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Posted (edited)

This is just straight up nakedly autocratic conduct. This man should be rotting in prison for the rest of his life (or worse), not the PM of our chief Middle East ally.

Netanyahu Ministers Vote to Dismiss Israeli Attorney General, Pending Top Court Ruling - Israel News - Haaretz.com

Quote

In a letter to ministers ahead of the vote, Gali Baharav-Miara said the move effectively removes the chief prosecutor in the prime minister's trial. She won't be dismissed until the High Court rules on petitions against it. Government officials doubt her removal will succeed, expecting the court to block it.

Any Bibi defenders have an answer for this? @statsman? @Hitch? What you got?

Edited by Brian Fantana
Posted
31 minutes ago, Brian Fantana said:

This is just straight up nakedly autocratic conduct. This man should be rotting in prison for the rest of his life (or worse), not the PM of our chief Middle East ally.

Netanyahu Ministers Vote to Dismiss Israeli Attorney General, Pending Top Court Ruling - Israel News - Haaretz.com

Any Bibi defenders have an answer for this? @statsman? @Hitch? What you got?

I don’t have an issue with him going to prison 

Posted (edited)
3 minutes ago, Hitch said:

Corruption. 

Oh, so not war crimes and genocide. Thanks, I just wanted to confirm that you are, in fact, a piece of shit.

By the way, you got any of those sources for the multiple bullshit claims you made, that I asked for multiple times over the past couple of weeks yet?

Edited by Brian Fantana
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Posted
1 minute ago, Brian Fantana said:

Oh, so not war crimes and genocide. Thanks, I just wanted to confirm that you are, in fact, a piece of shit.

Corruption only. Although I have to admit I don’t remember discussing Bibi on here. Politicians generally bore me

Posted

Hundreds of ex-Israeli security officials urge Trump to help end war in Gaza | Israel-Gaza war | The Guardian

Quote

About 600 former Israeli security officials, including previous heads of the Mossad and the military, have urged Donald Trump to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza as the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, considers expanding the conflict.

In an open letter, the former officials said an end to the war was the only way to save hostages still held by Hamas.

 

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Posted
1 minute ago, Hitch said:

I don’t view it as a genocide. 

Based on what evidence? The available data overwhelmingly supports the notion that it is, in fact, a genocide. Support your argument with more than feels.

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Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, Hitch said:

I don’t view it as a genocide. 

This holocaust survivor does

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/3/25/i-am-a-holocaust-survivor-uk-police-interviewed-me-for-protesting-genocide

Quote

I ended the speech like this: We Jews who survived all this pain, killings, humiliation and destruction are against the use of the memory of the Holocaust by the Government of Israel as cover and justification for the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank.

 

Edited by Captainant
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Posted (edited)

In their own words:

David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister (1948-1953, 1955-1963):

  • "We must expel Arabs and take their places...and, if we have to use force... then we have force at our disposal." (from Nur Masalha, Expulsion of the Palestinians, p. 66)
  • "The compulsory transfer of the [Palestinians] from the valleys of the proposed Jewish state could give us something which we never had, even when we stood on our own during the days of the first and second Temples. We are given an opportunity which we never dared to dream of in our wildest imaginings." (from Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, p. 142)
  • "In many parts of the country new settlement will not be possible without transferring the [Palestinian peasants]... Jewish power, which grows steadily, will also increase our possibilities to carry out the transfer on a large scale." (from Righteous Victims, p. 143)
  • "With compulsory transfer we [would] have a vast area [for settlement]. I support compulsory transfer. I don't see anything immoral in it." (from Righteous Victims, p. 144)
  • "After the formation of a large army in the wake of the establishment of the [Jewish] state, we shall abolish partition and expand to the whole of the Palestine" (from The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities, p. 22)

Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first President (1949-1952):

  • "[the indigenous Palestinian population was akin to] the rocks of Judea, as obstacles that had to be cleared on a difficult path." (from Expulsion of the Palestinians, p. 17)

Moshe Sharett, Israel's second Prime Minister (1953-1955): 

  • "We have forgotten that we have not come to an empty land to inherit it, but we have come to conquer a country from people inhabiting it" (from Righteous Victims, p. 91) 
  • On the partition of Palestine into two states: "The [Palestinian] Arab reaction would be negative because they would lose everything and gain almost nothing ...They would lose the richest part of Palestine; they would lose major Arab assets, the orange plantations, the commercial and industrial centers and the most important sources of revenue for their government which would become impoverished; they would lose most of the coastal area, which would also be a loss to the hinterland Arab states...It would mean that they would be driven back to the desert." (from Expulsion of the Palestinians, p.59)
  • "With regard to the refugees, we are determined to be adamant while the war lasts. Once the return tide starts, it will be impossible to stem it, and it will prove our undoing. As for the future, we are equally determined to explore all possibilities of getting rid, once and for all, of the huge [Palestinian] Arab minority [Palestinian Israeli citizens of Israel] which originally threatened us. What can be achieved in this period of storm and stress [the 1948 war] will be quite unattainable once conditions get stabilized. (from The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities, p. 105) 

Yosef Weitz, director, Jewish National Fund Land Settlement Committee (1932-1948):

  • "...the transfer of [Palestinian] Arab population from the area of the Jewish state does not serve only one aim--to diminish the Arab population. It also serves a second, no less important, aim which is to advocate land presently held and cultivated by the [Palestinian] Arabs and thus to release it for Jewish inhabitants." (from Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 94-95)
  • "It must be clear that there is no room in the country for both peoples...If the Arabs leave it, the country will become wide and spacious for us...The only solution is a Land of Israel...without Arabs...There is no way but to transfer the Arabs from here to the neighboring countries, to transfer all of them, save perhaps for [the Palestinian Arabs of] Bethlehem, Nazareth, and the old Jerusalem. Not one village must be left, not one tribe." (from Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, p. 27)
  • "Once again I come face to face with the land settlement difficulties that emanate from the existence of two people in close proximity...only population transfer and evacuating this country so it would become exclusively for us is the solution. " (from Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 132)

Arthur Ruppin, head of the Jewish Agency from 1933 to 1935 and one of the founders of Tel Aviv:

  • "I do not believe in the transfer of individuals. I believe in the transfer of entire villages."  (from The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, p. 50)

Moshe Dayan, chief of staff of the Israeli military and Minister of Defense during the 1967 war:

  • "Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist, not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either...There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab Population." (from Ha'aretz, April 4, 1969)
  • "We shoot at those from among the 200,000 hungry Arabs who cross the line [to graze their flocks]...Arabs cross to collect the grain that they left in the abandoned villages and we set mines for them and they go back without an arm or a leg. [It may be that this] cannot pass review, but I know no other method of guarding the borders." (from Righteous Victims, p. 275)
  • "What cause have we to complain about [the Palestinians'] fierce hatred to us. For eight years now, they sit in their refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we turn into our homestead the land and villages in which they and their forefathers have lived... .Let us make our reckoning today. We are a generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and gun barrel, we shall not be able to plant a tree or build a house." (from Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall, p. 101)

Yigal Allon, commander, Palmach (elite force of Zionist militia Haganah) (1945-1948), Lieutenant General, Israeli army (1948-1949): 

  • "The confidence of thousands of Arabs of the Hula [Valley] was shaken...We had only five days left...until 15 May [1948]. We regarded it as imperative to cleanse the interior of the Galilee and create Jewish territorial continuity in the whole of the Upper Galilee...I gathered the Jewish mukhtars [Kibbutz chiefs], who had ties with the different Arab villages, and I asked them to whisper in the ears of several Arabs that a giant Jewish reinforcement had reached the Galilee and were about to clean out the villages of Hula, [and] to advise them as friends, to flee while they could. And rumour spread throughout Hula that the time had come to flee. The flight encompassed tens of thousands. The stratagem fully achieved its objective." (from The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, p. 122)

Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel (1974-1977, 1992-1995)

  • "We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, What is to be done with the Palestinian population. ' Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said 'Drive them out!" (from New York Times, October 23, 1979)

Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel (2001-2006)

  • "It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands." (from Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998)
Edited by bolverk
Posted
3 minutes ago, Hitch said:

Playing golf. It’s not domestic abuse.  She could end the beatings of her children tomorrow if she just does what he tells her to do.

Fucking sick shit.

Hamas isn't the one gunning down people at food stations -- the IDF is.  "You made me murder stacks and stacks of civilians - a tactic I use to force you to do what I want" is so fucking twisted, yet it is the dominant ethos of the "no matter what, I defend what Israel does" crowd.

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Posted
14 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Fucking sick shit.

Hamas isn't the one gunning down people at food stations -- the IDF is.  "You made me murder stacks and stacks of civilians - a tactic I use to force you to do what I want" is so fucking twisted, yet it is the dominant ethos of the "no matter what, I defend what Israel does" crowd.

It’s awful and I get angry too, I totally understand. The sooner Hamas is gone the better. Hopefully the Palestinians elect new leadership after the war. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, Brian Fantana said:

There is actually no way you're this misinformed. This is purposeful trolling.

Of course it is trolling.  Because at this point, the blanket support for Israel, with no accountability, is evil.  The intersection of trolling and evil is a common one.

 

2 minutes ago, Hitch said:

It’s awful and I get angry too, I totally understand. The sooner Hamas is gone the better.

Israel slaughters Palestinian civilians trying to get food:

Culpability of Israel/the IDF (you know...the ones actually shooting and killing said civilians): 0%

Culpability of Hamas (the ones who started this current round of shit, but who are NOT the ones shooting said civilians): 100%

This is the thinking we are dealing with.  When Hamas commits horrific acts against civilians on Oct 7 to achieve some political end, it's evil and terrorism (and...it was/is).  When Israel commits horrific acts against civilians to achieve some political end ("hey Hamas, surrender, or we'll keep slaughtering non-combatants"), it's.....GOOD.  Because you see, Hamas must be defeated, and therefore, "by any means necessary" goes, with no exceptions.

Israel and its supporters have now fully, completely, and unabashedly -- fuck, PROUDLY -- become the beast they always claimed to be fighting against.  And folks like Hitch like and celebrate it.  And say to Hamas "stop making me kill civilians" as Israel....kills civilians.  Congrats, Israel and it supporters.  You did it.  You've unquestionably crossed the Rubicon of becoming one of the genocidal states of the past century.  From the victims of one holocaust, to the happy perpetrators of another, here you are.  What a victory you have won.

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Of course it is trolling.  Because at this point, the blanket support for Israel, with no accountability, is evil.  The intersection of trolling and evil is a common one.

 

Israel slaughters Palestinian civilians trying to get food:

Culpability of Israel/the IDF (you know...the ones actually shooting and killing said civilians): 0%

Culpability of Hamas (the ones who started this current round of shit, but who are NOT the ones shooting said civilians): 100%

This is the thinking we are dealing with.  When Hamas commits horrific acts against civilians on Oct 7 to achieve some political end, it's evil and terrorism (and...it was/is).  When Israel commits horrific acts against civilians to achieve some political end ("hey Hamas, surrender, or we'll keep slaughtering non-combatants"), it's.....GOOD.  Because you see, Hamas must be defeated, and therefore, "by any means necessary" goes, with no exceptions.

Israel and its supporters have now fully, completely, and unabashedly -- fuck, PROUDLY -- become the beast they always claimed to be fighting against.  And folks like Hitch like and celebrate it.  And say to Hamas "stop making me kill civilians" as Israel....kills civilians.  Congrats, Israel and it supporters.  You did it.  You've unquestionably crossed the Rubicon of becoming one of the genocidal states of the past century.  From the victims of one holocaust, to the happy perpetrators of another, here you are.  What a victory you have won.

I do not celebrate any part of this. Some Americans may be underestimating how much October 7th fundamentally changed the psyche of Israelis. 

Posted
18 minutes ago, Hitch said:

Some Americans may be underestimating how much October 7th fundamentally changed the psyche of Israelis. 

We aren't underestimating it.  We see it plainly.  We see that Israel, as a nation state, has definitively and totally, without hesitation or reservation, decided that 1) the purposeful murder of Palestinian civilians is 2) a legitimate means of pursuing a political end.

We see, in plain and simple terms, that Israel has chosen to become an unambiguous and proud terrorist state.  Trust me, we aren't "underestimating" anything.  We see the choice that has been made, plain as day.

You're okay with that choice.

Humanity, by and large, is not.  Just know the island that Israel has decidedly put itself on now.  Many millions of people -- myself included, some of my American jewish friends included -- will never support the Israeli state again.  Not just because it has chosen to commit open and plain war crimes, but that is has done so proudly, declaring "this is who we are, what we do, and what we believe."  That you don't see that as a tremendous unforced error for Israel only reinforces the conclusion.  Many people no longer stand with Israel or with people like you, because....well, we mostly learned the lesson about standing with evil.  The irony is that it is a lesson that jewish people and Israel in particular were so good and heartfelt about teaching us last century.  It was a good lesson then.  It remains true.  And to watch Israel happily throw it all in the trash, well, history will likely write it as one of the great tragedies of this new millennium.

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Posted
21 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

We aren't underestimating it.  We see it plainly.  We see that Israel, as a nation state, has definitively and totally, without hesitation or reservation, decided that 1) the purposeful murder of Palestinian civilians is 2) a legitimate means of pursuing a political end.

We see, in plain and simple terms, that Israel has chosen to become an unambiguous and proud terrorist state.  Trust me, we aren't "underestimating" anything.  We see the choice that has been made, plain as day.

You're okay with that choice.

Humanity, by and large, is not.  Just know the island that Israel has decidedly put itself on now.  Many millions of people -- myself included, some of my American jewish friends included -- will never support the Israeli state again.  Not just because it has chosen to commit open and plain war crimes, but that is has done so proudly, declaring "this is who we are, what we do, and what we believe."  That you don't see that as a tremendous unforced error for Israel only reinforces the conclusion.  Many people no longer stand with Israel or with people like you, because....well, we mostly learned the lesson about standing with evil.  The irony is that it is a lesson that jewish people and Israel in particular were so good and heartfelt about teaching us last century.  It was a good lesson then.  It remains true.  And to watch Israel happily throw it all in the trash, well, history will likely write it as one of the great tragedies of this new millennium.

History has never been kind to the Jews, they’ll be alright. 

Posted
10 minutes ago, Hitch said:

History has never been kind to the Jews, they’ll be alright

Through the centuries, the one thing that jews could hold onto is actual moral standing.  Living Torah, everywhere, even in places of incredible hostility.

Now, they've abandoned that.

"Losing your soul" is pretty fucking far from "alright."

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Posted

Great debate hosted by Pod Save America.  Medhi Hassan has been killing it on pretty much every platform he’s on (on this issue at least). 
 

 

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Posted

The latest from John Alter, who happens to be a Jew.  A REALLY BIG JEW.  (We share a mutual friend).

Hunger in Gaza — the Facts

What is actually happening with food and famine on the ground? I asked a World Food Programme official who has some answers.

Aug 6
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Like millions of others, I have strong feelings about Gaza. I think the U.S. should immediately suspend aid to Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist criminal government until it agrees to a ceasefire, and that Americans who back him are complicit in turning the Jewish State into a pariah state that will have a harder time surviving in the long run. At the same time, the international community should move beyond lame “To be sure, October 7 was bad” qualifiers to a clear recognition that Hamas is arguably the only regime in modern history that actually wants its women and children killed for propaganda purposes and won’t allow them to take cover. Hamas militants hide in tunnels (where civilians aren’t allowed) and grab the food they need, at gunpoint if necessary. Note that the photos released last month of emaciated Israeli hostages were not accompanied by similar images of their captors, who are no doubt eating OK.

Now that I have that off my chest, I want to offer a dispassionate, factual assessment of what is actually happening with food relief efforts on the ground, where reporters are not allowed.

President Trump wants credit and a thank you (from a starving six-year-old with a satellite uplink?) for pledging (but not yet spending) $60 million in food aid. But the problem in Gaza is not money or even food supplies; it’s the war, which severely hampers the ability of relief organizations to access distribution points and prevent desperate civilians and armed gangs from pushing through security and grabbing the food off trucks.

So far, about 1,000 people have been killed near distribution points, though it’s unclear how many of them have been trampled to death, shot by trigger-happy Israeli soldiers (investigations of these incidents are underway), or killed by local thugs.

It’s also unclear how many Gazans have died from hunger. While North Darfur in Western Sudan is the only place in the world where “famine” is currently confirmed (i.e. at least 30 percent of children under age five with severe malnutrition and two deaths per 10,000 people a day), the situation in Gaza is dire, with more than half a million people enduring famine-like conditions and uncounted thousands dead from malnutrition-related illnesses.

There are few functioning bakeries, and Palestinians have been forced to make bread with old pieces of bread, old pasta, and other makeshift supplies. The World Food Programme (WFP), which won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2020 for its efforts to combat hunger, promote peace and prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war, has tried to move flour and the fuel needed for cooking into the Gaza Strip. But with so many Palestinians crammed into vast seaside encampments or trying to return to dangerous, bombed-out buildings (often their former homes), most of them sealed off by the IDF, it’s almost impossible to provide relief with bullets still flying.

A ceasefire would immediately relieve hunger, as the brief ceasefire did in January and February. Jonathan Dumont, who for 22 years, has headed television communications for the WFP, told me: “With no shooting, people can go out and look for food.”

Dumont, an Emmy-winning former broadcast journalist for CNN and the BBC, has been in and out of Gaza throughout the crisis. He has seen worse starvation elsewhere, but not a situation of civilians trapped in a tiny area (the Gaza Strip is roughly the size of metropolitan Detroit) with no place to flee. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. We had dinner in Rome in June and continued the conversation by email this month. Excerpts:

JONATHAN ALTER:

How have the recent images of starving Palestinians flashed across the world changed things on the ground for the WFP and for Palestinian civilians?

JONATHAN DUMONT:

The July 29 IPC Alert (the combined assessment of 21 famine relief agencies) warns that the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza. While you hear arguments about the data, people are starving. Having been there, I can assure you the desperation and hunger are palpable. You can hear it in people’s voices, you can see it in their eyes.

Despite the inability of non-Gazan and humanitarian journalists to access Gaza, images of desperate Palestinians trying to access food to feed their families and malnourished children withering away in their mother’s arms are apparently having an effect on decision-makers and leaders around the world.

This is why I work for WFP — to try to give a voice to the forgotten or hidden hungry in places like Gaza, Sudan, and Haiti who otherwise would starve in silence.

“…the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza. While you hear arguments about the data, people are starving. Having been there, I can assure you the desperation and hunger are palpable. You can hear it in people’s voices, you can see it in their eyes.”

JONATHAN ALTER

Is the situation still worsening by the day, or is there some stabilization?

JONATHAN DUMONT:

We know how to fix the situation. It’s what we do. We need to flood Gaza with large-scale food aid - immediately and without obstruction. We need to keep it flowing each and every day to prevent mass starvation. During the ceasefire in January, when we were able to bring sufficient quantities of food, the problem of looting and seizure of our food disappeared. We need to get sufficient quantities of food into Gaza to reduce the level of desperation.

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JONATHAN ALTER:

The WFP estimated that 100,000 Gazans are suffering from “severe acute malnutrition.” What does that mean?

JONATHAN DUMONT:

Hunger weakens the immune system. Diseases that ordinarily can be fought off by a healthy, nourished person become deadly when someone is malnourished. This affects the most vulnerable the worst.

Food consumption – the first core famine indicator — has plummeted in Gaza since the last IPC Update in May 2025. Data shows that more than one in three people (39 percent) are now going days at a time without eating. More than 500,000 people – nearly a quarter of Gaza’s population – are enduring famine-like conditions, while the remaining population is facing emergency levels of hunger.

JONATHAN ALTER:

Any idea how many women and children are starving? Hunger is always worse for them, right?

JONATHAN DUMONT:

The latest IPC indicates that as of July 2025, more than 320,000 children, the entire population under five in the Gaza Strip, are at risk of acute malnutrition, with thousands suffering from severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form of undernutrition. Essential nutrition services have collapsed, with infants lacking access to safe water, breast milk substitutes, and therapeutic feeding. 

In June, 6,500 children were admitted for treatment for malnutrition, the highest number since the conflict began. July tracked even higher, with 5,000 children admitted in just the first two weeks. With fewer than 15 percent of essential nutrition treatment services currently functional, the risk of malnutrition-related deaths among infants and young children is higher than ever before. 

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JONATHAN ALTER:

There is some food in the stores, but the prices are astronomical, right? Can you give us some idea of what food costs there?

JONATHAN DUMONT:

This report on prices is accurate. Food systems have collapsed, and humanitarian food assistance, the main lifeline for most households, is dwindling. People have exhausted all coping mechanisms. Community kitchens are overwhelmed, and reaching food distribution points often requires dangerous, high-risk journeys, especially for the most vulnerable. Most households now rely on minimal staples — mainly pulses and bread. But bread consumption has dropped to just four days a week, far below pre-conflict levels. This extreme lack of nutrients is driving widespread starvation, disease, and excess mortality. In the market, flour for bread has been up (hundreds of times) more expensive than before the war, and cooking fuel is nowhere to be found. In July, over 95 percent of the cargo delivered was taken by large crowds of civilians desperate for food. Although the cargo never reached the intended destinations, through our regular distribution system, flour prices decreased in some areas.

“Food systems have collapsed, and humanitarian food assistance, the main lifeline for most households, is dwindling. People have exhausted all coping mechanisms. Community kitchens are overwhelmed, and reaching food distribution points often requires dangerous, high-risk journeys, especially for the most vulnerable.”

JONATHAN ALTER:

With so many Palestinians pushed by the IDF out of one place after another, are there logistical problems that people should be more aware of?

JONATHAN DUMONT:

Currently, 88 percent of Gaza is under evacuation orders by the IDF. Almost everyone in Gaza is homeless and hungry. Improvised tent cities spring up in what was once farmland or sports stadiums. I met families who had given up moving from the north to south and back again across deadly militarized corridors, finally decided to risk going back to their destroyed homes. One family I met in Khan Younis literally burrowed out the rubble from their collapsed home and moved back into it — well aware that a rainfall could bring the collapsed walls crushing down on top of them. I met another family that had moved back into their apartment on the 4th floor of a building teetering precariously on the edge of a canyon that was once a very dense neighborhood. For WFP and other humanitarian agencies, restriction of movement due to military operations makes reaching the most vulnerable displaced an enormous challenge.

“88 percent of Gaza is under evacuation orders by the IDF. Almost everyone in Gaza is homeless and hungry. Improvised tent cities spring up in what was once farmland or sports stadiums.”

JONATHAN ALTER:

When we spoke in Rome in June, you mentioned bottlenecks at the border. Is that still a problem?

JONATHAN DUMONT:

We don’t have too many problems getting food to the border crossing at the moment. The problems come later when we send trucks from inside Gaza to pick it up. Then the restrictions and slow permissions, probably due to ongoing military activity, make it hard to get our convoys on the road. When we do, there are crowds of people waiting to grab the food off the trucks. We are forced to take the same roads, which everyone inside Gaza is aware of. So they wait there. We’re bringing food in as much as we can, but we’re still unable to organize proper distributions, provide flour to bakeries, supply hot meals kitchens, and all the things we should be doing.

JONATHAN ALTER:

You’ve spent the night in “de-conflicted zones” that are meant to be safer. Are they? How do the dangers to your personal safety compare to your work in other countries?

JONATHAN DUMONT:

I frequently work in war and conflict zones. In the past year or so, I have been to gang-controlled areas of Haiti, seen the battle for minerals in eastern Congo, the frontlines of the war in Khartoum, Sudan, witnessed the ethnic, religious, and regional tensions in post-Assad Syria, and others. In many conflicts, people have the choice to flee, but sometimes they are cut off in besieged areas. WFP is blessed to have incredibly skilled people capable of negotiating access in the most challenging places with some of the world’s deadliest armed groups. Negotiating for access becomes increasingly critical for humanitarians working in conflict zones, but Gaza is a pressure cooker closed off by land, sea, and air. Nobody gets in or comes out if it’s not authorized by the Israelis. Humanitarian agencies authorized to work in Gaza are theoretically de-conflicted, but no one is safe in Gaza. We coordinate all movements and operations with the Israelis, but guest houses and clearly marked vehicles have been hit. According to the UN Secretary General, the number of aid workers killed in Gaza is the highest in UN history.

JONATHAN ALTER:

How much of a problem is it that the IDF wants to empower anti-Hamas militants who are unreliable partners for famine relief?

JONATHAN DUMONT:

The breakdown of law and order, fundamental elements of civil society and infrastructure, combined with the desperation of the population, has made bringing in food increasingly dangerous for humanitarian organizations like WFP. Armed gangs have attacked convoys and beaten drivers, but as we have seen during the ceasefire in January, these problems disappear when we are able to get enough food in.

JONATHAN ALTER:

A little history might help contextualize things. Biden officials told me in 2024 that setting up the humanitarian corridors I and a lot of other people were pushing for was easier said than done. Could the US have done more to pressure the Israelis to establish and maintain them?

JONATHAN DUMONT:

Gaza needs a surge of humanitarian supplies, food aid, medicines, water, and specialized nutrition products in order to alleviate the suffering in Gaza.

What’s needed most now is a ceasefire so that we can deliver vital aid safely, securely, predictably, and at scale to everyone inside Gaza. This is not a one-day or one-week operation. It will require continued effort on the ground to meet the humanitarian needs. We have experienced teams on the ground and proven systems in place to respond at scale. The UN and WFP in Gaza have the capacity, the food supplies, the experience, teams on the ground, and a network of distribution points to deliver life-saving aid across Gaza – but only if we have the proper access and operating conditions.

JONATHAN ALTER:

Where is the most severe food emergency in the world right now?

JONATHAN DUMONT:

Two years of war have turned Sudan into the world’s largest hunger crisis. Over 24 million people - half the population - already face acute hunger. Famine has been confirmed in 10 locations and is spreading.

JONATHAN ALTER:

Thanks, Jonathan.

 

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Posted
On 8/4/2025 at 5:29 PM, Brisketexan said:

Through the centuries, the one thing that jews could hold onto is actual moral standing.  Living Torah, everywhere, even in places of incredible hostility.

Now, they've abandoned that.

"Losing your soul" is pretty fucking far from "alright."

Yeah it really isn't history that's been unkind to the Jews, it's been their contemporaries.

Unless history to you is conspiracy theories about blood libel and the Rothschilds.

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