Meanwhile on the International front....

I resemble that remark!

Reminds me of the one and only chance I had to see Paul McCartney 10 years ago (in Missoula!). He strummed the opening chord sequence of “Blackbird,” stopped and said, “How many of you out there have played this song?”

Quite a few of us cheered and raised our hands.

“Ah, but how many of you can play it like this” he replied before cranking it out perfectly.

Answer: No one.

 

gift link

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-ea...3ccc37a9d9w&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

TEL AVIV—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to the Gaza war is frustrating almost everyone with a stake in the fight, including his allies.

The U.S. wants at least a temporary cease-fire. Israeli security officials, including the defense minister, want a plan for who will rule postwar Gaza. And hostage families want their loved ones home.

The common obstacle to meeting those demands is Netanyahu’s need to placate two far-right ministers in his government whose names are unfamiliar outside Israel: Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hard-line rabble-rouser who oversees the police; and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister and settler leader who seeks to expand Israeli control of the West Bank. Both men want to rebuild Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Together, they hold 14 seats in the 120-seat Parliament, or Knesset. Yet they wield tremendous power.

 

free link

https://wapo.st/3QQeN0B

Top Biden administration officials traveling to Israel this weekend are running out of chances to persuade the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to adopt their vision of how to end the war in Gaza and bring lasting peace.

More than seven months and tens of thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths after the brutal attack in Israel last October, the two sides are as far apart as ever on both battlefield tactics and overall strategy to achieve their shared goal of defeating Hamas.

Their profound differences range from whether it is possible for Israel Defense Forces to militarily destroy every vestige of Hamas — razing most of Gaza along with it — to whether the establishment of a Palestinian state is capitulation to terrorists or the only way to end the decades-long cycle of violence.

 

So many things to unpack at this distant viewpoint.

About protests and demonstrations: When the cause is beside the point and it's all about the protesters, they've lost the plot.

History is important. However, Most acts of aggression and cultural obviation are about bloodlust and power/control. Talk to some of the people on the ground who want an American civil war. They make Iron Age Vikings look polite. Ask someone who wants to move all of the "Good Southerners" out of the lower southeastern quadrant of the U.S. Try to explain why this is a bad idea. We've seen how this works out. Those people were called "Okies." Do you think Hamas and Israel are any different?

 

Quick explainer: There are 120 seats in the Knesset, which is currently divided with 64 members in the governing coalition and 48 in opposition. Voters don't vote for individual candidates, but instead for the party of their choice (a closed-list election).

 

He was pushing back against the notion that Israel is creating more terrorists. There is an argument to be made that those people were being indoctrinated into that same terrorism anyway and they simply won't ever tolerate Israel existing.

 

been done

www.npr.org/2021/02/09/965472049/the-capitol-siege-the-arrested-and-their-stories

 

I ask this as a serious question. How much do Netanyahu's views on the Palestinian people's fate differ from those of the two extreme right wing parties?

 

I'm sure bombing their house flat and killing one of their children won't do anything to further radicalize them.

 

A W for American logistics. Holy cow.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/16/gaza-aid-completed-pier-project-pentagon-00158604