After 12 years in power the hard line corrupt thug Netanyahu, whose policies were encouraged and enabled by Donald Trump, may be on the way out of power.  

It will be a day of rejoicing for those who want to see Peace in Palestine/Israel and the banishment of an impediment to that goal.

Sadly the policies which Netanyahu has put in place likely will not change. Nonetheless, the fact this hard line politician and one responsible for the continuing theft of Palestinian lands will be officially, at least, out of power.

Excerpted from AlJaazera 5.30.2021

Israeli far-right politician Naftali Bennett, a kingmaker whose Yamina party has six key seats in parliament, has said he would join a governing coalition that could end the rule of the country’s longest-serving leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“It’s my intention to do my utmost in order to form a national unity government along with my friend Yair Lapid, so that, God willing, together we can save the country from a tailspin and return Israel to its course,” Bennett said on Sunday after meeting with his own party, Yamina.

A Palestine Liberation Organization official said, after Bennett’s speech, that the prospective government would be “extreme rightist” and no different than the administrations headed by Netanyahu.

Centrist Lapid has been tasked with forming a new cabinet by 11:59pm (20:59 GMT) Wednesday.

Bennett’s announcement is a key step towards ending Netanyahu’s 12-year rule.

He said he had made the decision to prevent the country from sliding into a fifth consecutive election in just more than two years.

Minutes after Bennett’s announcement, Netanyahu lashed out, calling the plan “a danger for the security of Israel”.

He accused Bennett of betraying the Israeli right-wing and urged nationalist politicians who have joined the coalition talks not to establish what he called a “leftist government”.

Netanyahu said such a coalition was a danger to Israel’s security and future.

“What will it do for Israel’s deterrence? How will we look in the eyes of our enemies,” he said. “What will they do in Iran and in Gaza? What will they say in the halls of government in Washington?”

A Bennett-Lapid agreement had already been reported to be close when violence broke out between Israel and Hamas fighters on May 10 and Bennett suspended the discussions. The fighting ended with a ceasefire after 11 days.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/30/israeli-far-right-leader-bennett-joins-anti-netanyahu-camp

 

Every Picture Tells a Story – Abusive motorists edition

Liz and Lee Heidhues – 5.29.2021

San Francisco’s entitled motorists continue to ignore Slow Streets with impunity. In the most cavalier manner motorists blithely drive around and through the signs. Everyone is at risk, including birds as the sad photo of a dead pigeon sprawled on Cabrillo Street in plain view clearly indicates.

Motorists have to get the message they don’t own the Planet.

 

 

Lee Heidhues 5.27.2021

There is a close relationship between the current battle in San Francisco to create The Great Walkway and stories involving big energy. Royal Dutch Shell lost a legal battle in Holland. Exxon Mobil shareholders, led by a group of investors based in San Francisco, have elected climate change advocates to the Board of Directors.

In San Francisco a battle is being waged over which way this supposedly “progressive” City will go in the Climate Change war. Will environmental advocates prevail? Or will the auto addicted mob have its way?

The Great Walkway along the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco is coming. The San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Authority (SFMTA) has been very thorough and inclusive. The Howling Mob of self entitled motorists is unhappy with the public input which debunks the Mob. Its bullying and intimidation will not prevail.

As a real life example of the future I invite people to read today’s news about Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil. It’s on page one of the Wall Street Journal and The Nation. The Great Walkway is in step with the future. 

The Nation 5.27.2021 – Mark Hertsgaard

all the lawyers.”

The Netherlands won a historic court case against the Royal Dutch Shell oil company that carries the most profound implications for defusing the climate emergency. The court ordered Shell to bring its global operations in line with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius; this will require Shell to reduce both its own and its customers’ greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent from 2019 levels by 2030.

Together with shareholder revolts demanding stronger climate action by ExxonMobil and Chevron, the Dutch court ruling made May 26 one of the biggest days of climate news in years. Following last week’s landmark International Energy Agency report declaring all new fossil fuel development must stop for the planet to avoid irreversible climate destruction, the events amount to a crushing repudiation of Big Oil’s long-standing assertion that its profits matter more than civilization’s survival.

The Dutch case is particularly remarkable, for three reasons. First, “because it is the first time a judge has ordered a large polluting corporation to comply with the Paris climate agreement,” Roger Cox, a lawyer for Friends of the Earth Netherlands (in Dutch, Milieudefensie)—which brought the case with 17,000 other plaintiffs—told The Guardian.

Second, because the judge held that society’s interest in emissions reductions takes priority over the commercial harm that Shell would suffer as a result. And third, and perhaps most far-reaching, because Shell must slash not only its direct emissions—the heat-trapping gases Shell releases when it drills for, refines, and brings oil to market—but also the company’s indirect emissions, the gases millions of customers around the world release when they use Shell’s gasoline and other products. As climate activist Greta Thunberg observed, this latter provision is what makes the court ruling such “a game changer.” If other countries apply the same logic, fossil fuel companies would have to leave much of their product in the ground, just as climate science says is imperative.

Meanwhile, the shareholder rebellions against the managements of ExxonMobil and Chevron flash an additional signal of public impatience with intransigence from Big Oil. The annual votes that shareholders of publicly owned companies cast almost always rubber-stamp management’s positions.

But at Exxon, at least two of management’s candidates for the company’s board of directors were defeated. The opposition was spearheaded by a hedge fund, Engine No. 1, and pension funds from California and New York; the fate of two additional board seats was unclear as this article went to press, the vote still too close to call.

“This is a landmark moment for Exxon and for the industry,” Andrew Logan of the nonprofit investor group Ceres told The New York Times. “How the industry chooses to respond … will determine which companies thrive through the coming transition and which wither.”

 

 

Photo above:  Bird watcher Christian Cooper and Amy Cooper

Lee Heidhues – 5.25.2021

It was one year ago Derek Chauvin knelt on Georg Floyd’s neck and murdered him. The killer cop was convicted of murder last month and will spend decades in prison.

People took to the streets worldwide to condemn this action, all too symptomatic of American law enforcement treatment of Blacks. Derek Chauvin is just one symbol of the racism which permeates America at all levels.

The question today is, “One year after George Floyd’s murder by American law enforcement will there be any substantive change in how the cops treat Black people?”

Liz Heidhues – Blog Post and photo Contributor 5.25.2021

Let’s preserve our Slow Streets for the fast times of San Francisco’s post-pandemic recovery.

San Francisco motorists are angry. They plow through intersections where Slow Streets barriers are placed, honk their horns at me when I am walking in Protected Lanes, and careen through the Avenues.

Reckless driving and road rage in America are on the uptick. The National Highway Traffic Safety cited a report showing a 22% increase in the median speed of drivers in 2020.

San Francisco’s not doing any better than the rest of the country.

There are at least 800 people hit every year in San Francisco. In fact, San Francisco has more motor vehicle accident injuries per-mile-driven than any other sizeable city in California.

Traffic fatalities in San Francisco claimed 29 lives in 2020, the same number as 2019, an increase from prior years.

San Francisco is failing abysmally at meeting its goal of eliminating traffic deaths by 2024, the Target of the Vision Zero SF program.

Since the inception of Vision Zero SF in 2014 more than 200 people died and another 20,000 suffered serious injuries from traffic accidents in the streets of San Francisco.

Slow Streets debuted in 2020 as a therapeutic response to the social isolation, economic upheaval, and online exile of the pandemic. Streets in San Francisco’s neighborhoods were transformed for the use of pedestrians, bicyclists, joggers, kids playing, wheelchair users, and urban animals to prowl without winding up as roadkill.

Rancorous drivers believe that San Francisco’s streets are solely for them to drive their cars on. Drivers are enraged to see their entitlement removed.

Motorists will never cede over ownership of residential streets to the rightful heirs. Neighborhood streets were built for people to enjoy and interact with – not for 2-ton vehicles that kill and maim.

The core experience of San Francisco is walkability.

Liz Heidhues is a life long San Francisco resident. Her means of transportation are her bicycle and her feet with an occasional trip on public transit.

Top photo – Road rage crashes into Slow Streets – 40th Avenue and Cabrillo, San Francisco

 

 

Housing is a human right.

Everyone must have a place to live at a reasonable price. In April one of Germany’s highest courts over turned a strict rent control measure instituted by the Berlin government. On Sunday in Berlin several thousand demonstrators took to the streets and the River Spree to vocally protest this abridgement of the right to fair housing.

High rents are a problem worldwide as the population increases, wages remain flat and landlords seek to gain more profit. The reality is that governments and courts side with the landlord class to the detriment of renters.

Governments and courts forget that renters are people. Not a disposable item to be bartered away to satisfy the landlords bank accounts.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 5.23.2021

Protesters voiced anger over rising rents in the German capital and a court ruling that overturned a major price control measure. However, police said the number of participants was much smaller than expected.

Some 2,500 people marched through Berlin against high rent prices in the German capital, police said on Sunday.  The organizers, however, claimed “at least 10,000” people took part.

The protest took place after Germany’s constitutional court overturned Berlin’s rent cap, leaving tenants across the city suddenly facing price hikes. The constitutional court overturned the Berlin measure on April 15, ruling that the state government didn’t have a right to impose the cap.

The main rally, under the slogan “Stop the rent madness!” moved from Potsdamer Platz to the neighborhood of Schöneberg, starting one hour later than previously announced.

Protesters were seen carrying banners such as “To reside is a human right” and “No interest on rents.”

Separately, some 30 participants organized a demonstration of their own by sailing boats on Berlin’s river Spree (pictured below), and displaying the banners against the rising rents.

The rent cap was a measure implemented by the city-state’s government that went into effect in late February 2020. It froze the prices for nearly all apartments in Berlin for five years, locking them in place at their June 2019 level. New rental contracts were not allowed to exceed that rate — and some rents had to be reduced.

The Berlin state government said the measure was intended to reduce pressure on renters and buy time for more housing to be built.

The regulation also allowed for tenants to sue their landlords to reduce rents.

The measure was strongly criticized by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP), who lodged a legal complaint against it.

https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-protesters-urge-end-to-soaring-rents/a-57635183

Freed from the constraints of  the Pandemic San Franciscans took to the streets on a sunny day in late May to show their love and support for the Palestinian people. The marchers included a number of Jews who support the Palestinians and deplore the recent military actions of the Israeli government in occupied Gaza.

The 11 day assault on the people of Gaza by the Israeli military supplied with weaponry by the American government is an outrage.

San Francisco has consistently shown its support for the people of Palestine whose land was taken from them in 1948 when the State of Israel was created after the Holocaust and World War II.

The living conditions for people in the occupied territories of Palestine are grim. There is not much of material value we in San Francisco can do.  By showing its support the world knows that San Francisco has the people of Palestine in its collective heart.

San Francisco Chronicle 5.22.2021

A ceasefire is in place — for now — between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but the international conflict prompted yet another outpouring in the Bay Area on Saturday, as hundreds of people rallied for the Palestinian cause in San Francisco.

A diverse crowd chanting “Free, free Palestine” and carrying signs marched from the Mission District to Civic Center Plaza, where they promised to keep demonstrating for a peaceful resolution to the latest military clash. A protest last Saturday drew several thousand in San Francisco, while one in front of the Israeli embassy on Tuesday attracted several hundred.

 

Liz and Lee Heidhues 5.21.2021

It’s a proud day as  parents when you can say your son is a law school graduate and will forever have the title, JD (Juris Doctor) after his name.

The past nearly four years Paul has worked, raised a family and attended University of San Francisco Law School at night. Paul has overcome many hurdles, not the least of which is the fact Paul is visually impaired. Paul fought for the accommodations he needed from the USF Law School Administration. Paul prevailed. He attended class and completed the arduous workload before and during the Pandemic when San Francisco was transformed into a Virtual City.

Paul’s fight was tough.  He’s always been a battler. When admitted to the California Bar, Paul will be a zealous advocate in whatever field of law he practices in.

The commencement speaker was Hon. Martin Jenkins, an Associate Justice on the California Supreme Court and USF Law school graduate (class of 1980).  Justice Jenkins told the virtual audience, “I was proud that I had finished such a rigorous curriculum at USF. A curriculum that required intelligence, tenacity, and courage in equal parts.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who earned a Masters Degree from USF in 2013, told the graduates, “You have achieved this incredible milestone during an unprecedented and challenging time…I am so very proud of you.”

I can appreciate that the German government wants to display its ‘Solidarity for Israel’.

Germany will never be forgiven and the world will never forget the genocide the Hitler’s Nazi government committed against the Jewish people of Germany and Europe at large from 1933-1945.  

I am unsure what will be the impact of a ‘Solidarity for Israel’ rally while Israel’s brutal assault on the Palestinian people of Gaza continues.  A feel good moment? Perhaps.

While the talking and rallies go on, the killing continues,  The ceasefire reported today is only a lull before a new round violence, with Israel holding the heavy weaponry, begins again.

Deutsche Welle 5.20.2021

Politicians reiterated the country’s “special responsibility” at a Berlin demonstration, which aimed to show solidarity with Israel and reject antisemitism. For some onlookers, the government response was “one-sided.”

Thursday’s demonstration follows an increase in antisemitic attacks and demonstrations in Germany in recent days.

“Anyone who burns Israeli flags in front of synagogues, throws stones, calls for rockets against Tel Aviv, isn’t a so-called critic of Israel,” senior Green Party politician Cem Özdemir told demonstrators, adding: “They’re nothing more than a banal antisemite.” 

Some people, however, argue the space for legitimate criticism of the Israeli government’s actions has become restricted due to the extreme actions of antisemites.

Just hours before Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire on Thursday evening, around a thousand people filled the square — Platz des 18. März — behind Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. While some donned Israeli flags like capes, or attached tiny flags to FFP2 face masks, others carried placards with slogans like “Israel has the right to defend itself” and “Free Gaza from Hamas.”

“Solidarity with Israel — against all antisemitism” was the official motto of the demonstration. Organized by a group of Jewish and non-Jewish societies and associations, several prominent politicians also gave speeches — all of them reiterating Germany’s “special responsibility” to protect Israel due to Germany’s history.

Germany’s Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said ensuring the safety of the Jewish state was among Germany’s national goals and ambitions.

“Nothing justifies the firing of thousands of rockets on the Israeli state by a terror organization whose stated goal is the killing of Jews and the annihilation of Israel,” the Social Democrat politician went on to say.

Hamas’ latest barage of rockets, which began 11 days ago, was in response to Israel’s crackdown on Palestinian protests against the threat of forced evictions in East Jerusalem. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be an official part of its territory, but the international community, including the EU and Germany, condemns Israeli settler expansion into the occupied Palestinian territories.

Yusef, a young Berliner, was cycling by Brandenburg Gate when he stopped to see what the demo was about. The tassels of his red, black, green and white scarf stand out against the largely blue and white emblazoned crowd at the demo.

“I wear it in solidarity with Palestinians,” he says. “It’s sad to look up and see just the Israeli and German flag up there on the stage. I have the feeling that nobody cares about all of the children being killed on the other side. And it’s difficult to voice legitimate criticism of the Israeli government.”

Another young man who asks to remain anonymous, looks on alone. Sporting a white sweater with a triangular Palestine logo, he says he wanted to see for himself what politicians had to say.