“Media portrayals of Gaza are so devoid of humanity — and often facts — that it is unsurprising that the horrifying violence we saw take place on Oct. 7 has been spoken of as ‘unprovoked.’ It is easy to forget our tax dollars — over $3 billion to Israel every year — have been directly supporting war crimes, sowing seeds of anger and war that will yield bitter fruit for generations to come.”

“MECA has worked for 14 years to build water purification units throughout the Gaza Strip that provide safe, clean water to more than 100,000 children through our Maia Project. But with Israel’s attacks on water infrastructure and cutting off electricity, many of these units can’t operate.”

“More signs, then, point to the possibility that a cease-fire could expedite the release of these civilian hostages. The more complex task is a prisoner swap — exchanging captured IDF soldiers for Palestinians in Israeli jails. Hamas has indicated it wants to use the Israeli soldiers it is holding in a deal to free the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, of whom 1,123 are political prisoners held under Israel’s laws of ‘administrative detention’ without charge or trial.”

“As Rachel wrote to us shortly before she was killed, ‘This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don’t think it’s an extremist thing to do anymore. I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop.’”

“An Israeli airstrike” hit Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist hospital in Gaza City, which “was packed with the wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter. At least 500 dead, according to health ministry.”

“The ADL is historically and presently a Cold War organization, it views the world in terms of the West and the Rest. Its attacks on critics of Israel often, without irony, target Jewish peace organizations who are doing real work with Palestinians and communities of color. Echoing the language of right-wing panic about ‘socialism,’ the ADL’s Greenblatt has taken to labeling efforts to stop Israeli violence as ‘Soviet propaganda.’”

Medicare Advantage results in a “$100 billion annual payoff for attracting inexpensive enrollees, upcoding disease severity, and biased price-setting procedures.”

“The contradiction at the heart of Israel has been that a state founded by victims of racism was itself a racist state. For some time, that meant Israel had to carry out a difficult balancing act: an apartheid system with the rhetoric of liberal values, tolerance, and antiracism. And it became necessary to distort the concept of antisemitism to include criticism of Israeli apartheid.”

“How good is Israel at ‘defending itself’? We’re not seeing it significantly inflicting damage on Hamas’ infrastructure, only deliberate large-scale targeting of civilian areas. Those brandishing this ‘right’ must be fully aware that all Israel does is punish a population? In reality, all Israel seems to be doing is taking this opportunity to pursue a long-standing dream: force a large-scale exodus out of Gaza, the home of 2 million or so Palestinians, many of whom in the first place escaped other areas of Palestine to be trapped there. Hamas is first and foremost attempting to break the prevailing military-security status-quo…

“I have spent my life advocating for Palestinians and Israelis to use nonviolent means to resolve their conflicts. Because Israel feared Palestinian unity and mass nonviolent action, I was expelled by the government in 1988. Since then, I have, on several occasions, personally advocated with Hamas leaders to abandon armed struggle and embrace nonviolent campaigns. Yet, today, Palestinians and Israelis are once again killing each other.”