Our “Outpost of Democracy” in the Middle East
Israeli troops raided the offices of the satellite news network Al Jazeera in the Israeli-occupied West Bank early Sunday, ordering the bureau to shut down. Al Jazeera journalists and all foreign reporters are still not allowed to report from inside the country. Al Jazeera continued broadcasting live from Amman, Jordan, even as Israeli troops welded shut its office doors in Ramallah and confiscated its equipment.
“Al Jazeera will not be intimidated or deterred by efforts to silence its coverage,” it said. — Al Jazeera
The Israel-Gaza war has taken an unprecedented toll on Gazan journalists since Israel declared war on Hamas on October 7, 2023. As of September 23, 2024, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) preliminary investigations showed at least 116 journalists and media workers were among the more than 42,000 killed since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.
Weekend Quotables
Trump’s problem with Jews
“If I don’t win this election … the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that if that happens, because at 40 percent that means 60 percent of the people are voting for the enemy.” — Washington Post
Leon Panetta
Former CIA Director Leon Panetta deemed the explosive-pager operation in Lebanon last week as "terrorism," saying "I don't think there's any question it's a form of terrorism." — CBS News Sunday Morning
Sen. John Fetterman on Israel's pagers operation in Lebanon
"I absolutely support that. If anything, I love it." — Meet the Press
Hillary Clinton, at it again
Hillary claims the student anti-war protesters are ignorant and don’t know anything about Israel and Gaza. Says outside agitators have morphed student protests into something not student-led. Some students hold strong opinions with no factual, historical basis and this whole "from the river to the sea" … what river, what sea? — CNN
Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch
Should [Kamala Harris] emerge victorious in November, I hope she will reconsider Washington’s blind support for Israel and its illegal occupation. — Guardian
Karim Makdisi, a professor of international politics at the American University in Beirut.
“People have seen what's happened in Gaza and they know that the Israelis are fully capable and they understand that basically the West has given up even pretending to do anything about it. There's no reason to believe that the Israelis will not go ahead and try to empty out a large section of the south and try to make the whole place totally uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.” — Drop Site
Ralph Nader
The mass mutilation war crimes of Netanyahu in Lebanon last week has been met with racist silence by the Biden Administration and Congress. Secretary of Defense Austin’s first response to thousands of victims of boobytrapped pagers and two-way radios was to dittohead “unwavering support for the Israeli regime” No denunciation. — X
Democracy Now this morning - Lebanese surgeon rushes back home from England for surgery on the people with blown off limbs and begins to clear over loaded hospitals and then the bombing victims start coming will no one stop this gang of murders. Stop the arms flow that is blow off the arms!
It's a contest over which is more outrageous--mass mutilations or the defense of them.