Monday, November 20: Cruel Winter
2023 is wild; you can say "ethnic cleansing is bad" and lose your job for it
Where do you go when there are no ambulances and no hospitals and the bombs keep dropping? Who will help excavate the dead buried in rubble that used to be their homes and neighborhoods when any attempt to dig out bodies is met with bombs and bullets? Who will keep the hungry stray dogs from feeding on the corpses rotting in the streets?
It was just a few weeks ago that western media outlets were wringing their hands and tripping over themselves trying to prove that it was really Hamas that attacked a hospital in Gaza. Yesterday the Israeli regime bombed Palestinian patients in the Indonesian hospital in Gaza, dropping bombs on patients who were lying in hospital beds unable to move. One of the hardest things to witness isn't seeing the monstrous crimes approved by Israeli leaders, they've been doing the same thing for decades, just more slowly. What’s more horrifying is realizing just how many people in our day-to-day lives are perfectly fine with bombing children, as long as the flimsiest of excuses is provided. The complete absence of memory and the fleeting attention span of so many has led them to stop questioning who is bombing hospitals or why and to simply accept it as part of the ethnic cleansing process.
Ghassan Abu Sitta, a British Palestinian surgeon, left Gaza yesterday because there was no more anesthetic to use for operations. Years from now, his name probably won’t be mentioned in history books, but his actions over the past 44 days have been nothing short of heroic. This is a man who chose to stay with his patients and provide life-saving care for Palestinians in the worst pain imaginable. He is worthy of 100 Nobel Peace prizes, but he’ll almost certainly get no credit for his courage.
The secretary general of the UN Antonio Guterres said, “We are witnessing a killing of civilians that is unparalleled and unprecedented in any conflict since I am secretary general”. Earlier today, the Israeli Occupation Forces kidnapped Gaza's most prominent poet Mosab Abu Toha as he was fleeing to southern Gaza. He wrote this haunting essay about the war for the New Yorker just last month. He describes in vivid detail his fear of becoming just another casualty in the massacre against his people.
One idea in particular haunts me, and I cannot push it away. Will I, too, become a statistic on the news? I imagine myself dying while hearing my own name on the radio.
-Mosab Abu Toha
A survey conducted by faculty at Tel Aviv University last month found that more than half of Israeli Jews (57.5%) believe the apartheid Israeli forces are using too little firepower in Gaza, with another 36.6% saying they were using an appropriate amount of firepower. Less than 2% of survey respondents said they believed the military was using too much fire power. Not to put too much emphasis on political polls, but here in the US, a full 70% of voters under the age of 35 openly disapprove of how Biden has handled the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. The dusty old windbag is tanking his entire presidency just to endorse the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian kids.
One thing I’ve learned in the past 44 days is how many people love to do this weird thing where they ride the fence on an issue and pretend they’ve found some sacred "nuanced" middle ground. In reality it's not nuance, they’re just intellectually lazy cowards afraid to take a principled stance. Do yourself a favor, don’t be one of these people.
Side Items
Argentina’s New Liability: Javier Milei, a 53-year-old far-right economist, won Argentina’s presidential election yesterday, changing the fortunes of the nation (likely for the worse). Milei is a strange character with a stranger haircut, and his policy recommendations are seemingly intended to drive Argentina’s economy into the ground. He has endorsed the idea of legalizing the voluntary sale of human organs, he wants to abolish public healthcare, education, and transportation, he has discussed abandoning monetary sovereignty and adopting the US dollar. And to top it all off, the man says his dead dog Conan speaks to him from the afterlife and advises him on economic policy. Truly one of a kind (not in a good way)
Rosalynn Carter Died: The former first lady passed away this weekend at the ripe age of 96. Former President Jimothy Carter called her "an extension of myself" due to her prominent role in his single-term administration as she promoted the cause of mental health among other initiatives. I’ll always remember Rosalynn and her husband for gifting us one of the stranger wide-angle photos with the Bidens