…blanket denial of Israeli war crimes has served to quiet the consciences of Israel’s most ardent supporters, ensuring their unreserved backing for the war. After all, if it can be argued that the rest of the world is lying, or, failing that, the devastation and casualties in Gaza can all be blamed on Hamas, then what is there to feel guilty about? Source: Six months of liberal Zionist doublethink

This is the story of how I got there. A chronological curriculum vitae. (Need to get around to completing mine….) Writing a web-first resumé werd.io

The agenda now is all-Israeli: There is no one else but us. Only our disasters, our suffering, our sacrifices – and everything else can burn for all we care. We have become as monsters. Not only in our actions, but above all in our apathy. Gideon Levy via Hippy Steve

Front page of today’s Independent newspaper, headlines: Biden calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza. UK legal experts, lawmakers and military leaders call for a ban on arms sales to Israel.

WHERE'S DADDY?

We have AI that can decide who is a terrorist and then track their every movement so we can wait until they’re home to drop a bomb on their whole family. But the 3 successive precision air strikes on #WCK aid workers coordinating with and following route instructions from the IDF was just a ‘tragic mistake’ because it was night time. Hippy Steve

Hamas wants a permanent end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Mr Netanyahu’s office said the proposals were “unrealistic”.

Can’t remember the last time I wore a watch. My nine year old wants it. Timpsons fitted a new battery free of charge.

JOURNALING

My nine year old started keeping a journal at school so we can read what he’s been doing at school every day. (Replaces the “What did you do at school today?” “Can’t remember” alternative). It’s terrific. He wanted to know what I’ve been doing, too, so I am reciprocating. I’ve never kept a diary a journal before, but I’ve enjoyed doing it these past couple of days. It’s fair to say, though, that my lad’s days are far more interesting and fun than mine.

Currently reading: Yesterday’s Man by Branko Marcetic 📚 He would indeed spend his Senate career showering Israel with unquestioning support, even when its behavior elicited bipartisan outrage. He helped to secure an unparalleled amount of US aid for Israel early on and to scuttle a 1998 peace proposal with Palestine, and he told an assembly of lobbyists that Americans “cannot afford to publicly criticize Israel.”

BATH NIGHT

My little kid (now two months from being a not so small four) has gone right off the idea of having a bath at all in recent weeks. It takes two of us to get him in and give him a quick shower every couple of days. To get him into the bath tonight, I tried something new. I got on all fours so he could ride me like a horse into the bathroom while I hummed the theme tune to The Lone Ranger.

6/12

Back cover image of the dec 1975 issue of “issues in radical therapy” (via danielle carr on Twitter.)

The Crisis in Gaza: Navigating Difficult Conversations A Q&A with Dr. Gabor Maté & Daniel Maté February 16, 2024 • 9:00 – 10:30am PST

Pancake Day!

the Biden administration does in fact have tons of leverage it can use to stop the genocidal massacre in Gaza, it just doesn’t want to because it would be “politically unpopular” and because “Biden himself has a personal attachment to Israel.” How has Israel managed to kill some ten thousand Palestinians in Gaza without managing to do any real damage to Hamas if Hamas fighters are hiding amongst all those civilians?

My kids were more interested in my egg timer app, which cock-a-doodle-doos when the eggs are ready, and bashing the egg’s head in than eating them.

STUMPED!

“We say these rules are the rules when Russia invades Ukraine or when the Rohingya are being massacred by Myanmar, but if it’s now Israel butchering Palestinians, depriving them of food, displacing them en masse, then the rules don’t apply and whoever tries to apply the rules is antisemitic? It is really putting those rules in jeopardy.” Source: Measured Yet Damning: The ICJ’s Genocide Ruling on Israel - DAWN

Scratch that. Improvised rain shield.

Viking dress up day.

…people like you and I continue to have a vital role, as everybody does, in using the power of the people to wrest control from a vicious political class of killers. Craig Murray: Has International Law Survived, or Has the Western Political Class Killed It?

LAST WORDS

These are my last words writing from the café at the local leisure centre where I go every Wednesday during term time as a parent volunteer for my son’s swimming class. It’s their final session today. My lad has gone from being so anxious about swimming that he didn’t want to go at all, to wanting to go for swimming lessons now the class sessions are over. The café that was closed has reopened, although I still haven’t bought anything.

Germany has announced it will intervene in the substantial case to support Israel. They argue explicitly that, as the world’s greatest perpetrator of genocide, they are uniquely placed to judge. Craig Murray Your Man in the Hague (In a Good Way) Part 2

Perhaps nothing I did would help prevent genocide, but we all have to do that which is within our power to try. Craig Murray Your Man in the Hague (In a Good Way) Part 2

…genocide is never justified. It is absolute, a crime in itself. No matter how appalling the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israel or Israeli citizens, a genocidal response was not appropriate and never could be. Vaughn Lowe, via Your Man in the Hague (in a Good Way)