in due course.” WAPO reports (gift) Witkoff says the Hamas response is unacceptable. How did this incompetent negotiator thing they would respond?

Coverage from Haaretz (gift) of the upcoming international peace conference continues. As I have long been saying for years and years, the approach, “final status negotiations, first, recognition of Israel and/or Palestine later” is an utter failure and needs to be replaced by recognition first, final status negotiations later. The US far left will likely in the end, as I have long predicted, actually oppose this process and oppose a two-state solution, in a quest for its ridiculous belief in some kind of one-state solution. Or, after years of doing nothing to build support for a Palestinian state, it will say, oh, we changed our mind. Meanwhile, more and more states are recognizing Palestine, and more and more states are saying they will agree to recognize Israel if it does not stand in the way of a sovereign State of Palestine. States, including increasingly European states, are saying they will assist Palestine. Assist with what? With building a state apparatus, economically and in terms of infrastructure and security. But that is not an easy process. The very same totalitarian theocratic power brokers who attacked Israel on 10/07/23 are building tunnels and terrorist infrastucture in the West Bank. How substantial that is we do not know. That must be addressed. No Palestinian government can function under the threat of attacks from their own people. Both in Gaza and the West Bank, ensuring internal security is essential, not just for the sake of protecting Israel from future terrorist attacks but for putting an end to the intimidation of the people by armed terrorist gangs.

Or, after years of doing nothing to build support for a Palestinian state, it will say, oh, we changed our mind. Meanwhile, more and more states are recognizing Palestine, and more and more states are saying they will agree to recognize Israel if it does not stand in the way of a sovereign State of Palestine. States, including increasingly European states, are saying they will assist Palestine. Assist with what? With building a state apparatus, economically and in terms of infrastructure and security. But that is not an easy process. The very same totalitarian theocratic power brokers who attacked Israel on 10/07/23 are building tunnels and terrorist infrastucture in the West Bank. How substantial that is we do not know. That must be addressed. No Palestinian government can function under the threat of attacks from their own people. Both in Gaza and the West Bank, ensuring internal security is essential, not just for the sake of protecting Israel from future terrorist attacks but for putting an end to the intimidation of the people by armed terrorist gangs.

Also, the question of the settlers would need to be addressed. A Jew-free Palestine, after everything that has happened, is not an option. But the apartheid roads and checkpoints would have to go and the residents of existing settlements other than the even-by-Israeli standards unauthorized outposts would be given at first temporary resident passes, requiring obedience to laws prohibiting both attacks on settlers and attacks by settlers, as part of ongoing negotitiations for land/people swaps as part of final status agreements. A two or three-state (with Jordan) temporary economic union would permit more flow of workers and goods among the three countries. Let's hope the June conference starts to address these issues. Time to read The Only Language They Understand, a point which Dahlia Scheindlin makes: "Whatever one thinks about the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, one thing is clear: The parties won't get there themselves. That's why France and Saudi Arabia are gearing up to try again, by spearheading a process at the United Nations to draw the blueprint for getting it done.

5/30/25: Let’s look at YNet’s coverage: First, it reports Israel hopes France will not recognize Palestine at the planned international conference, hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, to be held at the UN June 18. The Palestinian Authority and its Ambassador Mansour have long called for some kind of conference, and he mentioned it in his moving UNSC comments May 28, to which I link below. As I suggested, by calling for unilaterial action, he clearly meant recognition, but not just because it bolsters the PA: he hopes it will pressure Israel to agree to a ceasefire. Ynet also reports Hamas still reviewing Witkoff proposal: 'Consulting with Palestinian factions'; Hamas says it's still discussing the deal—despite senior officials objecting to its failure to end the war. As I have contended earlier, this is no minor detail, and communications among the factions are no doubt difficulty given constant surveillance. Meanwhile, Reuters has also confirmed the same details of the US/Israel proposal as did Dropsite. One key factor is the role of Bishara Bahbah, a Harvard-based scholar. According to Academia.edu: “Dr. Bahbah is National chair for Arab Americans for Trump. He earned his MA and Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1981 and 1983. He was editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem-based daily newspaper, Al-Fajr. He then taught at Harvard University and was associate director of its Middle East Institute. He served as a member of the Palestinian delegation to the Arms Control and Regional Security Multi-Lateral Peace Talks. He is a prolific author and contributes regularly to fifteen newspapers and magazines. Besides Harvard University, Dr. Bahbah attended Brigham Young University, The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, George Washington University, and the American College.” He is an associate of another Arab-American Trump supporter, Massad Boulos, and according to Wikipedia is “the father of Michael Boulos and the father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany.” Finally per another Ynet account, Hamas is studyign the 13 point Witkoff proposal.

5/30/25: The NY Times (gift) reports Hamas has not rejected the Israel-approved latest Witkoff ceasefire proposal, and that Israel has declared the North a dangerous combat zone. A photo in the Times acccount shows on urban area in the North that has not apparenty been flattened by Israeli bombing. Unconfirmed reports by another outlet show recent attacks on an Israeli tank in Northern Gaza, and I fear this will lead to massive Israeli bombing in the north in retaliation.

However, WAPO (Gift) Hamas reviews Gaza ceasefire proposal as U.S. expresses optimism. WAPO (Gift) reports Trump optomistic about a ceasfire. The proposal includes a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in exchange for the release of some hostages in Gaza, Israeli officials said. Unfortrunatly, Israel still declares it intends a military victory.

However, today Dropsite published the full agreement “term sheet” that Hamas agreed to on May 25.

But as Dropsite reported yesterday, when it published the term sheet of the most recent proposal agreed to by Israel, the new proposal still contains this: “In a section titled Presidential Support, the draft states: “The President is serious about the parties’ adherence to the ceasefire agreement and insists that the negotiations during the temporary ceasefire period, if successfully concluded with an agreement between the parties, would lead to a permanent resolution of the conflict.”” But that is short of a US guarantee. If you think about it, however, how can an agreement between Hamas and Israel have a US guarantee. This may not kill Hamas agreement.

Hamas is aware of Palestinian pressure in the UNSC for Western states to take unilateral action—presumably to recognize Palestine. This would likely continue even with a temporary ceasefire. It may be wishful thinking on my part, based on a grisly reality, but the dual facts that Hamas/partners reportedly successfully attacked an Israeli tank and Israel apparently successfully proved its point about Hamas facilities beneath hospitals—in a bombing that apparently killed several major Hamas leaders in a tunnel beneath the European Hospital—gives the war criminals on both sides bragging points, which is apparently what they live for, regardless of the suffering of their respective peoples.

Also, at least one video of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas, published several weeks ago, shows his eye bandaged and that he is in serious condition. I am not sure why the mass media does not discuss this; likely because it was a Gazan-produced video Israel condemns as propagand. Since the Israeli-approved proposal, per details discussed by Dropsite, contains a provision for Hamas/partners to provide proof of life—or presumably an account of death—for all hostages, I think Hamas/partners may wish to release several more hostages, especially those who might die or who are less securely held, even if this reduced its “leverage.” My regular accounts of “latest ceasefire proposals” have been regular since fall 2023, in a private list serve with well over a hundred entries from myself and others. But are here only some of the things I hae put on my substack starting fall 2024. But what the hell do I know? Just what I read and hope and pray for and work for however I feel I can do effectively.

5/29/25: Dropsite News again scoops the mass media in its coverage of ceasefire proposas. Clearly both Israel and Hamas/partners refuse to adhere to the original 3-phase framework, and Witkoff’s proposal seeks, somehow, to essentially resume and extend Phase 1’s temporary ceasefire while negotitiations, which the US promises to support, continue over what seems to be a combination of Phase 2 and 3. Meanwhile, nothing in either the NYTimes or WAPO about this.

5/28/25: Israeli academics speak out, from a group called Black Flag. According to The Times of Israel, “In Israeli jurisprudence, a “black flag” is said to fly over orders whose sheer immorality makes them illegal to follow. The phrase was coined by the judge who, in 1957, handed down the prison sentences of the soldiers who killed 49 civilians in the Arab town of Kafr Qasim for missing a curfew.” Last year, academics also signed a letter condemning the “scholasticide” of Gazan universities. but those were primarly North American academics. Speaking out is important, but it is also important to constantly seek to understand the present by better research on the past. This Haaretz piece on the dominance of Russians within the Zionist movement is certainly informative given recent polls showing 80% of Israeli Jews support expulsion of the Gazans from Gaza.

5/28/25: Gideon Levy in Haaretz.com: Will No One Israeli Say End the War for Gaza's Sake? https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025-05-25/ty-article-opinion/.premium/will-not-one-israeli-say-end-the-war-for-gazas-sake/00000197-0391-dbf9-a7f7-33b5f13b0000. Gideon exagerates: many but in a small minority are saying this publicly, exemplied by efforts to suppress Standing Together's actions holding signs of Gazan children. But he makes the point.

5/27/25: The Times finally covers this debacle; who knows who to believe. Matt Friedman doubles down as the Jerusalem correspondent for The Free Press, on his previous contentions that the mass media are biased against Israel and only report on Israeli evil doing and not on Hamas and other anti-Israel forces. As press criticism, it sounds valiant, but falls short when you realize The Free Press—sort of a righty “alternative press” itself and the mass media in general have some how failed to tell the full stories of either Palestinian or Israeli suffering in this war. I mean, whole swathes of Israel in the north and south are still unoccupied because of the danger of attacks from multiple directions. After Hezbollah scared away the residents of the North, they followed up by proving they were capable of creating mass civilian death, by inflicting major damage on the emptied housing stock. But to put things in perspective, just look at the latest photo of Gaza, taken from Israel, in the Times story above. Where is the more granular coverage of the death and destruction of Gaza, which could have been done during the brief ceasefire.

5/26/25: Jeruslem Post reports conflicting accounts of the status of a ceasefire agreement. Dropsite News says it has seen the text but hasn’t released it, and appears to believe a Hamas contention that Hamas accepted the agreement. It appears the agreement would skip step three of the UNSC ceasefire proposal, by combining step 2 and 3.

5/21/25: Dropsite’s coverage is biased but essential to read, and this horrifying account is consistent with the IDF mode of operation: a willing to kills dozens if not hundreds to target one fighter. Meanwhile, there will be another young man or even women and children to take th place of the fighter they killed.

5/20/25: As aid begins to trickle in to Gaza, suffering continues.

5/10/25: According to Jerusalem Post, Trump may announce plans to recognize a State of Palestine. This would be consistent with recent unilateral Trump actions like reaching an agreement with the Yemeni insurgent group agreeing not to attack shipping, refusal to take Netayanhu’s phone calls, cancellation of a visit by the Defence Secretary to Israel, Trump skipping Israel on his trip to the Middle East, etc. I find this hard to believe, since provisions of US apparently law discourage such recognition, but anything is possible given previous unilateral US actions like earlier temporarily negotiating directly with Hamas. In the past, Saudi Arabia refused to join the Abraham Accords without a US commitment to path to a two-state solution. Such a recognition, along with a nuclear power deal, which I hope will be Thorium not Uranium based, might be enough to cement expansion of the Abraham Accord. I have been advocating since fall 2023 that the US announce a promise to recognize Palestine and encourage other countries to do so, and perhaps the US would promise not to veto full entry of Palestine into the UN, and to fully recognize Palestine unilaterally once there is a final status agreement with land and people swaps and a phase 3 of the ceaseire with Gaza. I know, keep dreaming. But Nixon opened the door to China…Recognition first, final status later may be on the table.

5/7/25 Drop Site News reports on yet another set of three massacres in Gaza.

4/23/25: Yesterday I listened to most of the Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Ceremony, and also participated in a Zoom watch/discussion. It event description is: “a powerful act of defiance against the forces that seek to divide us. Now in its 20th year, the Joint Memorial Ceremony organised by Combatants for Peace and the Parents Circle - Families Forum is a beacon of hope in the darkness. Through testimonies from bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families, musical performances, and messages of peace from human rights leaders, we will prove that even in the face of unimaginable loss, we can still choose humanity over hatred and hope over despair. The ceremony will take place in Israel and will be broadcast live around the world. Join us in solidarity to bear witness and refuse to accept that war is our destiny. Together, we will show that even in the darkest times, humanity and hope can prevail.” It was amazing to me that this event took place even in the fall of 2023, when I first watch it. I’ve been on a couple of Zooms with the group and periodically donate in support. Not having lost loved ones in the Israel/Gaza war, either civilians or combatants, it is relatively “easy” for me to participate, compared to those who are grieving or in fear. As usual, I do not comment on/share material from a Zoom discussion, but I highly recommend seeing the YouTube event. Also, subscribing enables also hearing their other events such as an annual Nakba remembrance ceremony.

4/24/25

Accounts of death, suffering, and mourning: AP reports hundreds have died from lack of dialysis care in Gaza: “Over 400 patients, representing around 40% of all dialysis cases in the territory, have died during the 18-month conflict because of lack of proper treatment, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry That includes 11 patients who have died since the beginning of March…Six of the seven dialysis centers in Gaza have been destroyed during the war, the World Health Organization said earlier this year, citing the territory’s Health Ministry. The territory had 182 dialysis machines before the war and now has 102. Twenty-seven of them are in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people rushed home during the two-month ceasefire.”

972 Reports on the ongoing water crisis in Gaza: “Bombing plants, severing pipelines: Israel pushes Gaza water crisis to the brink. Since March, the army's intensified targeting of water infrastructure has left Gazans no choice but to drink seawater and ration contaminated supplies…UNICEF has warned that the water crisis in the Strip has reached “critical levels,” noting that only one in 10 people currently have access to clean drinking water. This crisis is not a side effect of Israel’s onslaught, but rather a deliberate aspect of it. According to data from Gaza’s Government Media Office, the Israeli army has destroyed 719 water wells since October 7. On March 10, Israel cut off the remaining electricity supply to Gaza, forcing the Strip’s largest desalination plant to scale down its operations. A few days later, the second largest plant went out of service due to fuel shortages resulting from Israel’s total blockade on the enclave.”

Accounts of hostage suffering continue to accumulate: “Whether the threat was abusive Hamas guards, hunger, illness or Israeli strikes, there were moments during Tal Shoham’s 505 days of captivity in Gaza when he didn’t think he’d be alive the next morning. There were “many times that I separated from life and ... tried to accept death,” the 40-year-old Israeli, who also holds Austrian citizenship, told The Associated Press. “There are so many ways to die there.””

Haaretz editorial (gift) warns of suffering and starvation of Gazan children: “For seven weeks now, the government has employed a policy of starvation by banning the entry into the Strip of all food or other humanitarian aid. Defense Minister Israel Katz announced proudly that he doesn't intend to resume the entry of humanitarian aid for Gaza's civilian population anytime soon. Cabinet members claim that this strategy weakens the Hamas government, but this is not strictly accurate. The hostages are presumably starving, and children in Gaza are certainly starving. But according to witness accounts, members of Hamas and criminal organizations are less affected, as they manage to get their hands on the little food there is in the Strip.”

Updates on Ceasefire:

Hamas responds to Abbas’s call for it to release all hostages, condemning its insulting character as did several other groups and individuals: “Abbas on Wednesday urged Hamas to free all captives, saying keeping them provided Israel with “excuses” to attack Gaza…ince Israel’s campaign in Gaza resumed on March 18, at least 1,928 people have been killed in Gaza, bringing the total death toll since the war erupted to at least 51,305, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health.”

Talks on a new ceasefire have so far been fruitless, and a Hamas delegation is in Cairo for renewed negotiations with Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

4/22/25: Ever since shortly after 10/07, when someone whose views I respect said to focus not on who said or didn’t say what but on the suffering, I’ve been maintaining a list of things I’ve watched and read which depict the suffering and death in Israel and Palestine, but have somewhat neglected the West Bank. This is a powerful piece on Harper’s about life and resistance in the West Bank.

Also, today WAPO (gift) has a story about Women Against War (FB Page), who are bringing more Israeli attention to Gaza suffering. They have a website that tracks Gaza deaths and suffering. The WAPO article connects to another about the growing number of reservists refusing to serve.

4/21/25: Hamas is making concessions per Jerusalem Post: “Hamas has reportedly expressed its readiness to step down from governing the Gaza Strip, as well as a handover of all remaining hostages as part of an agreement to end the war and a “long-term truce” with Israel, Al Arabiya Al Hadath reported on Monday, despite the terror organization recently rejecting a similar Israeli proposal. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani will reportedly deliver the message from Hamas during his upcoming meeting with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Thani also plans to resume indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas regarding the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, as Qatar's chief negotiator, Mohammed al-Khulaifi, recently expressed frustration regarding the lack of progress and the "slow pace of the negotiation process."

Hamas recently rejected Israel's proposal to release 10 hostages in exchange for 45 days of ceasefire. "We will not accept partial deals that serve [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's political agenda," Hamas negotiating team head Khalil al-Hayya said in a statement, which the terror group claimed is based on the continuation of the war." Netanyahu’s partial agreements are a cover for his agenda based on continuing the annihilation, even at the cost of sacrificing his captives," he said in the statement. "We welcome the position of the American envoy Adam Boehler to end the issue of the captives and the war together, which aligns with the movement’s position.” Al-Hayya said Hamas is ready to immediately negotiate a deal to swap all the hostages with an agreed number of Palestinians who are imprisoned in Israel.

4/20/25 More accounts of suffering, death and grief. See this 4/5 piece by Nicolas Kristof, gift link, cited by Jeremy Ben-Ami, and this from Ezra Klein (NYTimes gift). See this IDF report, linked to from the NYTimes update of three attacks carried out recently in Gaza.

4/18/25: Freed hostage relates experience as a hostage. The Guardian comments on the growing Kahanist influence in Israel. JNS via Cleveland Jewish News reports Hamas rejected the latest proposal.

4/9/25: The IDF’s horrific bombing of large residential complexes continues, which they jusify on the ground there is a Hamas operative in the building. The Times reports: “A New York Times investigation has found that the Israeli military has loosened its rules on how many civilians it can endanger with each airstrike, and experts on international law note that Israel still has an obligation to protect civilians.” More on this bombing from Democracy Now!, which also reported on the death by starvation of a teenaged Palestinian prisoner of Israel and that the family of a Palestinian-American 14 year old boy demands an investigation into his shooting by the IDF on the West Bank. See Video from the IDF calling the the young teens who were shot “terrorists” and replies.

Meanwhile, Hamas sues to insist Britain remove its terror designation, on the ground it has the right to armed resistance during an occupation. Here is the witness statement of the Hamas leader involved. Clearly, the Hamas representatives filing this suit will argue it was individuals from other groups or Gazan civilians who were responsible for the 10/07 war crimes. Strantely, in this one document—perhaps it is elsewhere in the filing—does not cite the provision that allows armed resistance. To be continued.

This issue was discussed in this Portside item, which included an interview with Richard Falk. My database includes the provision in international law which gives people occupied by a foreign power the right to armed resistance, as long as non-armed options have been exhausted and the methods repect the laws of war.

However, that right to armed “resistance” to occupation is complicated in the Palestinian situation, because the occupation is not that of country A invading and occupying country B. When Israel took over Gaza it was in Egypt and West Bank in Jordan and soon after both countries ceded the land to a UN-authorized occupation, which puts the occupation in a unique category which does not, I think, qualify for that legal provision that gives the right of armed resistance to the occupied people. In a sense it is armed struggle against a UN-auhorized occupation from within an occupied territory that receives massive UN assistance! The 10/07 attack, as I said from the start, was also something no one wants to hear: it was both a military and terrorist attack. If Falk is right, only the first part was legal, not the hostage taking of civilians not the attack on the festival. Plus, every unguided rocket or missile sent by Hamas and its allies into Israel was a war crime. But I’m not sure Falk is right, because of the unique nature of the occupation; Israel occupies Palestine with the consent of Egypt and Jordan and the mandate of the UN. I think that mandate is being challenged, it is so hard to keep up! I haven’t been able to trace back thte origins of that UN rule on the right to resistance. Plus there is the “no other alternative” clause. I’ll be on this beat until I get to the bottom of it.

4/10/25: Bernie Sander's 4/3 speech on the floor of the Senate condemns and details the suffering and death that continues in Gaza. Trump and Witkoff claim a resumed ceasefire deal is days away, but then again they sacked the former envoy who engaged in direct negotiations with Hamas.

4/4/25: I have “the resistance flu”, caught talking to hundreds last Saturday at the West Side Resistance Fair and haven’t been able to keep up with the outrages. Somewhere, below, I said the honorable thing for both Hamas/Allies and Israel to do was admit there is no military victory possible without committing endless war crimes (remember, each unguided Gazan rocket is a war crime). To admit this and to just stop. Stop firing, agreement or no agreement. Take the first step. The people of Gaza seem to be demanding this of Hamas, per the Times.

4/1/25: See my lengthy note in respond to J St. Director of Policy Ilan Golderberg’s post about the dangers of Israel re-occupying Gaza.

3/29/25: Join me Thursday 2:00pm for this New Jewish Narrative webinar? Haaretz (gift) says progress in negotiations is an illusion. See Reuters account. Apparently, per an unreliable other source, someone proposed to pay off Hamas and other Gazan leaders if they leave; they is clearly not going anywhere. Haaretz says: “Netanyahu usually says publicly that he wants a deal, but then works behind the scenes to blow up it. Now, however, the opposite is happening. In private, he and his chief negotiator, Ron Dermer, are telling U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff that Israel is on board. But publicly, he's working to blow up the deal.” Hamas appears to be holding to the text of the original UN SC deal, by and large. Meanwhile, sorry out of gifts for March, Haaretz reports titled In One of the Gaza War's Most Horrifying Nights, the Israeli Army Killed Nearly 300 Women and Children: Enthusiasm reigned in Israel last week over a successful attack that was said to have wiped out hundreds of Hamas militants. But the testimony from Gaza tells a different story. Because I am out of gifts, I am going to post the entire text here just for today, and tomorrow I will return, delete the text, and post the gift link. Here is another Dropsite post on the negotiations; I do not like to use their clearly biased accounts, but I’m desperate. On an activist list serve, I have a thread for dozens and dozens of accounts I posted of grieving and mourning—among both Israeli and Palestinians—but this would be no doubt in the top five of all accounts including those about 10/07 itself:

On Tuesday afternoon last week, the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson's Unit released two videos. In the first, a warplane is seen lifting off in the dark, its jet engines leaving being a hypnotic trail of light; that's followed by a scene of an Apache helicopter pilot checking the munitions on the craft before getting into the cockpit. The second video shows buildings being destroyed in bombing runs, as columns of smoke waft into the sky.

There are no people in the images of the buildings released by the IDF, but on the ground, it looked different. Earlier that day, the bodies and the wounded began arriving at hospitals – by ambulance, in private cars, on donkey carts and carried in the arms of others. The director of Shifa Hospital, Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, told Al Jazeera: "This morning there were 50 bodies in the ER and another 30 bodies in the morgue refrigerator. The operating rooms were full, and many of the wounded died before our eyes because we couldn't treat them."

Dr. Sakib Rokadiya, a surgeon from the U.K. who was volunteering at the Nasser Hospital, in Khan Yunis, told Associated Press reporters: "What stunned doctors was the number of children… Just child after child, young patient after young patient."

The AP published an account of the scene that unfolded in the Nasser Hospital's ER: "One nurse was trying to resuscitate a boy sprawled on the floor with shrapnel in his heart. A young man with most of his arm gone sat nearby, shivering. A barefoot boy carried in his younger brother, around 4 years old, whose foot had been blown off. Blood was everywhere on the floor, with bits of bone and tissue." Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, an American intensive-care pediatrician volunteering at Nasser, told the news agency that she was "'overwhelmed, running from corner to corner, trying to find out who to prioritize, who to send to the operating room, who to declare a case that's not salvageable.'"

The story went on: "Wounds could be easy to miss. One little girl seemed OK – it just hurt a bit when she breathed, she told Haj-Hassan – but when they undressed her they determined she was bleeding into her lungs. Looking through the curly hair of another girl, Haj-Hassan discovered she had shrapnel in her brain."

• 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. This is how it happened, day by day

• Why don't Gazans rise up and oust Hamas? Dismantling a deeply dishonest claim

• Massive database of evidence, compiled by a historian, details Israel's war crimes in Gaza

Dr. Mohammed Mustafa, an emergency physician from Australia who was volunteering at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, talked about those hours in a video posted on social media: "We've worked throughout the entire night. The bombing has been nonstop… We've run out of all painkillers... There are seven girls getting their legs amputated, no anesthesia... It was mostly women and children, burned head to toe, limbs missing, heads missing. [A man] died on the way to the CT scan…. [The] three girls lying on the bed, they're his girls. They are now orphaned. Their mother didn't even make it into the hospital. She was killed along with their other sister... I was here in June, nothing to this intensity... The screams are everywhere... The smell of burned flesh is still in my nose."

More than a week after the air raid, an attempt can be made to dispel the smoke that arose from the Israeli opening strike, which ended two months of cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported 436 killed in the attack, among them 183 children, 94 women and 34 people over the age of 65. The night between March 17 and 18 is said to have been one of the deadliest since the start of the war.

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The attack started at 2:20 A.M. The testimonies of the local inhabitants are similar. Some had just woken up for the suhoor meal ahead of the daylong Ramadan fast, when the bombs started to fall and panic spread among the Strip's bone-weary population. The air raids were carried out at dozens of sites simultaneously and apparently lasted a very short time, though it's highly unlikely that the whole operation took just 10 minutes, as reports in Israel claimed.

The Israeli media went into a swoon over the achievements of the attack. The daily Maariv described it as "one of the greatest preemptive operations in military history." The report claimed that "more than 300 terrorists were liquidated within a few minutes… thanks to extraordinary cooperation between the Shin Bet [security service] and the air force."

"Last night," the paper gushed, "some 300 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists got a surprise visit from air force bombs that landed on their head. The sortie was perfect." And Channel 12 News headlined: "Hamas taken by surprise, 400 militants killed."

It appears that the IDF and the Shin Bet focused this time on civilian and political targets and less on the military wing of Hamas. But to date, the official IDF announcements contain the names of only seven individuals who were targeted and killed in that night's raid: Hamas' deputy interior minister, Mahmoud Abu Watfa, and three members of the organization's political bureau: Issam al-Daalis, Mohammed al-Jamasi and Yasser Harb. The IDF and the Shin Bet announced that they also killed Rashid Jahjuh, the head of Hamas' general security agency, and Osama Tabash, who was the chief of military intelligence in the southern Strip and head of the organization's surveillance and targeting department. The army published their names in a somewhat celebratory press release with the word "Liquidated" stamped in red.

We've run out of all painkillers... There are seven girls getting their legs amputated, no anesthesia... It was mostly women and children, burned head to toe, limbs missing, heads missing... The screams are everywhere... The smell of burned flesh is still in my nose.

Dr. Mohammed Mustafa

Other than those names, the IDF was stingy with information about the attack, making do with a general announcement to the effect that: "The IDF and the Shin Bet attacked dozens of terror targets and terrorists from the terrorist organizations across the Gaza Strip. The aim was to degrade the terrorist organizations' military and governmental capabilities and to remove a threat to the State of Israel and its citizens."

It's certainly possible that there are more dead from Hamas or other armed organizations, but it can already be asserted that there were not 300 terrorists, or any number close to that, killed. The number of men below the age of 65 who were killed in the attack stands at 125, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most of them, it can be assumed, were not terrorists.

Some of the munitions hit tent camps of displaced persons. The United Nations reported at least three cases of tents being hit in Deir al-Balah and in the Mawasi area in the western part of Khan Yunis, as well as in the Tel a-Sultan section of western Rafah. "People were sleeping and they bombed the tents on their head, there are dozens of killed and wounded, most of them children," an inhabitant of the Khan Yunis tent camp is seen shouting in a video that was posted from that night.

"It was the hardest night of our life, the children were frightened and trembling, we couldn't see anything because of the horror," a resident of the Strip said in a UN video. The video shows a large crater where tents stood, and people poking through the heaps of rubble, pulling out a few tomatoes dirtied by the sand, and blankets.

Bisan al-Hindi, a smiling girl with a pink ribbon in her hair, was killed with her brother Ayman in the attack on Khan Yunis. "Beautiful, gentle Bisan was loved by everyone," her mother said, eulogizing her. "How glowing her face was. I miss her so much, her dimples, her wide eyes, like the eyes of a doe. Her hair with the fragrance of amber. Beloved of my heart, please come to me in a dream. I will try to sleep only in order to dream of you."

Of her son, Ayman, she said: "Ayman the polite, the modest, the honest and the faithful, the most innocent boy. Parting with you shattered me. You are my soul, my support. My heart burns. God, how I thanked him every day I saw you growing in front of me. You remember, my beloved, how you stood next to me and said, 'I'm taller than you now,' and laughed? Another few days and I would have seen you in university, taken pride in you. Especially after you made me happy when you told me, not long before you were killed, that you wanted to be a doctor of psychology, like the husband of Aunt Ala. My heart filled with pride and joy. Do you know that I wiped your blood with my dress? I will never wash it."

No fewer than 17 members of the Jarghoun family were killed when a house in Rafah was bombed. Ramadan Abu Luli told Haaretz that his sister was killed in an attack along with her husband and her three daughters. "Two missiles were fired at the house," Abu Luli related. "Four brothers were killed with their wives and children. The grandfather and grandmother were also killed. All the brothers in that family lost their homes in the war, so they moved into their parents' home. Now the bombs reached them too."

Ramy Abdu heads the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor organization. That night he lost his sister Nesreen al-Jamasi and her husband Mohammed, and their children Layan and Omar. Their eldest son, Ubaida, was also killed, together with his wife, Malak, and their daughter Siwar and son Mohammed – her photograph sitting on a small armchair amid the rubble had gone viral…..

The family was together in one house in the Khan Yunis area. "Just a week ago Siwar was supposed to go to kindergarten," Abdu said. "Israel killed her and the whole family. Why? And my nephew Omar, who dreamed of becoming a businessman and traveling all over the world. Why?" Of his niece Layan, 14, Abdu related that she was "the star of the house, 'Lola,' we called her. She was displaced for more than a year, living in tents. When I would ask where she was, I was always told that she had gone to work. She collected children from nearby tents and formed a class. She became 'Miss Layan,' the beloved teacher among the ruins."

Palestinian sources that were tracking the night's attacks found that there had been 80 assaults on some 30 targets. The largest number of people killed was in Gaza City (156), followed by Rafah (106). Whole families were wiped out: 27 members of the Qreikeh family in Gaza City's Shujaiyeh neighborhood, including a well-known artist in the Strip, Durgham Qreiqeh; seven members of the Slayeh family; and nine from the Abu Tir family, four of whom are still buried under the rubble.

Bisan al-Hindi, a smiling girl with a pink ribbon in her hair, was killed with her brother Ayman in the attack on Khan Yunis. "Beloved of my heart, please come to me in a dream," her mother said, eulogizing her. "I will try to sleep only in order to dream of you."

The target of the attack on the al-Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City was apparently the same Mohammed al-Jamasi (brother-in-law of Ramy Abdu), whom the IDF stated was "chairman of the Emergency Committee of the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip."

But in the assault on the neighborhood, the home of the al-Hattab family was also hit, and 27 of the family's 28 members were killed, according to Palestinian sources. It's not clear whether the family was killed in the attack that targeted al-Jamasi or another individual. Samia al-Hattab, in her 30s, the sole survivor, said a missile struck the house when the family had sat down for the suhoor meal.

The missile that killed Naji Abu Seif, known as "Abu Hamza," the spokesman of Islamic Jihad's military brigade, also killed his wife and his brother.

In another lethal attack, 25 people who were sheltering in the Al-Tabeen School in Gaza City were killed, the Palestinians said. A Palestinian journalist documented a boy rummaging in the ruins, looking for items that belonged to his dead schoolmates. "I saw a lot of body parts and blood, and I went into a classroom because I was so afraid," the boy related.

* * *

A statement from UNICEF, the United Nations children's fund, said that the number of children killed on March 18 made it "one of the largest single-day child death tolls in the last year." The UN Human Rights Office noted: "Using explosive weapons with wide-area effects in such densely populated areas will almost certainly have indiscriminate effects and is very likely to be in violation of international humanitarian law… and is not consistent with Israel's obligations under international humanitarian law."

Another photograph became a symbol of this air strike: In it we see a dead baby girl wearing a white onesie decorated with colorful arches, lying on the body of a woman who is on an orange stretcher, both of them barefoot. Alon-Lee Green, national co-director of the Jewish-Arab social movement Standing Together, recognized the infant's clothes. It was part of a shipment of clothing the organization sent to Gaza about two months ago.

The baby, Banan al-Salut, was not yet three months old at the time of her death; her parents and eight other family members were also killed in the attack in Deir al-Balah. It's not clear whom the strike was targeting.

Another photograph that circulated widely depicts the seven children of the Abu Daqqa family of Khan Yunis sitting together, each of them drinking an orange beverage with a straw. Apart from the two children on the right, Amir Islam and Zain Islam, all the others were killed: Umar Osama, Mohammed Ahmed, Hala Ahmed, Sama Ahmed and Qusay Aadal. In a conversation with a relative, Ahmed Abdullah, he noted that three other children from the family, who aren't in the photo, were also killed. In the predawn hours of Friday, he says, six houses belonging to the family were bombed simultaneously.

The youngest survivor of the Abu Daqqa family is Ayla, one month old. "On the morning of the massacre day she was pulled out in good condition after five hours under the rubble," Abdullah relates. "But her father, Osama Abu Daqqa, her mother Marwa and her brother Umar were all killed. I don't know if she is fortunate to have survived or unfortunate."

Whole families were wiped out: 27 members of the Qreikeh family in Gaza City's Shujaiyeh neighborhood, including a well-known artist in the Strip, Durgham Qreiqeh; seven members of the Slayeh family; and nine from the Abu Tir family, four of whom are still buried under the rubble.

The videos from the Strip that began being uploaded on the morning of March 18 were among the most horrific since the start of the war. The sole of the foot of a child in a bag, a father embracing his dead daughter's body, a father looking for his two children among bodies in a morgue, a person in his death throes beneath the rubble of his home, and the bodies of children of every age and every posture, among the ruins and in morgues.

In one clip a mother cries out: "I swear that my children died hungry, they didn't get to eat the suhoor." Another video shows a father embracing his dead daughter who is wearing red pajamas, blood still trickling from her nose, and screaming, "These are their targets?"

There's also a clip showing the bodies of two children, a wounded child getting out of an ambulance and women crying over the bodies of their loved ones. "These scenes were repeated, with all their cruelty and harshness," wrote the Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat, one of the most prominent reporters in the Strip during the war. "Loss and pain have returned. The cruel moments that make us cry every day have returned." On Monday of this week Shabat was killed when a missile struck his car. The IDF afterward presented documents according to which he underwent military training in Hamas five years ago.

* * *

The attacks came nearly three weeks after the imposition of a total siege on the Strip – the longest since the start of the war. No food, fuel or aid has entered the Gaza Strip since March 2. Israel also cut off the electricity supply to the Strip's principal desalination facility, thus significantly reducing the amount of water available to the population.

"This population has been starved for 15 months," Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, an American physician working at Nasser Hospital, in Khan Yunis, told ABC News. "The population as a whole was losing weight, didn't have enough protein intake…. I've eaten meat once since I've been here… and I'm eating better than anybody else in this territory – I have money. But there's just no meat available. Eggs are more than a dollar each…. That means that people are coming in hungry, thirsty – there's no clean water anymore… Kids have gastroenteritis all the time. We actually had a woman's heart stop in the ICU because her gastroenteritis was so bad… There are two million people here, half of them are children, they can't survive in a place where all the farmland has been destroyed, the sewage system has been destroyed, the water sanitation infrastructure has been destroyed, most of the housing has been destroyed. How does anyone expect them to live?"

The health system in Gaza is in dire straits. In the northern section of the Strip, only one oxygen generator remains, one CT device and one X-ray machine. According to the UN, the medical teams are having to launder sterile gauze pads in order to reuse them. "If we have another one or two mass-casualty events like this, I'm pretty sure we'll be out of surgical material to work with," Dr. Sidhwa said.

'IDF adheres to international law, army's values'

The IDF Spokespersons Unit issued the following statement to Haaretz: "The IDF operates according to international law and the values of the IDF, and acts to reduce harm to civilians as far as possible, including in complex combat conditions in the face of a terrorist organization that uses the population as a human shield. On the date noted by the reporter, the IDF attacked dozens of terror targets and terrorists, including Mohammed Jamasi and Yasser Mussa, senior terrorists from the political bureau of the Hamas terrorist organization. As is customary, claims of harm to civilians on a broad scale are examined by the relevant apparatuses."

3/28/25: I do not usually link to Drop Site News, Robert Scheer and one other author as I have found too many factual errors and bias, and in this one, for example, they say Hamas has not turned down any Witkoff proposal, but that is not my understanding; they may have not turned it down but said they would negotiate further. As I recall, Witkoff said release 8 and they said 3 or something like that. The good news is that the proposal now is to release the one remaining US citizen as a goodwill measure, and let’s hope that happens.

3/21/25: Posted to my Notes and to Middle East Beat and Ukraine beat. I recommend putting on some headphones, taking a walk, and listening carefully to the full Tucker Carlson interview with Steve Witkoff. Do not rely on media accounts or snippets. I will make no comment except that Witkoff is sorely mistaken in his apparent belief that Hezbollah and Iran have been substantially weakened militarily by the recent Israeli attacks. From what I understand, while Witkoff is correct that Iran’s air defenses were weakened, the missile stocks of Iran and Hezbollah and their most advanced missiles and drones were absolutely n-o-t used in the attacks on Israel; Barbara Slavin and others (true prior to the most recent attacks) have warned that if they wanted to, Iran and Hezbollah could inflict masseve death and destruction on Israel, and this is still my understanding. Yet Israeli war hawks and US-based chicken hawks both apparently think that it is possible to “remove the head of the snake” by attacking Iran. Witkoff says Trump wants diplomacy including with Iran, but is willing to consider using military force to “prevent war,” whatever that means. Just saying, listen carefully to what he has to say about Israel/Gaza and Russian/Ukraine, as it is clear he is calling the shots, not Trump.

3/20/25: Israel Policy Forum reports convincely, except that Hamas has already reportedly agreed that in phase 3 it would give up power, even disarm. This is all of course a disaster of Netanyahu’s own making.

3/19 Read or listen to this gift Haaretz article by Jack Khoury.

3/18/25: Associated Press reports that Israeli air strikes have killed hundreds in Gaza after strikes on dozens of alleged Hamas targets. Again, we see people carrying bodies and wounded people to the limited number of remaining functioning medical facilities. In further AP reporting we see an estimate of 404 killed, and photos of people weeping and mourning, while many able-bodied civilian men look on. Does the IDF really think that they themselves will not end up taking up arms to replace any of the actual Hamas and other paramilitary factions killed in these strikes?

The attacks, according to further AP reporting, had already produced widespread destruction reported in January, and now more destruction. None of us can claim we do not see what is happening before our eyes. But what we cannot see is what this may very well mean for the remaining Israelis and five Israeli-Americans being held by Hamas and its allies. Will they be executed in retaliation or killed in the airstrikes themselves. Will there be more “ground operations,” including attempts to free hostages which would likely lead to more deaths of those held captive? Has the Netanyahu government decided to sacrifice them for their earlier proclaimed goal of “total victory”? As AP reported 2/26, the nightmare continues for the families of those with live hostages and the remains of their loved ones. Apparently, according to an informed source, Netanyanhu’s government (notice how I do not say Israel; is this really Israel acting?) apparently notified Trump prior to acting. After all, in mid-February, Trump had already told Netanyahu they could resume fighting if the hostages were not released. Apparently, this is what Trump meant by all hell breaking loose. Chicken hawks in the US have long longed for a resumption of all-out war, and care little for the consequences for Israel, which may once again be attacked not only by the Houthis but by Iran and Hezbollah. I do not see how the ceasefire in Lebanon can sustain this if it continues. Here we had Hamas offering to leave office, consent to the destruction of the tunnels, propose a five year truce; but Trump and Netanyahu want to snatch war from the jaws of peace. Anything to prevent Hamas et all from being able to proclaim any kind of victory, of the kind which steps towards a fuller Palestinian state, of the kind which PA control of both Gaza and the West Bank would mean, and of the kind which the latest Arab League proposals would mean. I fear not only for more Palestinian deaths but the possibility that, unlike in previous attacks by Hezbollah and Iran on Israel, when they held back on using their latest weapons in numbers which would overwhelm the combined missile defenses of Israel, the US, and in some cases Jordan, it will now seek to wreak massive death and destruction on Israel, leading to regional war and possible world war. The “friends of Israel” the US, safe in their Christian Zionist and rightwing Jewish Zionist havens, do not seem to care or worry about such an eventually, proclaiming that this would give a pretext for removing the “head of the strike” (Iran), a near impossibility militarily, even if the US participated. Has anyone actually studied the Iran/Iraq war and seen the level of death and destruction Iran can take and still keep fighting? This would unify Iran, not isolate its totalitarian theocratic patriarchal power brokers (TTPPBs) from the masses of Iranians, who clearly want peaceful relations. Meanwhile the US domestic TTPPBs plan for war.

3/17/25: Israel had already been engaged in attacks on what seem like phantom targets in recent says but has now resumed significan attacks of what it claims are “targets”, and in doing so endangers the ceasefire agreement and hostage release. Yes, Hamas agreed to only 1 live hostage release, and only if Israel resumed shipments, but in doing so they were making the very kind of unilateral offer to build trust I proposed below; instead Israel and perhap (we do not know yet) the US which has been meeting with Hamas directly will also blame them.

3/15/25: I have long followed him on LinkedIn, and at The Atlantic Council, and admired his courage in speaking out contrary to the shibboleths of any of the prevailing positions of the five groups who carried out 10/07/23, but now Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib has a valuable piece in The Atlantic, The Case for Palestinian Pragmatism (gift copy): Rigid maximalist demands won’t deliver the future Palestinians desperately need. Routinely protested against when he speaks as a traitor, he argues here: “I can envision a pragmatic approach to the Palestinian national project—one that rejects violent extremism and armed resistance in favor of a two-nation solution for Palestinians and Israelis. To be pragmatic means abandoning unhelpful and unrealistic demands, such as the right of return to land that has been part of Israel since 1948. It means accepting Israel’s existence, and understanding Israeli security as complementary to the Palestinian pursuit of freedom, dignity, and independence.”

3/11/25: Yossi Alpher at New Jewish Narrative (formerly Americans for Peace Now).

3/10/25: Haaretz reports but does not elaborate: “U.S. hostage envoy Adam Boehler told Israel's public broadcaster that Hamas negotiators had proposed a five-to-10-year truce with Israel that would see the group disarm. Hamas said it softened its demands at the request of mediators.” Hamas had already agreed not to govern but this is the first time I’ve heard it say it would disarm. I would need more confirmation of this. Here is what NPR said about the offer: “resident Trump's hostage affairs envoy, Adam Boehler, told Israeli public broadcasting on Sunday that Hamas has offered to lay down its arms during that period and not be involved in governing Gaza, while the U.S. would take part in ensuring no Hamas tunnels or militant activity would crop up again. It is the first time Hamas has been known to offer a timetable for a truce. Hamas and Israel had no comment. In a round of U.S. and Israeli television interviews, Boehler said a new Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal could take hold in a matter of weeks.” Here is the Boehler broadcast in English: “exchanging all prisoners,” “a five year to ten year truce where Hamas would lay down all weapons,” and “ensure there are no tunnels,” “and that Hamas is not involved in politics going forward.” This woud be absolutely amazing. However, Hamas is not the only actor, there are four other groups who were involved in the attack, and public statements from other supporters of the “resistance” insist on maintaining an armed resistance capable of further attacks if necessary. As I noted below, the presence of such armed groups would cast a pall over the ability of Palestinian civil society and government to flourish free of armed group intimidation. But the recent announcement the the PKP will disarm is good news and there is widespread precedence (incuding Central America) for groups to agree to disarm. We must demand Israel resume shipments an electricity delivery!

3/10/25: See news about resumed negotiations, and note other reported mentioned below about US-Hamas direct talks. Also, Hamas announces willingness for long-term truce, with additional confirmation from CNN via a report from the US hostage envoy Adam Boehler. I continue to advocate for sticking with the UN SC resolution #2735 process not a new scheme by the Trump administration.

Phase three must involve, in my opinion, a procedure for the supervised dismantling the tunnels in Gaza and the West Bank where terrorists—yes, there are such a thing—could make make it impossible for civil society and democracy to emerge in Palestine. Without doing so, Palestinian government officials would live in fear of being abjucted, tortured or murdered for refusing to kowtow to the Palestinian versions of the Totalitarian Theocratic Patriarchal power brokers who currently control both Israeli and Palestinian politics. I’ve heard personal accounts from a Palestinian Gazan as to how that worked in Gaza well before 10/07/023. There are no death squads in Israel yet, but just wait; a resurgence of Kahanist-like activity there and among US Jews is likely if we do not face up to the realities I discuss in my other post. It could be even worst, if the far-right in Israel tries to implement its plans for the mass “transfer” of Gazans, another word for “deportation.”

3/10/25 J Street speaks out against the announced cut-off of aid to Columbia. Look, there is no doubt—sorry, I’m seen the video and heard accounts—that some of the protestors at Columbia had been guilty of what in another beat and pending essay I have written about as Anti-ZionISTism and Anti-Palestinianism, with anti-ZionISTism being a sort of in-your face questioning or discriminating of Jews—akin to the historical way antisemitism always had a good-Jew/bad-Jew dichotomy—about whether they support the “genocide”, something that began within days of 10/07/23. Now we are almost certain to see accusations against Jews and others who refuse to use the word genocide, calling them “genocide deniers.” Just watch, it is already starting per some reports. True, too many in the Jewish community refuse to face up to the realities of the Nakba, but let’s not get into false equivalencies, from any direction. Sadly, any debate or discussion often results in accusations what you are saying is “objectionable.” That is a good way to shut down dialogue and debate.

There is no doubt that was and is anti-Semitic especially in light of the history of actually attempted genocide against Jews. Of course, many Palestinian solidarity activists insist that was not the case or blame it on individuals not the movement as a whole. On the other hand, at one university after another we have also seen organized groups of right-wing Jews come on to campus—with support in some cases from Jewish students—with their anti-Palestinianist rhetoric and actions. As well, there have been organized campaigns to crack down one-sidedly on Palestinian solidarity activism on campus in a discriminatory manner, one that wouldn’t be used if—to give a lame example—the protests were to save the whales. Most universities have tried to adapt policies in response, but have often failed to realize the distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-ZionISTism, and have often used disciplinary action on the grounds that criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war—one replete with war crimes—and of the continued occupation of the West Bank and of increased settler violence—were themselves anti-Semitic. There has been almost no effort, on campus or elsewhere, to educate about anti-ZionISTism and Anti-Palestinianism as unique, emerging forms of discrimination and to educate jointly about antisemitism and anti-Arab chauvinism and Islamophobia and their similarities, just as there is almost no education within campus DEI initiatives about common human needs, with the result that we privilege privilege discourse and diversity as difference discourse, subjects about which I and many others have published. The end result of all of the above is a decline in empathy education and an acceptance of the universality of the desire for dignity.

3/9/25: Outrageous! Israel cut off supplies and now electricity! AP about last week’s supply cut off. Unofficial reports are that Hamas has in fact agreed to extending Phase 1 but also that the Houthis have given Israel four days to agree to Hamas’s approach to doing so. However, AP reported the US and Hamas are having direct talks!

3/8/25: The BDS National Committee, which had already condemned Standing Together, now condemns the film No Other Land, but see The Forward’s coverage.

3/7/25: Last night’s J Street event—see article about in Jewish Community News—was about hope: “Hosted by J Street Cleveland, “Possibilities for Peace: A Discussion with an Israeli and a Palestinian,” will include Nadav Tamir, executive director of J Street Israel, and Ezzeldeen Masri, U.S. director of Outreach, at OneVoice Movement.”

One of the speakers, both of whom have training in international relations, mentioned they learned this at the JFK School at Harvard: “To change the world, you need a critical mind and a hopeful heart.” Both speakers said that only by adopting an approach—one called it a “political horizon” that gives hope to both Israelis and Palestinians that peace is possible will support for Hamas fall back to its typical 20% or less level.

If you think peace is not possible, or there is no support for a two-state solution, Nadav (I met them both, so I’ll use their first names) pointed out that after the Yom Kippur war most had not hope for peace at first but then most Israelis supported the Camp David process that lead to the Israel Egypt peace agreement. There was little hope in Israel after the first intifada, but it led to Oslo.

According to Ezzeldeen, much of the support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad and for armed resistance from those two groups and the other three who were in the 10/07 attack comes from what Ezzeldeen called “romantic resistance” which is divorced from a realistic outlook, namely that only a 2 state solution as part of a regional resolution and normalization of relations can lead to a lasting peace. Nadav called that a 23-state solution. Clearly this is the goal of the Arab League and the United Nations and is even the official position of the United States and of AIPAC!

Unfortunately, as Ezzeldeen pointed out, even after Oslo, the “PLO narrative” did not really change. In other words—my words not his—it continued to use anti-Israeli rhetoric, kowtow to extremism, and so forth. He related that his father was progressive and as a young man he was in the People’s Party, the Palestinian communist group, which supported a two-state solution, as did most of the world’s communist parties then and now, and do most of the nations of the world.

Meanwhile the suffering and mourning continues. Ezzeldeen lost relatives during the 10/07 attack who were working in Israel. His four-story family home was destroyed by Israeli bombs and over 100 civilian relatives were killed by Israeli bombing. But he has hope. And so does Nadav. If they can, should we all have hope and work accordingly?

One thing I think is needed is an explicit movement of Jews, Muslims, and Palestinians in the US to demand that the US agree not to oppose recognition of Palestine by our allies and pledge not to oppose full admission of Palestine into the United Nations. Clearly, the notion of final status settlement first, recognition later has not worked. Let’s flip that script. You could say that you can’t admit a state without clear borders, but guess what? Israel itself has no official borders! It is in the UN, why not Palestine? Such a step would give hope, counter extremism in both Israel and Palestine, and hopefully lead to a final peace agreement. But it takes hope.

3/5/25: Meanwhile, as JVP Health Advisory Committee reports, the suffering continues in Gaza, terrorism against Israel resumes (Haaretz gift) and mourning continues in Israel, with Haaretz providing a compilation (gift) of the photos and brief blurbs of all those killed on and since 10/07/03 as a result of that attack: “Approximately 1,200 Israelis, civilians and soldiers were killed in their homes, communities and in confronting Hamas terrorists. Here are the officially confirmed names of Israel's dead in the atrocities of October 7 and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war.” I have seen and have moving video from the CWRU emcampment of the chalked names of the many thousands of Gazans who had died as of last year.

3/4/2025: First, read this account of President Trump’s Here is the Times’ analysis of the impasse. It says this: “Hamas has suggested it was willing to give up civilian governance of Gaza but has firmly rejected dissolving its military wing, a critical source of its power in the enclave.” That is not correct according to accounts of Hamas’s position I have heard but can’t confirm: it is that they would give up their weapons upon establishment of a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, J Street had said this about reaching the official end of Phase 1 Saturday: “We object in the strongest possible terms to Israel’s decision today to withhold all aid to Gaza, which is a violation of US and international humanitarian law as well as an act of collective punishment targeted at civilians. Coming at the beginning of the month of Ramadan, it is much more likely to undercut any pathway for an agreement to get the hostages out and instead lead to a return to war.” They also called for “a temporary extension of Phase I in order to see the release of more hostages, a continued surge in humanitarian assistance, and ensure that the fighting does not restart.” But it must be pointed out that as long as Israel’s shipments continue and there is no resumption of fighting, an extention of Phase 1 without any additional hostage releases, while negotiations over Phase 2 resume, and perhaps accompanied by unilaterial humanitarian moves by both Israel and Hamas, to rebuild faith (perhaps release of limited numbers of prisoners by Israel or hostages by Hamas who are not it good health) would be positive steps. I know I have in the past, on several occasions, called for unilateral steps, and there is in fact of history of those in earlier Israel/Gaza conflicts. Who am I to “call” for anything of course.

3/3/2025: Last night One Land won an Oscar, see the ceremony.
3/2/2025 #2: This is an outrage: Israel’s holding up aid to Gaza. Yes, it is true that according to Palestinian sources, the text of the negotiated details of the ceasefire agreement—which however has not been made public—include provisions for continuing Phase 1, if Phase two can’t been negotiated successfully. But what that means is not clear. As I read the UN SC resolution itself, it would merely mean continuation of the ceasefire itself and continuation of Israel withdrawing from key populated areas and continuation of aid and supplies flowing into Gaza. It would not necessarily involve more hostage releases/prisoner exchanges/released, unless both sides agreed. True, that is what Israel is proposing, but Hamas/allies have no obligation to accept that. Since the underlying UN resolution requires full Israeli withdraw from Gaza (and certainly the Philadelphia corridor, although as I understand it, the corridor is not in Gaza per se, but is a border strip between Gaza and Egypts, per Wikipedia. Therefore, Hamas/allies have no right to claim that Israel is violating the ceasefire agreement by insisting it will remain in that corridor (not that I am advocating it do so; it seems to me that Egypt and Israel must negotiate stronger measures to preventin future tunnelling by Hamas and Gazan smugglers).

Let’s hope and pray that those shipments can continue and the ceasefire can continue through Ramadan and that by then the parties will agree upon the contours of the details of Phase 2 . One of the serious problems, it seems to me, is that the details are never public. The latest I can find is from The NY Times, Sunday afternoon updated (gift).

3/2/2025 #1: Thank you to Jeremy Ben-Ami for his latest substack post, The US and Israel: A Relationship Based on Shared Interests and Values, with the subhead: “Established American Jewish organizations seem not to recognize that they are undercutting the values that they say uphold the US-Israel relationship when they fail to stand up to Trump and Netanyahu.”

He shares this quote: “Israel is a beacon of shared interests and values,” which is on the AIPAC website, and then this, “The strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship has long been rooted in bipartisan support for an alliance based on shared interests and values,” which is on the American Jewish Committee website.

As Ben-Ami notes, “We know as well that over 70 percent of Jewish Americans disapprove of Bibi Netanyahu and oppose policies that lead to permanent domination of the Palestinian people without rights.”

Growing numbers of key organizations and their supporters, within what is known as the Progressive Israel Network, including Jeremy’s J Street, the newly renamed New Jewish Narrative (formerly Americans for Peace Now), and Fund for a Progressive Israel—just to name three to which I have been relating—provide an alternative voice.

But the national distribution of local formations of such an alternative is limited to J Street local groups, by and large, which together still do not provide a sufficient local alternative to the “official” Jewish community’s organizational structures. Sadly, an Israel right or wrong mentality is still far too dominant and is out of touch with the growing discontent found, especially, among younger Jews and others.

Many were attracted to and continue to be influenced by the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) tactic and failed strategy, or have given up on any serious effort to support a two-state solution, which remains the most promising way to end Israel’s occupation of Palestine, an occupation which endangers not only world peace and security but poisons and threatens to undermine democracy in Israel.

While literally the entire membership of the United Nations supports statehood for Palestine, and it remains official US policy, for too many the view is that peace is not possible. A two-state solution is even the policy of AIPAC itself. AIPAC’s website states under the Policy Agenda tab, in the Key Issues section, under Promoting Peace: “America can play a central role in helping create the conditions for a lasting peace—including a negotiated two-state agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. A viable two-state agreement is only attainable if America’s support for Israel is ironclad, and the Jewish state knows it can take risks for peace because its ally and partner has its back.”

Were it not for such a policy, thousands of local secular and religious Jews would refuse to support AIPAC, but in practice AIPAC does little or nothing to promote such a solution. In practice, however, the AIPAC mindset of Israel right or wrong continues to dominate the political landscape within the American Jewish community as I have known it, since making a solemn and religious choice for conversion, completed in 2000. I was never very outspoken on this until after 10/07/23, but have felt the need since to speak out.

What disturbs me almost as much as the mass slaughter of noncombatants by bombs and other weapons sold or supplied by the United States for use by Israel’s IDF against Palestinians in Gaza and in attacks within Lebanon, is the worry that war will resume in the Middle East and will threaten to suddenly erupt as a third world war. Not since the months prior to WWI and WWII have the ingredients been in place that could lead to such a third world war.

What is particularly disturbing is the relative inaction on the part of not only the mainstream Jewish community, but also of the organized left of which I have been a part for over 50 years—which has abandoned any serious effort at building a mass peace with justice in the Middle East movement, and has allowed itself to be coopted by the BDS campaign and by several wings of the Palestinian solidarity movement, wings that have often been objectively or even openly in support of the very “resistance” groups that carried out the October 7, 2023 attack.

My own experience as a lifelong peace activist and as a South Africa and Chile solidarity activist has been that extremism, absolutism, dogmatism and ultra-leftism are fatal to building real movements for peace and justice, but are often quite appealing to young people who have been radicalized by the latest outrages.

They turn to anti-Americanism and anti-Israelism, neither of which is progressive. Worse, such “red” views can end up being hard to distinguish from “brown,” and can contribute to rising reaction in Germany, the USA, and in Israel. I am very much heartened by the latest slogan raised by J Street: “Peace is Possible,” as manifested in events happening next week, sponsored by J Steet, in six areas of the nation, including one in Cleveland which I will attend and for which I am actively organizing, to take place Thursday March 6, 7:00pm, at the Mandel Jewish Community Center. Supporters of peace from across the political spectrum should support such efforts.

2/29/25: First, from the heart, see freed Israeli hostage Noa Armagani’s talk at the UN Security Council, as well as this important talk by Daniel Levy at the UN Security Council, and also this from Ambassador Mansour.

Second, from the head, this key report from the Israel Policy Forum. And this review by social work educator Phil Mendes of a new book debunking settler colonialism theory.

And this report from Haaretz of more bodies of hostages (or as Hamas calls them prisoners if they were in uniform). Haaretz (gift) also reports the difficulity of ascertaining how hostages died. Early in the war, Hamas publicly declared that it would execute hostages each time Israel carried out a bombing of a residential facility without “knocking” or otherwise warning. At first, coverage and IDF announcements would say they warned people, but then coverage rarely mentioned that. Perhaps the algorithms took over? When the IDF attacked individual Hamas and other paramilitary leaders in their homes, often knowing an entire families and perhaps dozens of others as well would be killed, did Hamas actually execute hostages? I am not aware of any anouncement that hostages died in a specific attack on an individual Hamas leader, as opposed to several other occasions in which either Hamas or the IDF acknowledged deaths following bombings designed to attack tunnels. It is hard for me to comprehend the enormity of the deaths of children, both Israelis and Palestinians, in this war. I refer you to the above YouTubes, which I hope are the starte of some kind of truth and reconcilitation process during a sustained peace. Will it be more revenge from both sides?

2/26/25: Other links to park here while I back up my database: DAWN Journal as a source; Democracy Now with DAWN leader and here on YouTube;

2/25/25 Most immediately, I have a perhaps vain hope I can make a proposal for next steps in this paragarph, which might magically be heard by those in position to do something. According to PBS, after the completion of Phase 1, there are about 60 people held by Hamas and partners, about half of whom however are deceased. According to AP sources used in this World News report, it is 62 of whom Israel said 30 are alive: “Hostages in captivity who are soldiers: 13, of whom Israel has declared 7 to be dead.” For details see above. What seems to be happening now is the possiblility of an extension of Phase I to further hostage and prisoners releases, but that risks preventing Phase 2 entirely. Last year, it was Hamas which was guilty of insisting on doing Phases 1 and 2 at once. Now, Israel is guilty of violating Phase 1 and insisting on more releases beyond Phase 1 obligations without agreeing fully with Phase 2’s full withdrawal prior to further hostage releases. If negotiations over Phase 2 continue, I am hoping that the immediate focus should be, as a matter of good faith while Phase 2 negotiations continue, for Israel to reciprocate for Hamas’s acceleration of the release of 3 extra prisoners last Saturday. First, and this is not reciprocation, Israel releases the prisoners they were obligated to release. Second, Israel makes its own unilateral step prior to completion of Phase 2 details, by making another small prisoner release, to which Hamas/partners would reply by the release of all remaining civilian hostages and bodies and perhaps IDF soldiers in serious physical condition. Readers may recall I have in the past advocated unilateral Israeli actions. I worry the Phase II negotiations are so complex they may fail.

The delay, so far, in Israel’s obligation under the details of the negotiated implementation of UN SC #2735, namely the release of 600 or so Palestinian prisoners following the completion, even the accelleration of the release of all Phase 1 hostages last Saturday (three were not due for release until this coming Saturday), is very worrisome. Some knowledgeable observers have concluded that it means Israel is trying to delay or perhaps never agree to Phase 2’s full withdrawal from Gaza, and hopes for a military victory in Gaza.

The Red Cross has objected to the parading of hostages during their release, and apparently the practices of Hamas may violate some convention or another about treatment of prisoners, in the case of Israeli soldiers held. Iraelis also no doubt object to the display of armed might by Hamas and its four paramilitary partners concurrent with the releases. Finally, on Saturday Hamas staged videotapes of remaining Israelis being held by Hamas (IDF soldiers), as they apparently pleaded for Israel to stick to move forward with Phase 2.

Let me pause and remind myself to view the J Street News Roundup. J Street issued a statement of concern about the Netanyahu government’s bragging about displacing 40,000 West Bank Palestinians, allegedly as part of anti-terror operations in the West Bank. J Street linked to Haaretz (my gift copy here, free there) which shows that another part of Israeli anger is the deaths of three members of the Bibas family, which contrary to the families wishes have been the submit of condemnations by Netanyahu. But the article also says there are behind the scenes efforts to return to the UN SC process and for Israel to release the prisoners in response to phases releases of more bodies of dead Israelis. Two other links here and here from Haaretz.

Is the Israel/Gaza war expanding to the West Bank? J Street reposted this from Reuters. WAPO (gift) reports IDF tanks are now in the West Bank. This is just asking for members of Hamas and the other four paramility groups who carried out 10/07 to organize an attack on those tanks and for yet another war to begin, as if the Netanyanhu administration bragging about displacing 40,000 Palestinians in the West Bank is not enough. Recall Israel threatened to turn Lebanon into rubble like Gaza (halted by the ceasefire there for now)? Is this the plan for the West Bank? Is this what will happen under Trump’s watch? It is almost too horrible to comprehend. US Jews and all US persons must speak out. Is this the eve of destruction? (See the Barry McGuire song on my Social Justice Song list.) Does Netanyahu think with Trump in office he has a license to kill (see Dylan’s License to kill now on the list). Our hearts are on our sleeves. Let’s all do what we can. Me, I am organizing for an upcoming Cleveland J Street event just publicized in Cleveland Jewish News….After posting this, I read a sermon by a respected Rabbi here in Cleveland, and his sermon about the implications of the Torah for the confirmed deaths of the three members of the Bibas family. There funeral is/was today. The sorrow of the family and the ability to mourn, one would think, should be able to proceed without their deaths being used for political purposes. And the family had asked the government for that, through their attorney. But no, just hours ago, Netanyahu did just that, even holding up the photos of Shiii, Ariel and Kfir, while speaking to an AIPAC audience on Tuesday. I ended the day listening to this interview by Peter Beinart with Khalil Sayegh.

2/20/25: I am very focused on my own writing about human needs and peace and on top of that having some Zotero software issues. As always I highly recommend reading J Street’s daily news round up. This is their policy agenda now. i attended Jim Zogby’s coffee yesterday and highly recommened signing up to get is weekly column by going here.

2/14/25 As 3 hostages were released (gift copy) and the ceasefire holds at least for today, it is worthwhile to read this June 2024 NYT op-ed (gift copy) Jonathan Dekel-Chen, a history professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the father of Sagui Dekel-Chen, the Israeli-American released today.

Hamas and/or one of its four paramilitary allies, who carried out the attack, destroyed the family’s home in the Nir Oz kibbutz. Dekel-Chen said: “That horrific day and the devastation of Gaza caused by Israel’s military response have led to countless references to the Holocaust and related terms: genocide, Nazis, pogroms. Some of Israel’s opponents have loosely and irresponsibly accused Israel of genocide against the Palestinians. My own government has also invoked those terms, mainly to convince Israelis of the magnitude of the threat they face from Hamas.” I would just like to say that this is nearly exactly my own view and has been since fall 2023 when I began accumulating and reading the material in the database to which this “beat” links.

The father, of an Israeli-Argentinian hostage released today, Itzik Horn, according to the above linked Times account of the three hostages, “said in December 2023, after the Israeli military mistakenly shot and killed three hostages who had fled their captors in Gaza, that Israel must reach a deal even if it means freeing prisoners designated as terrorists.” So, the fathers of two of the hostages had both spoken out!

At this time, I only hope we can come closer to a conclusion of phases 1 and 2 of the ceasefire. As to Phase three, it will be a miracle if we can get there. And thus, I have held my tongue and not said far more than I have said, even in the few months I have accumulated the material in this post. However, it is not too soon to say that regardless of how the UNSC Resolution #2735 process turns out, there will be a terrible political reckoning. Once there are no longer That will be the day there will be hostages at risk or more Palestinian prisoners in critical condition (as three of those released today reportedly were), that will be the day when the voices for peace with justice in the Middle East may truly speak out in condemnation of the absolutists and totalitarian theocratic patriarch power brokers in Israel, Palestine and the US, who cynically and self-interestingly exploited 10/07/23 to score political points, and who have sought to cover up the thousands of war crimes committed during this war.

No doubt some would claim that Dekel-Chen’s op-ed and my commentaries and reports here are objectionable and that I am guilty of claiming equivalency of the suffering in Israel and Gaza and in all of Palestine for that matter. Or that I am guilty of genocide denial, I have not blithely referred to Israel’s actions as genocide. However, I am one who learned long ago there is no point in trying to develop hierarchies of anything when it comes to oppression or death and destruction. Each act, the moment of each act, demands attention.

On that, I hope very much there will be major investigations in to war crimes committed both by Hamas and its allies and by Israel and the specific roles US officials played in that process, such as purported technical assistance, specific arms provisions and green lights to operations aimed at killing individual Hamas members, despite knowing hundreds of civilians might die. Such investigations much take place at every level including retrospective journalistic accounts. Whether there is a will and a way for some kind of peace and reconciliation process or not going forward, I do not know. But there will be a reckoning. This, however, is not yet the time.

Sadly, however, we are already beginning to see retribution directed towards some of the most principled voices, as this article shows about the consequences so far for Senator Jon Ossoff. No doubt he will be shunned by both far right and far left and by the Israel right or wrong tendency, which is a minority one within the Jewish community, but certainly an influential one.

12/13/25: Quasim Rashid on Substack alerts us to a WSJ article headlined, “Arab States Wake Up to Fact That Trump Means What He Says on Gaza.” The article says that Arab states are planning an initiative to step forward with a plan to re-build Gaza, and head off Trump’s gambit, which some now says is merely an initial feint, not a serious proposal. The article almost gleefully reports that the plans for Arab nation work rebuilding and possibily administering security in Gaza is no longer requires an agreement on a Palestinian state. But recent statements from Saudi Arabia shows no lessening of such insistence. Interestingly, in recent months no one has mentioned that Hamas, last year, showed willingness to give up governance of Gaza as part of a ceasefire arrangement; that would take place presumably in Phase 3. The question of its dissolving its armed forces (and those of the four other paramilitaries) and the question of Hamas’s social service and educational operations is also rarely discussed.

Quasim Rashid also reports: “Senator Tim Kaine, alongside Senators Blumenthal, Durbin, Ossoff, Sanders, Van Hollen, Warnock, Welch, Wyden, Duckworth, and Merkley, introduced a bill stating that the U.S. will not take over Gaza, period. Their legislation correctly points out that Palestinians have the right to self-determination, and that occupation would lead to more violence and yet another forever war—something no American (or anyone committed to human rights and peace) would ever want.”

Thankfully, today, however, the WSJ reports (gift to my subscribers) that steps towards resumption of the Phase 1 Ceasefire are underway. Pro-Palestine YouTubers had predicted this yesterday, claiming that global criticism of Israel’s violations of the ceasefire would get the ceasefire back on track. Israel has heightened the level of key humanitarian aid which it permits to enter the country under the Phase 1 agreement and that aid is now flowing. With its withdrawal from the Netzarim corridor as well, Hamas has announced resumption of the previous schedule for hostage releases.

Unfortunately that WSJ account also stated: “Hamas fired a rocket from the Gaza Strip on Thursday evening which landed inside Gaza, the Israeli military said. Israel responded by striking the launcher. Both acts appeared to violate the cease-fire.” This is worrisome, as it is possible it was not Hamas which launched the missile, but another one of its four paramilitary partners.

In the past, I avoided such speculation, but it seems strange that after constantly claiming only Israel violated the ceasefire, that Hamas would commit a blatant war crime, risking civilian lives. Just as an aside, but I think an important one which I may turn into an essay, throughout the war, it was in the interests of both Israel’s far fight leadership and Hamas to refuse to talk about war crimes. The mass media and the entirely absent peace movement followed suit. (We have had no mass peace movement to speak of, just groups primarily in solidarity with Palestine or Israel, with a few notable organizational exceptions.) Israel just used dehumanizing language about animalistic terrorists and Hamas, ignoring the reality that five fairly unified Palestinian groups coordinated the military and terrorist attacks on 10/07/23. Hamas and even the BDS National Committee talked about genocide almost immediately and rarely about war crimes. Chatham House pointed out that the IDF has dragged its feet on investigating war crimes committed by individual Israelis, despite fact that refusal to do so opened the door to International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). As a result the ICC Criminal court files charges against two Israelis and one Palestinian and there are now arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. The earlier indictment of Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (Deif) by the ICC is now moot, as he is no longer alive. All along, I have contended the focus should be on war crimes and the prevention of murderous attacks in the West Bank by both settlers and Palestinians, as well as on a ceasefire. But the institutional and individual interests of what I call our common enemy (totalitarian patriarchal theocratic power brokers)—found all over the world but certainly in Israel and Palestine—work against any focus on individual war crimes.

To return to the news of the day, the WSJ confirms the J Street Statement of yesterday, and discussed in my 1/12/25 report, that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has taken positive steps to reform its prisoner and prisoner family aid program in a way which does not prioritize the very kinds of murderous attacks I discuss above. Now if Israel could crack now on attacks by armed settlers…This is just one more example that the J Street News Roundup is widely read and influential.

Today’s J Street News Roundup confirms NPR also confirms the hostage releases are on track, but cites a Reuter’s report about Egypt stressing the need for a two-state solution. The failure of political forces on both left and right to realize the reality of nearly universal support, outside the US, for such a solution says something about how isolationism is not just a problem on the right.

Also, it seems that every day, even with a ceasefire, there is another report about the vastness of the devastation and death in Gaza. ABC News reports: “Many Palestinian doctors who worked in the Gaza Strip are either dead, have fled the territory or are in prison, U.S. doctors told the United Nations. Four U.S. medical doctors who have worked in the Gaza Strip for periods throughout the past 15 months spoke about their concerns and the priorities for bringing critical care needed in Gaza during a press conference at the U.N. in New York last week. The JVP Health Advisories are a good regular source on this. Although disagree with Jewish Voice for Peace’s support for the BDS boycott, one must admire their coverage of the health crisis in Gaza.

2/12/25: Today, see J Street’s announcement about a change in Palestinian Authority policy that is relevant to the Taylor Force Act and could enable direct US assistance to the PA. J Street also announced support for Israeli opposition forces to welcome participation of Arab parties. Remember, the best coverage of this “beat” is the J Street news roundup. Less frequent but important as well is from the Arab Institute: https://www.aaiusa.org/latest.

As of this 2/12/2025, due to this Hamas statement, and Israeli threats to resume the war, I fear for the successful conclusion of Phase 1 of the UN SC Resolution #2735-based agreement on hostage and prisoner exchanges during a ceasefire with Israeli forces removed from major population centers. Pursuant to that troop removal, Israel 19 hours ago removed its troops from the Netzarim corridor, per BBC.

But 2 weeks ago CBS reported the IDF fired on armed gunmen in Southern Gaza on grounds they threatened the safety; it was not clear exactly where this took place. But Haaretz reports IDF initiated gunfire Sunday, killing three in two separate incidents, just prior to the withdraw from the corridor.

As of the writing of this update, the future of the ceasefire is unclear. But it is very worrisome that the IDF leadership may soon become politicized much like the police were over the last year, per Haaretz, and required to support a policy of transferring Gazans “voluntarily.” Now Trump is blustering all hostages have to be released by Saturday noon not in dribs or drabbles or all hell will break loose.

As of 2/12, The Times of Israel reports the Israeli security establishment has made positive statements about Trump’s “revolutionary” proposals for Gaza, and partially echoed his hostage release by Saturday demand, demanding “our hostages” be released by this coming Saturday noon, meaning about 7 p.m. in the US, and threatening to end the Phase 1 partial ceasefire and return to a war to defeat Hamas. What is very disturbing about the article is that it mistakes the rationale given by Hamas to suspend the release of 3 more prisoners scheduled for Saturday, saying: “The terror group justified its decision to freeze the hostage releases by alleging Israeli violations of the deal, claiming falsely that the military has obstructed displaced Palestinians’ return to the northern Strip, and asserting that Israel has prevented the flow of some humanitarian aid items, such as trailers for temporary shelter, into the enclave.”

In fact the rationale was both the above reports from Western media of at least three instances of the IDF firing on and killing Gazans, as well as specific and not-denied accusations of failure to provide the agreed-upon amounts of supplies to enter Gaza. The Times of Israel also was vague and inacurate about the nature of “the deal”: “The three-stage ceasefire agreement, reached last month, halted some 15 months of fighting triggered by the group’s October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, when Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. The deal requires Hamas to release all its hostages, Israel to release thousands of Palestinian security prisoners — including hundreds serving life sentences — and a halt to fighting in the Strip, followed by negotiations for a “sustainable calm” and IDF withdrawal from the enclave.” Overall, that may be true, but it fails to note that even in phase I, the IDF was supposed to withdrawal from all populated areas, and it did, and furthermore now has withdrawn from a heavily trafficked corridor, perhaps to recognize that the corridor itself is now populated at least in the sense it is full of people on transit, and the risk of more incidents where IDF forces fires on people, even people with arms, is avoided.

Clearly, from other accounts, the Israeli security establishment and the IDF are divided, with one anonymous report saying they did not feel the suspension of the deal by Hamas was fatal to the phase I ceasefire. The NYTimes account begins with a a false lead: “The future of the cease-fire in Gaza and the territory’s long-term fate hung in the balance on Tuesday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel warned Hamas that if the scheduled release of hostages did not take place on Saturday, Israeli troops would resume ‘intense fighting.’”

No, Netanyahu did not warn that fighting would resume if the previously scheduled release does not take place Saturday, he said that would happen if “our hostages” are not released, according to multiple accounts and videos I have reviewed. This is vague. The three “our hostages” origionally scheduled for release Saturday, or the 9 more scheduled for release in Phase 1, or all remaining hostages? In the context of Trump’s statement this was a rash and irresponsible threat to make, especially in light of Israel’s incidents and actions violative of Phase 1.

Honestly, both sides should admit that all of the incidents and violations have been rather minor in light of the positive developments and the under-reported presence of US security firms right on the ground in Gaza now!

There may be something else going on that we do not realize. Video of the gaunt hostages just released showed them coming through a cement-walled tunnel on the way out of captivity. This shows Hamas and its four paramilitary partners still have access to a considerable tunnel network. Also, it may be the case that Hamas has failed to give a full account of how many live hostages there are in part because it is still not sure about the location of all of them, and their condition.

It could well also be the case Hamas itself does not truly control all of the hostages, some of which may be under the control of Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, and one of the other two groups which took part in the 10/07 attack. Although under the conditions of the present ceasefire, it should be more possible for all the groups to coordinate, that may not be fully the case, and I note I have yet to see any joint statements coming to light since the ceasefire began. But what do I know?

There seems to be more information coming from sketchy YouTube sites which I link to in the playlist I share below, than from mainstream media. But I do not link to such YouTubes here, both Israeli and pro-Palestinian, as I am unable to confirm the veracity of their reports. Haaretz has a much more reliable account of the fate of the ceasefire, namely that Netanyahu has been trying to derail it from the start.

While the Phase 2 negotiations were supposed to have begun by now pending completion of Phase 1, and the parties were ready to begin doing so last week, it appears they have not in fact begun. And now, Netanyahu states they will not begin, and Haaretz’s interpretation of Netanyahu’s demand is “declaring he would not proceed with negotiations for the second stage of the cease-fire and demanding Hamas release all the hostages.”

But they are not supposed to all be released until the end of Phase 2! Still, who could object to releasing all the hostages and prisoners immediately as long as Israel withdraws from Gaza entirely? In fact, that is what Hamas demandes for months, as I reported below: try to skip step 1 and demand immediately implementing Phase 2. I was critical of that then, as it was not consistent with the intent of the UN SC resoluution #2735. It seemed like both sides continued to cling to the fantasy of a military solution all the way up to Trump’s ultimatum.

But the value of the phases was that negotiations about the next phase’s details would take place during the good faith implementation of the previous phase. Now everything is up in the air. As usual, almost no one is mentioning the UN Resolution itself.

There is one possibility that might satisfy both parties: speed up implementation of Phase 1 by releasing all of the Phase 1 hostages Saturday, and then proceed with negotiations over Phase 2. This would be a win-win for both sides. This idea, which I just dreamed up 2/12/25 noonish, is consistent with another Haaretz report, which points out that there are only 9 more hostages set to be released in Phase 1; The Times of Israel, however reported that there are 17 more. Oh my, a closer reading shows that reportedly 8 of the 17 are apparently deceased, thus the figure of 9 live hostages is likely accurate.

There is certainly nothing wrong with speeding up the release of all 9 living hostages and the bodies of the deceased, and the accompanying prisoner releases (keeping in mind Hamas claim that those serving in the IDF and taken prisoner at the military bases attacked on 10/07 were prisoners, not hostages).

Perhaps this Saturday or as soon as logistically possible, all remaining persons held by Hamas and hostages and the final Phase 1 prisoner release could take place. Then both sides could then begin indirect negotiations for implementing Phase 2.

Haaretz reported: “Then, another statement from an unnamed official said the cabinet expects the release of all the nine living hostages set to be released in Stage 1 "within days." The official said Hamas had violated the cease-fire agreement without detailing how, and declared that "no further progress will be made on implementing the agreement or in negotiations for Stage 2 without the return of our hostages." Netanyahu also used that phrase “our hostages.” Thus, it doesn’t not necessarily mean “all hostages” and given the corridor withdrawal (consistent with the fact that there are “populations” traversing it, if aid can also be accelerated, both sides could claim clear benefits from such a step.

Earlier: I pray daily for the Ceasefire’s Phase 1 and for successful entrance into the Phase II complete Israeli withdraw and complete hostage/prisoner exchange. I spoke out publicly for a ceasefire three time in print, with links to all in my December 4, 2024 op-ed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. in links Earlier updates section is after the Introduction section. My bibliography of items I’ve read/listened to since 10/07/23 is here: https://tinyurl.com/MEPJMostRecent. My YouTube playlist titled Middle East Peace with Justice is here https://tinyurl.com/Middle-East-Peace-With-Justice. In both cases, inclusion does not mean agreement. In both cases, inclusion does not mean agreement. Here is a link to the indepensable J Street News Roundup: https://jstreet.org/news-roundups/

2/9/25: As three more Israeli hostages (not military prisoners in this case, civilian hostages) were released, including a ceremony where they made statements, more Palestinian prisoners were released including some apparent noncombatants arrested in Gaza since 10/07/23. It will take years, even if Israel and the Gazan paramilitary forces go forward with UNSC #2735, to clearly understand the enormity of what has happened since 10/07 in relation of what happenedd over the last 100 years. Are we all willing to learn anew the complicated truths? Or will we devolve into accusations of genocide deniers, terrorist animals and so forth? One thing the AP reminds us today is that generations of young Palestinians have been imprisoned by the Israelis over the decades.

2/8/25: The Forward article, with the provocative title, Yes, Trump’s Gaza plan is outrageous, and easy to miss subtitle, It could also be just what the Middle East needs. Following its many historical links helpes me understand the world of my father, who in 1946-7 was serving as an Army Captain with UNRA after the war, and writing progressive Cleveland Press op-eds criticizing US policy in Greece and praising the democratic socialist coalition government in Czechoslovakia.

1948 changed everything:

• Jan Masaryk died under mysterious circumstances March 10th, 1948, shortly after the Communists established full control in Hungary. Masaryk had already been deposed as Foreign Minister of the National Front government of Hungary in February, which included the Communists who had won the 1946 election.

• In Czechoslovakia, in February 1948, the Communists deposed the government my father had publicly supported in what is known as the Czechoslovakia Coup, due to the country’s previous decision to participate in the the Marshall plan, and Stalin’s realization that Communist losses in French and Italian elections meant it could no longer count on maintaining control through free elections.

• Although in 1947, the UN passed UN General Assembly Resolution #181, with the attached Partition Plan for Palestine and Jerusalem as an international zone. Czechoslovakia, Poland the the Soviet Union supported the resolution. This was the background of the May 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence.

Then, in 1948, I was born, and with this substack I am seeking to find a way that independent journalism and voices can addresses the issues today.

2/7/25: As Meron Rappoport argues, Trumps “plan” for Gaza has already done damage, and if Phase 2 of the ceasefire is fully implemented, it will be a miracle. However, the entire Progressive Israel Network in the US outright condemns it, although I’ve lost track of bookmarking into my database. I’ll catch up somehow. As I said earlier, I am relying more on the J Street News Roundup. I do want to share something I realized this morning, in the need to focus on the suffering not get into a hierarchy of suffering or a counting of war crimes or an absolutist game of labeling.

Namely, as a young teen I read this : "The Man Without a Country" a short story by American writer Edward Everett Hale, first published in The Atlantic in December 1863. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Without_a_Country. I know that sometime during the 1950s, I watched on TV or heard on the radio a dramatization of The Man without a Country, likely on Million Dollar Movie, a showing of the 1937 Academy Award nominated account or the one of several 1953 radio dramatizations. Since this realization, I have listened to a faithful reading of the original by Edward G. Robinson.

This must be something like what many Palestinians feel or people try to make them feel. I speak not of feeling like any kind of traitor. To the contrary, they may feel like any patriot might feel if they even conceived of a circumstance where they were denied the right and ability to return to or know anything about their native land. Nolan himself, during his mandated exile aboard ship, underwent “20 some transfers" from ship to ship. I tell this tale to try, somehow, to deepen the empathy we should all feel for the Palestinian people.

To return to what Trump is proposing, even in its "lite" version—relocating Palestinians from Gaza voluntarily and temporarily—I woke thinking: would it not be better if all Palestinians had a beefed up Palestinian passport, and a right to return to Gaza or the West Bank for starters, and a birth certificate re-issued by Palestine? This could happen even before declared final borders are determined.

After all if Israel has existed for decades without final borders, why not Palestine? The Palestinian document could record their original place of birth as an updated Birth Certificate, and perhaps previous nations/places of origins. This would help document the pre-Palestinian citizenship travails and relocations and dislocations of those who were originally in pre-partition Palestine.

Again, just imagine being a Palestinian person without a country. Even those with US citizenship or Jordanian citizenship or citizenship in Lebanon or Syrian citizenship, or residency in one of the oh-so-many places Palestinians have resided as exploited "guest workers,” must feel like men, women and children without a country. Imagine. And yet it seems, still, no one is demanding recognition of Palestine, something I proposed in my letter to the Cleveland Jewish News. No one has expelled me from my religion of rabbinical Judaism yet, although for five years I’ve just depended on the kindness of strangers and a small secular community and places I show up for regular Torah study or irregular worship.

But somehow, it seems, this issue must be addressed, and soon. Apparently, since 1995 a prototype Palestinian passport had been available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_Authority_passport. I wonder how thorough and reliable the historical records of the pre-Israel passports for Palestine/Britain were. But perhaps it is time to upgrade and re-issue such passports and for countries which recognize Palestine to give them more respect and adherence. A complication would be whether Israeli Palestinians would be eligible to apply for citizenship in Palestine and the nature of any dual-citizenship provision for Palestine. I would certainly hope progressive Jews would oppose any linking of formation of a Palestinian state with reducing the already somewhat diminished citizenship rights of Israelis of Palestinian ethnicity, either Christian or Muslim or secular. It seems to me that progressives and socialists, as part of support for Palestinian self-determination, should favor some kind of process where. More and more countries should recognize Palestine and honor such passports, as Palestine would begins to issue upgraded Palestinian passorts. Alas, so much of the far left and from what I can see even the Palestinian "resistance" movement is not keen on demanding Palestinian statehood, on grounds it means accepting the perpetuity of Israel itself. I know in some quarters any criticism of anti-Israelism or of “the resistance” is infuriating, but so be it. I suggest those who object write publicly about their views and where they stand. I for one need to focus on work I have due about the relationship between peace and human needs and so I’ll be scarce here the next couple of weeks as I attend to that and my 70 students.

1/24/25: I am continuing to reply primarily on the J Street Roundup, a principled and purposive effort to keep the world informed. Gone or going is my magical mission to somehow win a “victory for humanity” by bibliography and by pining for peace or posting the work of others. Two pieces stick out in that respect: a Haaretz piece (gift link) to 'To Dislodge Netanyahu, You Need a Revolt': An Interview With an Israeli Communist Icon. And a piece by Ilan Goldenberg on his substack, Where the Hostage and Ceasefire Deal Go Next: 3 scenarios for Phase 2. I have always briefly provided my own commentary on Ilan’s peace, a follow-up to some frank conversation we had both publicly on and one to one when he visited Cleveland in 2019 for a City Club talk. I later cited that key conversation in my February 2024 Letter to the Editor to the Cleveland Jewish News, in order to argue that Israel remained then at risk. I think it remains still now at serious risk of massive destruction from “military” attacks or significant terrorism at the hands of Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and terrorism coming from many possible sources, including US Citizens or permanent residents visiting Israel, as one recent incident showed. Not that Gaza and Jenin are not at even greater risk. On the other hand, I believe with Pogo that “we have met the enemy and it is us,” namely our war hawks and chicken hawks who are willing to risk death and destructing and the remaining Israeli hostages’ lives in order to test out our latest weapons systems and show what we mean when “all hell breaks loose” in the Middle East or we give the world a taste of the “last days” and of our near-nuclear yield weapon systems. I haven’t read the article on Tamar Godansky yet, as I must take my own “neglect no need” medicine and hit the pool before a dental appointment and then return for a Zoom with students, some of whom this dam war and its fragile ceasefire have deeply affected, no doubt, or at least that has been the case more often than perhaps I know. I have read Ilan’s piece and commented on it by virtue of re-stacking it and my comments are here. (I’ve discovered if you click on the body of an old note you can get the URL to it. I must donate to Substack; somehow this content has been provided by Substack at no cost to me other than a few subscriptions. I will probably institute a Tip Jar to keep access and commentary here free, so Substack can at least get a cut of that!

1/21/25: Having had the gall to try on 1/19 to comment onBassem Naim and J Street on the same day, today I came across a couple of pieces by one of the persons I respect the most, the Australian Jewish social work educator Philip Mendes. Given that there is now contining efforts to justify the “resistance” and its “right” to engage in “armed struggle” and its depiction of 10/07/23 as a somehow a legitimate attack that may need to be repeated again, reading Philip’s history of the Farhud in Iraq during Shavuot, June 1-2, 1941 is essential. Don’t know what that was? I did not until I learned about it a wihle back from Philip. There are no doubt many atrocities by Israelis or Pre-statehood Jews towards Palestinians towards Jews I have not yet read about as well. But will we learn the lessons of 10/07 and the war crimes by Israel and Hamas/allies since that time, or not? But I also highly recommend Philip’s important piece, which I am not sure has been published elsewhere other than on Academia.edu. I have downloaded it as a PDF here with a link to its source: There is no progressive justification for the Hamas Death Squad Massacre. Given that somehow no one has named 10/07, I think The Hamas Death Squad Massacre is a good one. How might one name Israeli's response? How about The Israeli Indiscriminate Bombing Revenge. Of course it is much easier to just keeping saying "the genocide" and to reify it as so many do. Lest one reply, “oh the bombing wasn’t indiscriminate”, despite the fact that President Joe Biden said so in November 2024, well, yes, it was targeted although often by a computer program, but still indiscrminate. And that is because it was not proportionate under any interpretation of international law in that regard. I have been thinking, falsely, that Israel took the precedent of President Obama’s attempted assasination of Colonel Gaddaffi in the tent with his family, but it turns out that never happened. It was an attack on a true command and control center. But what Israel did, time and time again, was attack residential buildings in order to try to kill a Hamas fighter or leader with their own family and many others. This was revenge, not military necessity.

1/19/25: In an interview by Drop Site News, a Hamas Political Bureau member Dr. Bassem Naim. He said 10/07 was part of a struggle for freedom and dignity and that 10/07 was an “act of defense”. In one key passage, 18:42, having claimed Hamas accepted UN SC 2735 he said (18:42), “The agreement of July 2, it was the deal of May 27, plus two explicit points added to this to guarantee that the parties will continue negotiating under the ceasefire conditions until we reach a final agreement,” he basically admitted what I have contended here, that Hamas was essentially refusing to start the ceasefire process in Phase 1, per #2735, until Israel would promise, in advance, to a permanent ceasefire. Hamas was was essentially proposing to skip Stage 1 and skip to the end of Phase 2! This is basically an admission on Hamas’s part that it sought to postpone a ceasefire out of hope that somehow continued military support from Hezbollah and Iran and the Houthis and international condemnation would produce a victory. Once Hamas dropped those objections and agreed to implement Phase 1, the present ceasefire became possible. For its part, of course, Israel itself also tried to sabotage Phase 1, which is what is in place now, by making bellicose statements about destroying Hamas and continuing the war, even after the end of Phase 2, as if there was no Phase 3! So both leaderships postponed what we are seeing now interminably. With all the terrible attendant suffering and death.

1/19/25: While postponing commentary on the details and prospects of successful implementation of UN Security Council 2735, which no one wants to talk explicitly about—I do plan commentary on acounts of greiving, trauma and recovery, and I also comment here on what I see as next steps for Middle East Peace with Justice. I began November 13, 2013 a thread on an activist list serve called Accounts of Grieving, Trauma and Recovery, and I have posted a couple of dozen of times since then. The links are in the bib here. I will likely most more accounts here and write a Speaking From the Heart essay based on them. I have focused here by and large on another thread I maintained on Latest Ceasefire Proposals. Here, as an actual attempt at a ceasefire begins, I will not reify it as “the ceasefire.” I find it problematic that so many people on the left and commentaries from the left talk very little about specific war crimes by Israel and Hamas/Allies but reify “the genocide,” talking blithely and casually about it as if they were talking about “the election” or “the strike”. While I often complain about the NYTimes coverage and its practice of little snippets here and there rather than in-depth, focused, well-researched news stories and news analysis, this story shows the value of such snippets as they begin to report on the joy and sadness in both Gaza and Israel. The Times also to its credit publish my January 2024 Letter to the Editor, in which I called for a unilateral ceasefire by Israel, as it had once done before in 2009 and as was later proposed by in 2024 by Dennis Ross and David Makovsky in Foreign Affairs magazine on May 1, 2024, “Why Israel Should Declare a Unilateral Cease-Fire in Gaza.” Later in a February 2024 letter to the Cleveland Jewish News I reiterated that call. And in my December 4, 2024 op-ed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, I contended that such a ceasefire would, “create a revolution of rising expectations among the Gazan and Israeli peoples, who would likely insist their governing forces agree to a Phase 2 permanent ceasefire. It would also galvanize world opinion.” I see this happening right now in both Israel and Gaza. I said an initial ceasefore would “place tremendous pressure on Hamas and Israel to get serious about accepting the U.N. Security Council Resolution 2735′s Phase 1 and to begin negotiations on Phase 2.” Assuming Phase 1 holds, this remains true about Phase 2. I also said, and this is essential, “Regarding Phase 3 of Resolution 2735, one provision might be that an international force oversee the destruction of the tunnels from which Hamas has manufactured weapons and missiles.” In my February 2024 letter to the Cleveland Jewish News, I also warned of the massive guided missile capacity of both Hezbollah and Iran. Unfortunately both Israel and the US have claimed that capacity has been “degraded,” and I do not think that is true. I would be interested in what Barbara Slavin and others think in that regard. Thinking like that is illustory and risks massive destruction in Israel, or even world war, if the US and Israeli war hawks pursue war with Iran. As I argued in my February 2024 letter in the Cleveland Jewish News, “Also, the U.S. must re-enter the Iran deal, support normalization of relations with Israel and jump-start both these processes,” while also encouraging recognition of the observer state of Palestine now. President Trump claims he is a peacemaker not a neoliberal warmonger or an isolationnist; it is time for him to prove it. On the question of US support for recognition of the State of Palestine, I doubt Trump will support that but I do think more and more nations, including US allies, will take the step of establishing appropriate levels of diplomatic relations with Palestine, even if they consider it premature, as do I, to make Palestine a full member of the UN at this time. But just as a massive growth of support for the African National Congress and the South African Freedom Charter took place literally on the day of Reagan’s inauguration, I see the need to build a global movement for establish diplomatic relations with both Israel and Palestine, conditioning them based on bilaterally communicated concerns. This must happen now. This means recognition that growing regional integration and peaceful relations is the order of the day for pursuing peace with justice in the Middle East and avoiding war with Iran.

J Street calls this a 23-state solution and I agree. Blinken repeated constantly the phrase “integration” and I agree with that as well. Old tactics and strategies calling for isolation and boycott of Israel have failed utterly. It is time, now, to insist on full and complete adherence and fulfillment of UN SC #2735 and UN SC #1701 and steps towards full fulfilment of the other relevant resolutions in the region.

1/18/25: A leading democratic left activist who I respect greatly suggested I take a wait and see approach to this particular Beat, which since 10/03 has put me in a place of nearly constant sorrow, anger, but somehow, hope. And that is just me, who has no family in Israel (or Gaza) and has lost know one I know personally. So while I continue to update my underlying database, and to read, and hope this ceasefire actually happens, I’ve avoided commentary. I do want to share this excellent article by Meron Rapaport, from Haaretz, shared by Portside. I also highly recommend a careful listening to the final press conference of Secretary of State Blinken.

1/13/25 According to the WSJ (gift link), Jake Sullivan says a ceasefire is near. I remain concerned that Trump’s appointee designate Vitkoff is somehow involved; isn’t there a law that prohibits private citizens from representing the US? The article says, “The first stage of the deal under consideration would pause fighting and allow for the release of some Palestinians prisoners in Israel in exchange for the release of 33 hostages being held in Gaza. The hostages to be released would include women, children, people with severe injuries and those above the age of 50, according to a draft of the deal seen by The Wall Street Journal. Hamas would also hand over dead bodies. The militant group agreed that Palestinians released from long jail terms would leave the Palestinian territories and live in exile abroad with their families. Hamas also accepted verbal guarantees from the U.S., Qatar, Egypt and Turkey that Israel would continue negotiations for a permanent cease-fire after the expiry of the first phase of the deal, Arab mediators said.” This is all very positive as it seems as if both sides are fully agreed on terms of Phase one and to negotiate term of Phase two later, which is how it was supposed to work. The uncertainty of how many bodies of dead hostages would be released—or the possibility, at least in my concern, that Hamas and its partner’s will also announce other hostage deaths for which they cannott produce bodies due to bombardments of the places they were held—is, well uncertain and very worrisome, as it could lead to Israeli fury and a reversal of agreement to negotiate the permanent ceasefire and full hostage/prisoner exchange which Phase two entails. The Haaretz report (gift link) is also very positive and indicates an actual final draft agreement is not being considered by both Hamas and Israel.

1/10/25: Although most of my attention has been given to prospects for a ceasefire, even since, during October 2023, someone close to me said I should focus on not who said what but on the suffering. That has been hard, but certainly not as hard as the people who are suffering. Accordingly, I had a longstanding thread Thread for Accounts of Grieving, Trauma and Recovery on the list serve of the North Star Caucus of DSA. Here is the latest from 972 about the six babies who have died of hypothermia in recent days in Gaza. Meanwhile the mourning and suffering, at the risk of being accused of promoting "equivalency", goes on on both sides of the war and in the West Bank. To force myself to retain this focus on the grieving, trauma and suffering, I’m going back now to the first of my posts, and linking to them here. I and anyone reading this I think can benefit from the reminded that these dozens of accounts—just a small number from among the likely hundreds on this Beats underlying bibliography—are at the crux of the war crimes in the thousands both the IDF and Hamas, and Islami Jihad, and PJLP and its other two Gaza paramilitary allies in the resistance have committed and have continued to commit. 11/13/23. Chicago-ar

ea PalestinianAmericans overwhelmed by grief as family members face death and destruction in Gaza; 11/13/23: Peter Beinart on Facing the Horror in Gaza (along with many links also saved); 11/05/23 posted 11/16/23: Two Palestinian women from Birmingham AL, who have suffered loses in Palestine, speaking in DC at 4:01/57 of this YouTube; 11/15/23: Rachel Goldberg, mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin who was kidnapped to Gaza speaks at the DC rally 11/16/23 (AP) Their families wiped out, grieving Palestinians in Gaza ask why. 11/16/23: Families of Hostages fight to be heard from Jewish Currents. (MD: Commented “We really need the US to at least abstain from a UN SC resolution on a ceasefire, to maximize pressure on Israel to come to a hostage agreement, it seems to me, and the five day ceasefire Hamas has proposed to permit an exchange of hostages for prisoners.” 11/18/23 (NYT Gift) The War Turns Gaza into a ‘Graveyard’ for Children;

1/10/25: WAPO reports valuable information about ceasefire negotiations in a rare article which even mentions the three phase UNSC resolution’s provisions, but as usual not mentioning the resolution itself! It merely says Biden proposed the three-stages and that may be true, but this is not a Biden plan (Biden said Israel proposed it to help them save face, apparently). This is a UNSC resolution, as I labored to explain 12/4/24 in my Cleveland Plain Dealer op-ed. Yet the Lebanese ceasefire was based on one (UNSC #1701) and the new Lebanon President has pledged to finall bring it fully into fruition. In the US, no one seems to want to talk about UNSC #1935. The lack of precision in the WAPO article is problematic: “The proposed three phases were publicly announced by Biden in May, although there have been some changes during subsequent negotiations. Israel agreed to withdraw some troops from several populated areas inside Gaza during the first phase, but negotiations were stalled for months over Hamas’s insistence, and Israel’s refusal, to commit to withdrawing all its forces and declaring a permanent end to the war in the second phase, when all remaining hostages are to be released. A third phase is designed to establish non-Hamas governance in Gaza and begin substantial reconstruction of the enclave. While Hamas has reportedly now agreed not to insist on Israel’s commitment to stop the war entirely during the second phase, the extent of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza remains unclear. The Israel Defense Forces has constructed what appear to be permanent installations in central Gaza and cleared a wide buffer area on the Gaza side of the border with Israel.” Regarding, “withdraw some troops from several populated areas inside Gaza during the first phase,” it is my understanding Israel agreed fully to the Phase one prescription to “withdrawal of Israeli forces from the populated areas in Gaza”, as Israel had done once or twice unilaterally before! The problem was as the article states but not precisely enough, “Hamas has reportedly now agreed not to insist on Israel’s commitment to stop the war entirely during the second phase.” As I explained earlier, Hamas was all along refusing a Phase 1 process at all, insisting on skipping that phase and that Israel agree to the full provisions of the end Phase two, which state “a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.” Not “during phase 2” as WAPO said but after it or as 2735 states, “upon agreement of the parties.” For its part, one reason, perhaps, Hamas took this position is that Netanyahu kept saying that after the hostages were released, he would “resume the war”. The NYPost and other outlets reported 12/31/24 Netanyahu said: “If there is a deal—and I hope there will be—Israel will return to fighting afterward. There’s no reason to obscure or conceal this because resuming fighting is intended to complete the war’s objectives. This doesn’t obstruct a deal; it encourages one.”

So if Israel will resume fire after Phase 2 is implemented, no wonder Hamas is reluctant to release hostages in either Phase 1 or 2! Releasing some in Phase 1 would make it easier for Israel to refuse to move to Phase 2! For some reason, the brilliant mass media refuses to discuss the details of UNSC #2735. I just wonder why our papers of record can’t precisely cover the whole matter, ask the right questions, and editorialize more insistently. I think it is due to the unwillingness to take unpopular positions that legitimize the UNSC process. Now what, given that Trump is insisting on a deal before he takes office or that there is hell to pay?

1/4/25: This is a very important re-formulation from J Street, the 23 State Solution, which I support. I know I have been self-critical that for 20 years or so I just kept repeating my two-state solution mantra, publicly criticized BDS while defending the right to have that view, but didn't do enough to educate myself and speak out individually other than through supporting J Streeet and Brit Tzedek v'Shalom before that. One issue: apparently the US cannot recognize Palestine now or it triggers various legal provisions which would harm our ability to provide aid to Palestinians. But the US can do this, now: make clear to its allies that while the US cannot now formally recognize Palestine we do not oppose other nations doing so, and that while we will not support full admission to the UN of Palestine until further along in the process, we promise to do so and feel that enhanced diplomatic ties including recognition by nations such as Mexico and so forth are not seen as hostile on our part.

*** 1/7/25: This important article by Harold Myerson in The National Prospect helps understand the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict. I am in accord with one exception: Myerson’s portrayal of the Jabotinsky movement. Especially in the US itself, supporters of the movement included Ben Hecht, who was present as a reporter Germany during the Spartacist revolt and was a determined reporter then novelist and playwriter whose had close friends on the left especially in the NYC literary scene and among Hollywood screenwriters.

But he tried mightily to remain politically independent like many reporters do (one reason I didn’t ever join SDS or any left political group during my journalist years in the late 60s/early 70s although I did attend anti-war protests and organize against racist and political repression in Cairo Illinois and of the Black Panther Party and lost a UM bus driver job for my support of the BAM movement at UM.

So, when I learned about the life of Ben Hecht from his incredible autobiography A Child of the Century. But after Kristallnacht he became alarmed and discovered that many in the liberal and official Jewish religious and charitable world and political world were not adequately sounding the alarm. He began comparing notes and realized he had to start saying something.

Here is a good piece from I think the introduction to or publisher’s review of a new 2020 Yale University Press edition of A Child of the Century. I post this after writing the above and it consistent with what my own take. They missed one thing: his Reader’s Digest article from February 1943, titled Remember us, which said: “Of these 6,000,000 Jews [of Europe], almost a third have already been massacred by Germans, Romanians, and Hungarians, and the most conservative of scorekeepers estimate that before the war ends, at least another third will have been done to death.”

See Wikipedia. He then worked with Itzhak Ben-Ami, father of J Street leader Jeremy Ben-Ami, on organizing a mass rally at MSQ. From personal knowledge, I also know from the child of one of them that a small but solid of the followers of Jabotinsky were on the radical left and one helped found the early communist movement, I’m not sure in what year. I say this not to defend racism in the extreme Zionist movement—and there was no doubt anti-Palestinianism and Anti-Arab chauvinism among many trends in the movement.

But what motivated Hecht and many of the Jabotinsky movement was first and foremost saving Jewish lives. Hecht developed a deep hatred of Germans which is palpable, and I found objectionable, and there was hatred of the British widespread as well.

That said, what is important to me is that we continue to find a way to fight for peace with justice in the Middle East. And to do that I highly recommend Jeremy Ben-Ami’s substack, with its new post on a 23-State solution, on which I comment advocating for progress towards more recognition of Palestine, and his series on the meaning of Zionism. Zionism as an ideology had serious problems but the mass migration of Jews to Palestine came after 2024 and after the rise of Hitler and after the Shoah and then another half million refugees in the 1950s from Middle Eastern nations. These migrants did not hate Arabs, Bedouins, and Muslims, they were desperate for a place to live in safety.

1/3/25: First can I remind myself to use the J Street News Roundup? https://jstreet.org/news-roundups/news-roundup-for-january-3-2025/. Please check it out. I continue here my own pitiful attempt at a roundup: https://michaelalandover.substack.com/p/peace-with-justice-in-the-middle

Alao, can I assume, dear readers, that in addition to reading everything we can in the magical hope that by doing so, a ceasefire will somehow descend on Gaza, rockets and guided missiles from Gaza and the Houthis will magically stop falling on Israel, and that there will be a hostage/prisoner release and that on both sides mourning can continue in peace and those with wounds can heal, that we are listening regularly Democracy Now? https://www.democracynow.org/. I am not always entirely happy with their coverage and particularly with their early on reification of the genocide charge which the BDS National Campaign first raised literally on 10/07/23 in their celebration of “the resistance” and call for presenting genocide. Within just weeks the prevention charge was dropped, and the charge of genocide was already being made.

This, of course, took the focus of the growing numbers of war crimes on both sides and prevented the development of anything close to a real movement for peace with justice in the Middle East. I hate to have to get into these kinds of recrimination when people are still dying, but so sad am I and so angry am I at Israel’s political mis leadership, the IDF’s willingness to first use indiscriminate bombing and more recently targeted attacks with a blithe willingness to permit entirely disproportionate numbers of civilian casualties, and disregard for most fundamental requirements of humanitarian attention to the civilian population that I have a hard time re-focusing on my very shortly upcoming return to teaching and my other personal responsibilities.

The latest report from the NYTimes https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-hamas-cease-fire-trump.html is less pessimistic about the outcome of the indirect negotiations which are now at least in Cairo and will soon concurrent delegations from Israel and Hamas in the same place, Cairo, with facilitation from Egypt and Qatar and US assistance. The efforts “proceed cautiously” and have made little headway. Haaretz says the Israeli goal seems to deprioritize hostage release and pursue https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-01-03/ty-article-magazine/.premium/in-gazas-jabalya-devastation-seems-to-be-the-idfs-end-goal-not-the-hostages/00000194-2b12-d39d-a196-bf7f0ee50000. This is a must read: “The idea of a cease-fire deal enabling residents to return to the northern Gaza Strip seems imaginary. Not only does Netanyahu refuse to end the war, but the residents of Jabalya and other areas have nowhere to return.” The IDF’s goal is the killing of every Hamas member, it appears, not anything remotely like military victory in any previous war of my memory. This is what might be called institutionalized revenge, the very revenge Rabbi Roger Klein and many other US rabbis warned Israel n-o-t to pursue.

1/2/25: A ceasefire agreement is unlikely the NYTimes reports (gift). However, Haaretz (gift) says Hamas officials are hopeful. Remember the Israeli delegation that had returned to Israel? It is now back in Cairo. That is a good sign. It could well be that I was correct in my below analysis that both sides want to be able to claim that their latest war crimes show that it was they who pressured the other side to agree to a ceasefire (remember, in case you have forgot, even unprecise rocket fired by Hamas/allies at Israel is a war crime not directed at a military target, as is every tunnel/meeting/usage under or at a hospital or school; the “resistance” doesn’t do that, right? Look for some, any, sign of restraint or a token gesture of some kind, or am I dreaming? In any case, Israel has joined the US in the “we had to destroy it to save it” club and Hamas and its four partners in the “resistance” have proven to be the worst excuse for a national liberation movement in the history of liberation movements. The SACP/ANC/COSATU tripartite alliance is not!

Meanwhile, related to the recent PA effort to crack down on terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank, the PA has banned Al Jazeera. I’m forced to periodically post a link to their pieces and have listened to oodles of YouTubes on my YouTube Middle East playlist, but don’t get me started about the numerous times I have found their work inflammatory, unreliable or just plain false; it is well disguised. There should be an Al Jazeera watch! On the other hand, my commitment has been to stay focused on the suffering, and sadly there is lots of suffering and death to cover.

12/31/24: Re the NYTimes headline: “Israel and Hamas Each Claim Wins in Fierce Fighting in Northern Gaza.” Gift copy here. Memo to Hamas/Allies and to Netanyahu and “his generals” (sorry for the reference to the Trump phase): There is no such thing as a “win” in the slaughter in Gaza, which must end with a ceasefire now! If Hamas and the other four allies from the 10/07 attack (Islamic Jihad, PFLP, etc.) had any honor and cared one whit about Gazans, they would surrender like any defeated force. If the Netayanhu leadership of Israel had any honor, and cared one whit about the hostages, they would just stop, unilaterally if necessary, as I have thrice called for. But knowing how many war crimes the civilian and military leaders of Israel and of Hamas and its four Palestinian allies in the 10/07 attack have committed, it is clear that the leaders on both sides want to delay delay delay and be able to claim it was their attacks which produced any ceasefire which eventually commences. Meanwhile people are freezing to death daily.

12/30/24: According ot the Times of Israel, five rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel and four infants in Gaza died from hyptothermia, while Netanyahu attends to his legal and health problems, and while each day of Hanukkah, there is no miraculous ceasefire. According to Haaretz, “A straight line connects the veil shrouding the events of 1948 and what is happening in the Gaza Strip in 2024. The scale of the destruction in the current war is inconceivable – schools, museums, hospitals, community centers and hotels. Entire families in Gaza have fallen apart due to their displacement, and some have even been wiped out by bombs. Children in Gaza are witnesses to what is happening, just like the young Taha, who was there and witnessed the Nakba.”

12/25/24: The Times of Israel reports that negotiations for a ceasefire face new obstacles. It is not good news. It reports: "It is believed that 96 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas in October last year remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF." (My empahsis). This would mean there are 96-34 (62) live hostages. Hamas has delayed in producing the previously promised list and appears to have resumed its previous stance of essentially insisting that the agreement combine Phases 1 and 2 rather than merely an agreement to Phase 1 and a promise of serious negotiations on Phase 2. This does not bode well. Also, from other reports it is clear Israel keeps saying things that are contradictory to the intent of Phase 2, which is supposed to involve full withdrawal from Gaza, namely its insistence it retains full rights to take security actions throughout Gaza at its discretion, as it still does in the West Bank. How security would be handled in Gaza and by what entity is supposed to be part of the Phase 3 negotiations.

12/24/24: This is just heartbreaking to listen to from NYT about Christians in Gaza.

12/23/24: Reuters reports that gaps have narrowed. Al Jazeera also reportson this but also notes that that Israel’s continuing attacks may endanger hostages. The Times agrees but points out Netanyahu says no time line.

12/21/24: Shortly after 10/07/24, someone close to me said, “Don’t focus so much on who said what or didn’t say anything. Focus on the suffering and death.” Since November 2023, I created a thread on the listserve of an activist group I belong to, hread for Accounts of Grieving, Trauma and Recovery, in which over the past year I’ve made just over a couple of dozen posts, in which I shared heartbreaking accounts of from Gaza and Israel. Sadly added today to the bibliography here are to more. Here is an account of the life of Gazan journalist Wafa Al-Udaini. And here is an account of more deaths in Gaza. I could post one about a Houthi attack on a “military” target, said attack arriving at a playground in Tel Aviv or about a Palestinian Israeli who died in the North from fragments from an Israeli interceptor missile. But point is not equivalence or false equivalence. From my vantage point, I can’t even image how horifying all this must be for people living in Gaza and in Israel and in Lebanon, where at least there is a temporary ceasefire. I approach accounts from the very pro-Palestinian Palestine Chronicle and other Israel right or wrong publications with a grain of salt, but this latest account from the Chronicle about a meeting of Palestinian groups in Gaza is hopeful.

12/21/24 This gift post from WSJ is worrisome about ceasefire prospects given what Bibi says. But this statement from a new coalition of Jewish groups internationally, a statement which I signed Friday as an individual, is hopeful. https://www.jlinknetwork.org/add-signature. There are some weaknesses in the letter, mainly related to its focus strictly on ceasefire not on other issues. One it doesn't stress UN SC #2735. It hints at something unilateral ("that Israel agree to" but should have just called for a unilateral halt pending an agreement. I've written Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson, new leader of Partners for a Progressive Israel, a group I have been supporting actively since 10/07/23, about that and related matters. I’m glad to see J Street is aboard, a group I have supported since its founding.

12/18/25: The New YorkTimea reported little more than on 12/17 than on my below update, but gave a solid overview. For once, there was mention of the three phases of the UNSC resolution. Clearly, at this point, Hamas and Israel are close to a phase 1 agreement. This disturbing report 3 today from Al-Jazeera however reports new Israeli conditions including its contention it will retain permanent freedom to intervene in Gaza like it does in the West Bank. The hidden upside of that it that this does not mean it would not fully withdraw from Gaza as a Phase 2 agreement would entail. Previously, Hamas demanded skipping Phase 1’s partial withdrawal and moving to Phase 2 and Israel was saying it would not leave until Hamas is fully defeated. As I have suggested, Phase 3 might involve international groups overseeing destruction of the tunnels.

12/15/25: Yesterday and today I remain hopeful for a negotiated ceasefire. Haaretz reported that in the last couple of days, both sides agree not to share more specifics, although earlier reports shows it would involve a Phase 1-like partial hostage release, (without mention of Palestinian prisoner release, and Hamas agreement on merely a Phase 1-consistent Israeli withdrawal from populated areas, not a full withdrawal. Since then the Gazans have carried out rocket attacked, leading to the death of a northern Israel Palestinian from renmants of an anti-rocket missile. Also, in two clashes, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hamas both attached IDF forces, leading to the death of three IDF soldiers and a retailiation by Israel allegedly killing ten of those who attacked. If those attacks are an effort by the Hamas military forces and Palestinian paramilitary units to be able to show they are not defeated, as Hezbollah claimed after the ceasefire there, these incidents, accompanied by more civililian deaths from Israeli bombings, could be consistent with a ceasefire declaration of the kind US National Security Council advisor Jake Sullivan and others have called for. I worry, however, that there is a tendency within the Netayanhu government and military that insists on carrying on the war until, as someone on Israeli Channel 7 pronounced last week, all the tunnels are destroyed. The prouncement stated that this required ground operations. Of course, that should have been apparent all along, but the IDF strategy instead seemed to be to merely try to bomb them to smithereens, like the US is reportedly now doing in Yemen, using bunker buster bombs dropped from B-1 stealth bombers. Despite the absence of more specifics, two sourxces told Haaretz, “Israel and Hamas are reportedly advancing an initial humanitarian hostage deal, in which all the women, the elderly, the sick and the wounded would be released. At the same time, Hamas has announced its intention, as a gesture at the start of the process of releasing hostages, to also free those holding American citizenship.” Earlier Hamas said it had a complete list of hostages, without giving a specific numbe. According to Haaretz, “The final number of hostages to be released at this stage is still unclear, and officials in Israel are reportedly working to have as many released then as possible.” It is clear, however, that this would be a Phase 1-like ceasefire per UN SC #2735 not the combined Phase 1/2 one which Hamas had insisted upon earlier. Haaretz also reported, “Last week, Defense Minister Israel Katz told his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin, that there were now new prospects for a deal that would enable all the hostages to be returned, including those with U.S. citizenship. Katz's statement, which was then officially released by the Defense Ministry, constituted an unusual public comment by Israel's political leadership regarding the contacts with Hamas.” Meanwhile, protests continue across Israel demanding hostage release. The New Delhi based WION YouTube television like channel has footage and reports on the lastest developments as of Sunday afternoon in the US, including yet another report of the deaths of dispaced families from Israeli attacks, and that the total death toll in Gaza is over 44,000. The New York Times reports on these Israeli attacks (unlocked), including the death of another journalist, as did WAFA, the Palestinian Authority News Agency. The Times reported: “Since October, Israel’s military has conducted some of its most devastating attacks in northern Gaza in an effort to crush what it says is a resurgence of the Hamas militant group in the area. The military has called on civilians in much of northern Gaza to evacuate, but many feel they have nowhere safe to go and have not left. The United Nations has warned of dire conditions and the risk of famine for some 400,000 civilians there.” MD: Clearly, if there is some kind of breakdown in negotiations for a ceasefire, due to either party reneging on previous agreements or one of the Gazan paramilitary forces refusing to honor it, Israel must just stop, by declaring a unilateral temporary ceasefire, as I contended most recently on December 4.

12/12/25: Today for the first time in many months, I am hopeful for a negotiated Gaza ceasefire. See this gift copy from WSJ. Hamas has agreed to a provision of UN SC #2725 Phase 1, namely that Israel does not have to fully withdraw from Gaza in Phase 1, and they have provided a list of hostages! https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-gaza-palestine-ceasefire-hostage-negotiations-d599e1d1?st=ypFURK&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink.

12/9/24 It is Syria specific and I’ve started a Lagniappe Links on that, but must share this powerful article by Kareem Shareen in New Lines magazine, which if you search has contributed a dozen articles to the above bibliography since 10/07/23. https://newlinesmag.com/spotlight/dawn-in-damascus/. The death and destruction must end!

12/9/24 Congresswoman Barbara Lee, MSW, who in 2001 was the only member of Congress to vote no on war in Afghanistan, has once again in her final term in Congress voted with honor. This time she was one of 86 members of Congress who voted to call on President Biden to “express our alarm at the deepening humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, and to point out that the Netanyahu administration in Israel has has “severely restricted the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip,” although noting some recent steps Israel has taken, apparently in response to US pressure. The letter stated, “We also urge you to make clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that so long as Israel restricts, directly or indirectly, the facilitation of humanitarian aid delivery into Gaza, the Israeli government is risking its eligibility for further offensive security assistance from the U.S.” See the letter here: https://tinyurl.com/LetterToBidenOnGaza

12/8/24 PM update: I closed down this evening reading this essential interview in Haaretz with Rashid Klalili: https://portside.org/2024-12-05/palestinian-american-historian-rashid-khalidi-israel-has-created-nightmare-scenario?utm_source=portside-general&utm_medium=email. I’ve read his book but this interview says so much more, no doubt informed in part by his current research on Northern Ireland. I highly recommend a reading.

12/8/24 AM update: I woke this morning to find out what if anything, if anything, is happening to stop the ongoing carnage in Gaza. One thing is clear, it seems to me, and that is that President Trump is undermining the sitting president. He has sent his Middle East Advisor Steve Witkoff.

This is an apparent violation of the law: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/953. Trump and his advisor are not allowed to conduct foreign policy and can be fined for doing so.

Meanwhile the Pope has called for a ceasfire before Christmas.

12/4/24 update: I have now published an op-ed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer: Time for an Israeli Unilateral Ceasefire in Gaza. See there and on Speaking from the Heart. I hope I am proven wrong and there is an immediate ceasefire per Phase 1 and/or 2 of UN SC #2735.

Here is the latest about resumed negotiations.

For a more detailed and longer version which I submitted and withdrew from the NYTimes, see here.

There are additional items from my YouTube playlist here (some are, most not, yet in the bibliography, and many of them I very strenuously agree with).

10/07/23 and its aftermath and historical context rivaled (for me) two other key historical events: 9/11/01, 9/11/1973 (the US instigated coup in Chile), and the Spring 1968 assasinations of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy in Spring 1968. They were life changing, in many ways.

Each of these events required me to make major changes in my professional and political live and produced ongoing attention to their political and historical significance. Here I share items which I feel are suitable for public attention, although they are clearly selected in part to to my own positionality as someone who, upon a religious conversionn to Judaism completed in 2000, has long been a public advocate for peace with justice and self-determination for Israel and Palestine and a proponent of human rights for all in the region, as well as an opponent of always linking opposition to racism with opposition to anti-Semitism, anti-Arab chauvinism, Islamophobia, and most recently two additional forms of prejudice and discrmination, anti-Palestinianism and anti-ZionISTism, the latter being very different than mere political opposition to Zionism as an ideology. I’m working on a piece on that but it too has both individual in-your-face aspects and intitututional impacts and political implications. One piece which will influence my thinking on this question is the subject of a soon to beee released (here in Lagniappe) bibliography that will inform further on the question. And that is this insightful article by Haggai Matar, editor of 972. In reading his piece I recocommend thinking along the way, how you think he approaches the question of self-determination. His article me to consider the lonstanding nature of both anti-Semitism and anti-Arab chauvinism, and the specific nature of anti-Palestininianism. In some ways they have a unique character which might be termed “special oppression” and I hope to visit this later.

This is not by any means a reliable bibliography relevant to readings on the region, but is a quite extensive collection of valuable items in English since 10/07/23.

In the present bibliography, I have tried to focus on the suffering in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank and now in Lebanon, and on issues related to a ceasefire. I first advocated for a ceasefire in signing the Demand Progress petition in fall 2023. In the New York Times of 1/26/2024, I linked to a moving YouTube where Bernie Sanders interviewed the director of the World Food Program and I called for a unilateral ceasefire by Israel. And in the Cleveland Jewish News of 2/26/24 I repeated the need for such a ceasefire and called for recognition of Palestine. On this latter point, the USA can’t do that now without triggering provisions in law that would actually prevent aid to the West Bank and Gaza, but we should make clear to our allies we do not oppose such recognition.

I signed the Letter of American Jews to Our President (an ad in the New York Times early in the 2000s, and have all along consistently supported the efforts of J Street and since last fall Standing Together and well as Combatants for Peace.

In fall 2024, I commented on a piece Portside reprinted from The Nation, “What the Movement for Palestine can Learn from the Fight Against Apartheid (here in The Nation directly). My comment was used in the Tidbits section of Portside here: “This is important, but it fails to go the next logical step and critique more fully the moral faillings of activists who are pro-Palestine or pro-Israel, and fails to point out the secret of the South African liberation movement was its strict policy of non-racialism. Ironically, the most principled groups are in Israel itself, among Arabs and Jews and joint groups. Bottom line, we need a peace movement not just a solidarity movement. Mike Dover.” I am continuing to try to find ways to speak out and be an effective advocate, but since I do not support the BDS tactic—although publicly opposing efforts to criminalize or prohibit it)—I can’t support some of the tactics of the groups who focus on it.