Lee Heidhues 11.2.2023

In my wildest Pacifist dreams I never imagined a Republican, from Alabama no less, would single handedly apply the brakes to the humongous American military machine. I can still be surprised.

Former football coach now Senator Tommy Tuberville has succeeded in pissing off the Pentagon, his fellow Republican senators and millions of women who want the right to control their bodies.

What’s his problem? He doesn’t believe the Pentagon should pay for women to travel to states where abortion is legal to terminate their pregnancy. The past nine months he has placed a “Hold” on Senate confirmation for approximately 350 nominees who require a Senate vote.

Just imagine the uproar if Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren were engaging in a similar stunt.

Excerpted from The New York Times 11.2.2023

In a clear sign that pressure is building, a handful of Republicans took to the Senate floor on Wednesday night to excoriate Senator Tommy Tuberville (R- AL) for his tactics, which have held up more than 350 senior military positions. They attempted to call up scores of pending promotions for military officers one by one, insisting he quit blocking them — which he refused repeatedly to do.

On Wednesday night, Mr. Tuberville shot down 61 separate requests to let nominees be confirmed.

“No matter whether you believe it or not, Senator Tuberville, this is doing great damage to our military,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, in one such floor speech on Wednesday night. “If this gets to be normal, God help the military, because every one of us could find some reason to object to policy.”

The policy Mr. Tuberville is targeting, announced in February, allows service members to take leave and be reimbursed for transportation expenses if they must travel to obtain an abortion or certain fertility treatments because such procedures are not available where they are based.

It came in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade, which prompted many states to move to ban or severely restrict abortion. Some doctors and legal experts fear the ruling could also eventually lead to new curbs on in vitro fertilization.

The spectacle on the floor marked the breakdown of months of behind-the-scenes negotiations in which Republicans publicly defending Mr. Tuberville’s actions and blaming Democrats and the Pentagon for failing to accommodate him have privately pleaded with the Alabama senator to relent.

“I will keep my hold in place until the Pentagon follows the law or the Democrats change the law,” he declared.

Despite their palpable frustration, none of the five Republicans challenging Mr. Tuberville on Wednesday night pledged to sign onto the Democrats’ proposal.

“I’m hoping we can find an alternative to that, but something needs to give here,” Mr. Graham said.

Still, Senator Todd Young, Republican of Indiana, said he had not ruled it out, and other Republicans refrained from doing so as well.

“I don’t like Mr. Tuberville’s technique of making his point, and I think it’s getting to a breaking point, quite frankly,” said Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia. “So we’ll see if the resolution comes up.”

Lee Heidhues 10.30.2023

Bernie Sanders is in a tough spot. Yes. Bernie is Jewish. Bernie has also been one of the most fervent supporters, at least rhetorically, speaking up on behalf of the Palestinian people.

Now Bernie is stuck between the hard rocks of his Judaism and his support for the Palestinians.

His is the dilemma ripping apart for the Progressive movement in the United States.

Excerpted from Aljazeera 10.30.2030

Senator Bernie Sanders is now drawing ire from many of his supporters who feel let down by his current stance towards the Israel-Hamas war.

The senator’s current unwillingness to call for a ceasefire has left many of his Palestinian, Arab and Muslim supporters with a sense of disappointment if not betrayal.

As the Israeli military offensive in Gaza intensifies, killing thousands of children and levelling entire neighbourhoods, Sanders has not called for a ceasefire. Because of his reputation as an anti-war voice, critics say he is uniquely positioned to amplify demands for ending the hostilities in Gaza.

“At a time when Washington is lining up behind those, including the president, who are beating the drums of war, we need leaders with the courage and the legacy of anti-war activism to break that consensus and say all human life is precious by demanding a ceasefire,” said Eva Borgwardt, political director at IfNotNow, a progressive Jewish group.

“If anyone can do that in the Senate, it is Senator Sanders.”

Omar Baddar, a Palestinian American analyst who supported Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, said it is “hard to convey the depth of the disappointment” he feels over the senator’s failure to back a ceasefire.

“I know the political climate in the US at the moment is scary, anti-Palestinian and intolerant of dissent, but that’s precisely why Sanders’s voice would be so valuable,” Baddar told Al Jazeera. If Sanders speaks out, Baddar believes his actions will “create the political space” for others to do the same.

In a stunning moment during the 2016 United States presidential race, Senator Bernie Sanders called out his then-rival Hillary Clinton for failing to mention Palestinian rights in a speech she delivered to a pro-Israel lobby group.

Standing on stage in a nationally televised 2016 primary debate, Sanders highlighted the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and criticized the unconditional support that the Israeli government — under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — receives from Washington.

“There comes a time when, if we pursue justice and peace, we are going to have to say that Netanyahu is not right all of the time,” he said.

It was a rare statement to come from a Washington politician. Few, even among left-leaning Democrats, have questioned whether the United States should reconsider its “unwavering” support for Israel.

But flash forward seven years, and Sanders is now drawing ire from many of his supporters who feel let down by his current stance towards the Israel-Hamas war.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/30/bernie-sanderss-failure-to-back-gaza-ceasefire-disappoints-us-supporters

Top photo: “Progressive” Bernie Sanders in front of the White House. Now joined at the hip with Israel’s war of destruction against the Palestinian people?

Lee Heidhues 10.29.2023

The unbridled passions unleashed by the Hamas terror attack inside Israel and the relentless response by Israel has turned the world upside down.

The ferocious anger being displayed by people in the Arab world has now reached Russia’s Dagestan region. A predominantly Muslim region.

Excerpted from Arab News 10.29.2023

MOSCOW: Hundreds of people stormed into the main airport in Russia’s Dagestan region and onto the landing field Sunday, chanting antisemitic slogans and seeking passengers arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv, Israel, Russian news agencies and social media reported.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagestan

Russian news reports said the crowd surrounded the airliner, which belonged to Russian carrier Red Wings. The website Flightradar indicated that a Red Wings flight out of Tel Aviv had landed at Makhachkala at 7:00 p.m. (1600 GMT).

Red Wings Airlines is owned by Ilyushin Finance, itself a subsidiary of the Russian government’s UAC United Aircraft Corporation holdings. It is one of the 10 largest airlines in Russia.

The independent Russian media outlet Sota said it was a transiting flight that had been due to take off again for Moscow two hours later.

Authorities closed the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region, and police converged on the facility. Dagestan’s Ministry of Health said more than 20 people were injured, with two in critical condition. It said the injured included police officers and civilians.

Russia’s civilian aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, later reported that the airfield had been cleared, but that the airport would remain closed to incoming aircraft until Nov. 6.

Video on social media showed some in the crowd waving Palestinian flags and others trying to overturn a police car. Antisemitic slogans can be heard being shouted and some in the crowd examined the passports of arriving passengers, apparently in an attempt to identify those who were Israeli.

Other videos showed a crowd inside an airport terminal trying to break down doors as staff members tried to deter them.

Dagestan and Chechnya are both mainly Muslim areas — known in Russia as “republics” — in a region that has witnessed years of violent tension with the central Russian authorities.

Earlier on Sunday, the RIA Novosti news agency reported that a Jewish center in another North Caucasus republic — Kabardino-Balkaria — had been set on fire in the city of Nalchik.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, expressing concern at the “appalling” videos posted on social media, said on X, formerly Twitter, that it was not an isolated incident. It was, he said, “part of Russia’s widespread culture of hatred toward other nations, which is propagated by state television, pundits and authorities.”

In a statement released Sunday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel “expects the Russian law enforcement authorities to protect the safety of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they may be and to act resolutely against the rioters and against the wild incitement directed against Jews and Israelis.” Netanyahu’s office added that the Israeli ambassador to Russia was working with Russia to keep Israelis and Jews safe.

Dagestan is Russia’s southernmost territory and one of its poorest regions.
It has taken an active part in the Ukraine offensive — with independent reports showing it has sent proportionally more men to Ukraine than many more ethnically Russian regions.

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2399746/world

Lee Heidhues 10.28.2023

I have no faith in the trust worthiness of the American mainstream media as it reports the State of Israel point of view.

Fortunately, neither do tens of thousands of Americans who have taken to the streets to protest the murderous Israel assault on Palestine.

Aljazeera is certainly no dispassionate observer. At least I can read and view a different perspective analyzing the Israeli ongoing assault on Gaza, the West Bank and the people of Palestine in general.

The wellspring of sympathy Israel engendered after the horrific Hamas terrorist attack which killed 1400 mostly Israelis on October 7 has been squandered and lost in The Fog of War.

A brutal assault on the People of Palestine which has cost nearly 10,000 lives, injuries too great to tabulate and the wanton destruction of property.

The condoning and encouragement of this Israeli assault on Palestine by the Biden administration is an abomination.

Excerpted from Aljazeera 10.28.2023

The Israeli military launched two limited-scope ground attacks on Wednesday and Thursday night, releasing videos to exploit them for propaganda. On both occasions, they pulled back to Israel before dawn.

The still-ongoing attack seems not to be the “‘Big One”. But as an obvious extension of the previous two incursions into Gaza, it may be a precursor to an all-out offensive.

Saturday’s reports from Gaza may be the last made over mobile networks and land-based internet. Israeli forces hit public telecom infrastructure and Gaza is now under an almost total communications blackout. The only means to get information out to the world are the few remaining satellite telephones, but those could be targeted at any time.

Israeli Air Force dedicated electronic warfare aircraft can pinpoint every device exchanging data with low-orbit communication satellites and direct deadly air-to-ground missiles against it.

Israelis have a long record of targeted killings using phones to identify and locate the target. One of the first victims of the technique was Hamas leader Yahya Ayyash in 1996.

However, the destruction of communication nodes and the use of electronic countermeasures to block any remaining public lines that survived will not harm Hamas fighters who, knowing Israeli tactics and capabilities, appear to have prepared for this course of action.

Palestinian sources claim that Hamas installed “Israel-proof” communications infrastructure in its extensive network of tunnels under the Gaza Strip. It allegedly laid tens of kilometres of cables with strong electromagnetic shielding to prevent the detection and interception of signals.

Installed in the most modern tunnels, set in much deeper, they are almost fully secure from prying Israelis. The cables emit a minimum amount of electromagnetic radiation, and the great depth practically prevents detection and signal interception. These new, secure, means of communications may explain how Hamas managed to keep its plans for the October 7 attack secret.

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/10/28/analysis-israels-ground-attacks-yield-lots-of-bang-little-success

Lee Heidhues 10.27.2023

It’s a dangerous game America is playing.

The American military is using the Hamas terror attack on Israel and the cataclysmic response by the Jewish State against the people of occupied Palestine as a casus belli to wage war against Iran.

It is all smoke and mirrors pushed by American media cheerleaders like the New York Post and Wall Street Journal linking Iran to the Hamas terror attacks which killed 1400 Israelis in early October. This is historical American media behavior which has beaten the drums of war to justify action.

The latest action is the military action against Iranians and their proxies based in Syria.

Excerpted from Aljazeera 10.26.2023

On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said at the United Nations that the US would “not be spared from this fire” if Israel’s bombardment of Gaza did not end.

“I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome [an] expansion of the war in the region,” Amir-Abdollahian said. “But if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire.”

The United States has attacked two facilities in Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran-backed groups, the Pentagon has said, following a series of attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria.

The strikes came after President Joe Biden’s administration pledged to respond to attacks on US personnel that Washington has blamed on armed groups backed by Iran.

“The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement on Thursday.

“Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. If attacks by Iran’s proxies against US forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people.”

Austin said the “narrowly-tailored strikes” were in self-defense and were not connected to the Israel-Hamas war.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/27/us-attacks-facilities-in-syria-linked-to-iran-pentagon-says

Lee Heidhues 10.25.2023

Ambitious California Governor Gavin Newsom has come a long way from the Parking and Traffic Commission in San Francisco in 1996 as he swiftly moves up the political ladder.

Supervisor. Mayor. Lieutenant Governor. Governor.

Now global hopping politician as he seeks to burnish his credentials worldwide.

What’s next after his gubernatorial term expires in January 2027?

There’s a presidential election year in 2028? Perhaps, earlier if Joe Biden decides not to seek reelection next year.

Excerpted from The New York Times 10.25.2023

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, met with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Wednesday, as part of an ambitious weeklong mission to negotiate climate partnerships.

He also discussed the Chinese imprisonment of a California pastor, David Lin, and “a variety of human rights issues including Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan,” the summary said.

Mr. Newsom raised the human rights issues in a separate meeting with Chinese leaders before he sat down with Mr. Xi, according to the governor’s office.

Mr. Xi met with Mr. Newsom in the Great Hall of the People, a grand building on the west side of Tiananmen Square where the Chinese leader often receives dignitaries. In an official summary of the meeting published by Chinese state media, Mr. Xi was quoted as saying he hoped Mr. Newsom’s visit would help promote ties between their countries.

The two-term Democratic governor wants California to set an aggressive pace for the United States — and the world — to cut carbon emissions that are dangerously heating the planet. Mr. Newsom’s moves to tackle the climate crisis have elevated his national profile, just as he is widely believed to be preparing for a White House run in 2028.

Mr. Newsom stressed in his meetings that China and California needed to work together to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and address the climate crisis, according to a summary provided by his office.

The governor raised issues beyond climate, his office said. He pressed Chinese leaders to stop the flow of chemicals that are used to make the fentanyl that is sold on the street in California, where fatal overdoses of the drug have soared in recent years. He spoke with Chinese officials about ways to increase the number of Chinese visitors to California, the summary added; the number of direct flights between the state and China is now about 15 percent of the number that were operating before the Covid-19 pandemic began.

Nicholas Burns, the American ambassador to China, joined in the day’s meetings, and said it was “a very positive and consequential day for the United States.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Newsom

Lee Heidhues 10.22.2023

As if San Francisco doesn’t have enough to deal with, already.

Continuing street protests in support of the Palestinian people decrying Israeli aggression in The Gaza Strip and West Bank which has killed nearly 5000 men, women and children. In response to the Hamas terrorist incursion into Israel in early October which took the lives, thus far, of 1400 Israelis.

In three weeks the mammoth Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) will see The City taken over by the Feds and a swath of downtown turned into a high security garrison State.

What will The City do with its unhoused population? Having guests from 21 countries witness San Francisco’s systemic insoluble problem first hand. Unhoused sleeping and often drugged out on the streets isn’t good for the image. Nor is it good optics for this international city.

The APEC may be some kind of payoff to San Francisco’s political leadership; VP Kamala Harris, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Governor Gavin Newsom, the late Dianne Feinstein, and Mayor London Breed. These movers and shakers, alive and in the sweet hereafter, may love all the attention. The same may not be true for the average citizen.

Excerpted from The Standard 10.18.2023

“An impact to the normal daily lives of San Franciscans and visitors is unavoidable,” U.S. Secret Service Special Agent-in-Charge Jeremy Brown said at the press conference. “We have absolute confidence in this plan.”

San Francisco will be under tight security in mid-November akin to safety measures at the White House when dignitaries and world leaders come to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, federal officials said at a press conference Wednesday. 

Details of the security for the event were announced Wednesday by the U.S. Secret Service and will include a locked-down, four-square-block section of Downtown around the Moscone Center; closed streets; and shutdown transit lines—including the Central Subway—as well as limited air traffic over San Francisco. 

Nob Hill will also be a restricted zone, and part of the Embarcadero will be closed Nov. 15. 

Lee Heidhues 10.22.2023

Trying to stay current with the violent events in Palestine/Israel is difficult for the diligent consumer of news.

Here in America the perspective is that of the government in Washington, elected officials and the mainstream media.

The only way to get a different perspective is to tune in to Aljazeera, based in Qatar. This network definitely looks at the world from Palestinian perspective. It is also true that Al Jazeera, a well funded network, has thorough coverage with correspondents and commentators throughout the region. Including inside Israel.

Embedded within the following article is a documentary: Israel-Gaza. The Fog of War

Excerpted from Aljazeera and Times of Israel 10.22.2023

The Times of Israel liveblogged events as they unfolded through Sunday, the 13th day of Operation Protective Edge. The IDF announced Sunday evening that 13 Golani Brigade soldiers died overnight in fighting in Gaza, raising the Israeli army death toll to 18. The soldiers were killed in heavy combat in the Hamas stronghold of Shejaiya, which also left 60 Palestinians dead, Gaza Health Ministry officials said. Israel said the neighborhood is a Hamas stronghold, and that the army had warned residents to evacuate it. At day’s end, PM Netanyahu vowed that Hamas would be neutralized, and US Secretary said he was heading to Cairo in a ceasefire bid. (Monday’s liveblog is here.) You can also follow @TOIAlerts on Twitter — we’re live-tweeting all the updates there as well.

The Israeli military has said one of its soldiers was killed by an anti-tank missile reportedly shot by the Palestinian armed group Hamas during a raid into the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Army.

Three other soldiers were injured in the raid on Sunday, said the statement that came as the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced on its Telegram account that it had pushed Israeli forces back into Israel.

One Israeli soldier was killed, while “one was moderately injured, and two were lightly injured as a result of an anti-tank missile”, the Israeli military said.

The military said the purpose of the raid was to locate Hamas captives in Gaza’s Khan Younis area and to “thwart terrorist infrastructure”

Israeli forces have been conducting raids across the border that they say are meant to clear the area and gather intelligence about captives being held by Hamas.

According to Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Khan Younis in Gaza, the raids are forcing Hamas to prepare for a long-speculated ground invasion by Israel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/22/israeli-soldier-killed-during-ground-raid-in-gaza-israels-army-says

https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-israel-hunts-for-terror-tunnels-after-soldiers-killed-abbas-to-meet-hamas-chief-for-ceasefire-talks/

Top photo: Israeli military casualties of its war against The Palestinian people in Gaza.

Lee Heidhues 10.21.2023

What is this all about?

A young Jewish leader in Detroit stabbed to death in front of her home.

Is it something insidious? A vicious act of antisemitism?

An all too familiar random crime in America?

The reality needs to be known.

Excerpted from Detroit Free Press 10.21.2023

A politically connected Detroit synagogue president was found stabbed to death Saturday morning outside her home in the city’s Lafayette Park neighborhood, east of downtown.

Police have not yet identified a motive, they said. They were called to a woman found lying on the ground unresponsive at about 6:30 a.m. and pronounced her dead at the scene, they said.

Samantha Woll, 40, led the Isaac Agree Downtown Detroit Synagogue and previously worked for U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, and on the reelection campaign of Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat.

Police said in an afternoon statement that they were investigating after finding a body stabbed multiple times in the 1300 block of Joliet Place. A trail of blood led to the victim’s home, where police said they believe the crime occurred.

Detroit Police Chief James White asked for patience in a statement released Saturday evening and said an update on the investigation would come Sunday. “Over the course of the last several hours, the DPD has mobilized many of its resources and has been leveraging every law enforcement and community resource it has to help further the investigation. Understandably, this crime leaves many unanswered questions.”

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2023/10/21/samantha-woll-dead-isaac-agree-downtown-detroit-synagogue-president/71271616007/

Top photo: Detroit police at the death scene of Samantha Woll – 10.21.2023

Lee Heidhues 10.19.2023

The German authorities are understandably sensitive regarding any protest which targets the behavior of the State of Israel.

Israel’s brutal military campaign against Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.

Retribution for the barbaric October 7 Hamas attack inside Israel killing over 1000 citizens of the Jewish state.

Where this cycle of violence is headed is impossible to predict.

The only sure thing is that there will be more death and destruction.

The motives of protesters in Berlin and in cities world wide cannot be simply categorized.

There is support for the Palestinian people. Sadly there are also currents of antisemitism directed towards Jewish people and the State of Israel.

The authorities in Berlin are not making such fine distinctions. Given the history of Nazi Germany the police are quashing any protest which could be interpreted as antisemitic.

That is the official government policy.

Deutsche Welle 10.19.2023

At least 174 people were arrested and 65 police officers were injured at unauthorized pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Berlin on Wednesday night, according to a police spokesperson.

Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik told regional broadcaster RBB that the situation in Neukölln was “tense.”

Authorities had banned such protests, which have been called in response to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the militant group which killed around 1,400 Israelis in a terrorist attack two weeks ago.

Clashes broke out in the district of Neukölln between police and protesters who did not comply with orders to disperse.

Some attendees used pyrotechnics, set fire to barricades and pelted police with stones and bottles, law enforcement said.

According to police, several vehicles and a tree also caught fire during the incidnet. 

Police used water cannons, including to put out fires. The fire brigade also said it responded to several small fires.

The incident comes after after two Molotov cocktails were thrown at a Jewish community center in Berlin in the early hours of Wednesday morning. 

Separately on Wednesday night, another gathering against violence in the Middle East was held outside the Foreign Office in Berlin. While 50 attendees had been registered, several hundred people showed up and the organizer subsequently called off the protest. 

Pro-Palestinian protests were also held in other German cities influding Frankfurt, where police used water cannons, and in Nuremberg.

Police broke up another pro-Palestinian protest in Berlin last weekend.

https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-174-arrested-at-unauthorized-pro-palestinian-events/a-67145837

Top photo: Jewish citizens, destroyed during the Nazi Germany holocaust, push back against growing anti-semitic behavior in Berlin.