Meanwhile on the International front....

Who do you think attacked the pro-Palestine encampment at UCLA? Latte-drinking liberals? Antifa?

As OOP said, they are trying to cause chaos. So the enemy of my enemy is friend ... as long as they get to cause problems and division.

 

There are a number of people mad at any protest involving Arabs/Muslims. They don’t care about Israel other than as an enemy of those whom they despise. Others are supportive of Israel only in some sort of fundamentalist Revelations scenario.

I have good friends who are very pro-Israel who don’t think that there should be any Palestinian protests allowed, even peaceful ones.

I find much of the protestors to be incredibly naive in terms of what they are asking for and for not acknowledging that they supporting a region run by terrorists. I also am not quite sure what Israel is gaining by their bombing in Gaza but also I’m not sure what they should be doing instead in the long term other to wait for the next attack.

Depressing stuff.

 

George Packer on PEN and self-censorship.

free link

When Writers Silence Writers

 

I think Frank's answer is reasonable but incomplete, and misses perhaps the most obvious point: to an American 20-year-old with a tenuous grasp of world history,* Israel has never been the underdog.

Rather, Israel has been the dominant political, military and diplomatic player in the region, whose alignment with the US goes literally unquestioned.

College kids push back against the conduct of the institutions they see around them - not the distant history of those institutions.





* which is every American 20-year-old

 

‘None go forward without the others.’ US mega-deal would tie together the futures of Saudi Arabia, Israel and Gaza

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/02/midd...-israel-palestinian-statehood-intl/index.html


"The US is currently negotiating one mega-deal involving three components, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday.

The first component includes a package of agreements between the US and Saudi Arabia, another component has the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and a third component for a pathway to a Palestinian state"

 

I don't think anybody is saying that came from a genuine place or that they actually give a damn about Israel. They see it as an opportunity.

 

That seems very unlikely to work, and it is definitely DOA if Trump wins in November.

 

Politico takes the novel approach of asking reporters on the front lines to lay out the facts about what they’re seeing. Thirteen different campuses represented. I can’t recommend this highly enough.

https://www.politico.com/news/magaz...ests-israel-gaza-student-journalists-00155672

One takeaway: Pro-Palestine students are probably getting a bit worse treatment but nobody’s got it great right now.

 

A true peace between Israel and the Palestinians has certain requirements to make it work. A Palestinian homeland must be established, with borders that Israel cannot tear off chunks of at will. It will require a huge infusion of money to build/rebuild infrastructure to support the population. There will have to be a security force that stands between the Israelis and the Palestinians, preferably one that strives to remain neutral. but one that works to enforce peace in any case. That's probably going to be the Saudis or a Saudi led coalition. No way the U.S. takes on that role. While there is UN support for financing the rebuilding process, it will probably require the investment of substantial funds from other Arab sources.

Bibi will like none of this, and will work to stick a shiv in it. I can't help but think that a more moderate Israeli government will have to replace him for anything like this to move forward.

Remember that the October attack blew up a very extensive deal between Israel and the Saudis.

Now, will any of that happen? LOL. I've been watching the Middle East since 1967. I guess we'll see how far any of this diplomacy gets.

 

The UCLA student reporter’s comments about the one-sided nature of the violence (counter protesters/outside agitators attacking pro-Palestinian protesters) was interesting.

Much of the national reporting I’ve read — when they bother to mention UCLA at all amid coverage of the elite Eastern colleges — portrayed Tuesday night’s violence as a melee between both sides.

 

I'm so tired