“Half of the Israeli public is no longer in favor of the war,” one friend told me Saturday night as we witnessed thousands of Israelis take to the streets to protest the Israeli government under the slogan, “Elections Now.” “Yes, but the other half is all-in, and REALLY in favor,” responded his wife. “And they are the more powerful group.”
She, of course, is right. For months, reports of torture and rape have emerged from Israel’s military base turned torture camp, Sde Teiman, where Israel has imprisoned thousands of Palestinians without charge. I wrote about it in a previous diary earlier this month. Palestinians who have emerged from this torture camp refer to it as the “slaughterhouse” with horrendous tales of torture, rape, abuse, and sleep deprivation being meted out by Israeli prison guards. Nearly 30 Palestinians have died while in Sde Teiman and other prisons, according to the information provided to date.
And while the precise chain of events is unclear, what we do know is that the Israeli military advocate general decided to dispatch the military police to question nine Israeli soldiers on suspicion of gang-raping and sodomizing a Palestinian man from Gaza at Sde Teiman. The man was rushed to the hospital where he exhibited signs of rape, including a ruptured bowel and broken ribs. It would be a mistake to simply think that Israel’s actions in prisons like Sde Teiman came only after October. Since becoming Israel’s national security minister in 2022, ultranationalist Itamar Ben Gvir has made prisons his target, with him authorizing abuse against Palestinians. He has also called for the death penalty to solve problems of overcrowding.
I was optimistic in 2008 and even voted for Obama.
We saw how that turned out, and with respect to Kamala, I expect the reboot to even worse than original, given the state of things in this country.
It just sounds like you would have made this exact comment and line of attack no matter who the Democrats chose, meaning it has nothing to do with Kamala
These days, absolutely.
I don't think the Democratic or Republican candidates are anything more than useful idiots for the billionaire class, and I think the vast majority of their promises are outright lies.
We saw a great example of that over the last 2-3 years, with partisans defending very public cognitive breaks on the part of President Biden, who I personally think should be 25'd out. If he hadn't had that exceedingly embarrassing incident at the debate, the Democrats and Democratic voters would still be defending him.
The Obama and Trump presidencies killed any optimism I have for our country and system of government. Obama was reelected AFTER making sure the big banks suffered no ill effects of willfully destroying our economy for profit. Trump spent more than a year of his presidency (cumulatively) on vacation, and even sold the Oval Office for ad space. (And that was BEFORE he led a literal insurrection on the Capitol.)
It's difficult for me to understand anyone being optimistic, if you're looking at the last 44 years (and in particular, 16 years) with an objective eye.
It's either Harris or fascism, and it sounds like you've already made your choice. Have fun being miserable! #KamalaHarris #BlueWave #NotGoingBack
Respectfully, it's not.
It's two sides of a single fascist coin, and none of this is fun for me. I have eighty-year old parents forced to drive for DoorDash (using my car) or starve.