News Releases

Jewish Voice for Peace states: “Over 5,000 Jews and allies, including rabbis and descendants of Holocaust survivors, shut down the AIPAC headquarters in New York City on Thursday, protesting the organization’s involvement in U.S. politics that threatens to undermine democracy by funneling millions of dollars into swaying members of Congress to oppose a ceasefire in Gaza, which is favored by the vast majority of Americans.

“Down the block from AIPAC’s Midtown Manhattan headquarters, police arrested 18 protesters inside the offices of AIPAC-supported Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, who oppose a ceasefire and voted last week to send $14.1 billion in military funding to Israel.”

“The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, uses millions of dollars and racist smear campaigns to ensure Congressional complicity in the Israeli’s government’s genocide of Palestinians,” said Jay Saper of Jewish Voice for Peace.

AIPAC has raised an eye-popping $90 million in the past five months, helping bolster its influence on members of Congress who oppose a ceasefire in Gaza and ramp up aggressive campaigns against those who have spoken out against the Israeli military’s bombing of Gaza that has killed over 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, over 11,000 of whom are children.

Protesters with Jewish Voice for Peace shut down traffic outside of AIPAC’s headquarters while chanting “Let Gaza Live.” They held held massive cardboard letters that read “Dump AIPAC” and piled up red trash bags emblazoned with that same message in the street, next to a massive mural that said “AIPAC funds genocide.”

They then marched to the offices of AIPAC-supported Sen. Schumer and Gillibrand, who voted last week to send an additional $14.1 billion in military funding to Israel. Observing a Jewish mourning ritual, they placed 30 stones, honoring the 30,000 Palestinians killed by the U.S.-backed bombing, in the lobby of the senators’ office. After staging a sit-in where they unfurled banners inside the lobby calling on the senators to “Stop Funding Genocide,” police made 18 arrests; in Jewish tradition, 18 signifies life.

“Polls show the vast majority of Americans want the war on Gaza to stop. And yet, because of pro-apartheid lobby groups like AIPAC, most elected officials still refuse to call for a ceasefire,” said Eliza Klein of Jewish Voice for Peace.

Protesters outside AIPAC on Thursday took inspiration from the historic Garbage Offensive organized by the Young Lords in 1969 to demand NYC divest from war and invest in communities. They called on elected officials to Dump AIPAC as it continues to make Gaza uninhabitable while simultaneously eroding democracy in the U.S.

“As a Palestinian Jew who supported the struggle for the Puerto Rican Studies Department at Brooklyn College, I’ve always been touched by the acts of solidarity between our communities. When the Young Lords led the Garbage Offensive in 1969, their platform also included support for Palestinians. I am honored to carry this legacy of solidarity forward in the streets today,” said Esther Farmer of Jewish Voice for Peace.

The protest was the latest in a wave of iconic protests led by Jewish Voice for Peace that halted Congress, shut down Grand Central Terminal during rush hour traffic, took over the Statue of Liberty, shut down the Manhattan Bridge, disrupted the President’s Hanukkah Party at the White House, and blockaded President Biden’s motorcade.

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is “the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world. JVP organizes a grassroots, multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational movement of U.S. Jews into solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle, guided by a vision of justice, equality and dignity for all people.”

Contact:
Jay Saper, jaysaper@gmail.com
Sonya Meyerson-Knox, sonya@jvp.org

Chris Lockyear, Secretary General of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Thursday briefed the UN Security Council. He said: “Israeli forces have attacked our convoys, detained our staff, and bulldozed our vehicles, and hospitals have been bombed and raided. Now, for a second time, one of our staff shelters has been hit. … [See video clips.]

“Our colleagues in Gaza are fearful that, as I speak to you today, they will be punished tomorrow. Madame President, every day we witness unimaginable horror. …

“There is no health system to speak of left in Gaza. Israel’s military has dismantled hospital after hospital. What remains is so little in the face of such carnage. It is preposterous. The excuse given is that medical facilities have been used for military purposes, yet we have seen zero independently verified evidence of this. …

“We are appalled by the willingness of the United States to use its powers as a permanent council member to obstruct efforts to adopt the most evident of resolutions: one demanding an immediate and sustained ceasefire. Three times this council has had an opportunity to vote for the ceasefire that is so desperately needed. And three times the United States has used its veto power, most recently this Tuesday. A new draft resolution by the United States ostensibly calls for a ceasefire. However, this is misleading at best. This council should reject any resolution that further hampers humanitarian efforts on the ground, and leads this council to tacitly endorse the continued violence and mass atrocities in Gaza. …

“Surgeons have had no choice but to carry out amputations without anaesthesia, on children. …”

“Medical teams have added a new acronym to their vocabulary: WCNSF — wounded child, no surviving family. Children who survive this war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries but the invisible ones, too — those of repeated displacement, constant fear, and witnessing family members literally dismembered before their eyes. These psychological injuries have led children as young as five to tell us they would prefer to die.”

Contact: MSF press team: press_inquiries@newyork.msf.org

CRAIG MOKHIBER, craigmokhiber@gmail.com, @CraigMokhiber
Mokhiber is an International human rights lawyer and former Director of the New York Office of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. He stepped down from his post in 2023 and penned a widely noted letter.

He was just interviewed by the Electronic Intifada. Regarding the ongoing International Court of Justice hearings on the legality of Israel’s 56-year occupation of Palestinian land, he noted: “This is the largest case in history — more than 50 countries are taking part in this, and the U.S. is virtually alone (but for Fiji) in defending the legality of Israel’s occupation. Most states are affirming its illegality and cataloging Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other gross violations of international law.

“This includes central tenets of international law (‘jus cogens norms’) from which there is no escape: the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, the violation of the self-determination of the Palestinian people, and apartheid. Part of what’s on trial here is the political ruse of the Oslo process, which has attempted to subvert international law to the wishes of Israel and its western backers.”

Regarding the South African case against Israel under the Genocide Convention, Mokhiber said that the depiction that the ICJ Order was lacking because it didn’t include the word “ceasefire” is unfounded, since a ceasefire would be approrpriate for a war. “But this case is not about a war, but rather a genocide” said Mokhiber. “The Court’s command for Israel to stop all genocidal activity is in fact an order to stop the military activity, as well as the siege, incitement and other potentially genocidal activity.”

Regarding the UN: “U.S. vetoes of successive ceasefires in the UN Security Council, after which thousands more were killed in the genocide in Palestine, leave the U.S. directly responsible for those deaths. They will be responsible for what happens after this week’s veto as well. Complicity is a crime.”

Mokhiber said that given the U.S. “blocking appropriate action by the Security Council, the General Assembly could pass resolutions that contain teeth, like the removal of Israel from international organizations, the non-recognition of passports, and establish a criminal tribunal to prosecute individuals.”

He also notes that much activity is driven by “Civil society, unions, faith groups, engaging in protests which can fuel an upsurge in activity like boycott, divestment and sanctions.”

Reuters is reporting: “UN food agency pauses deliveries to the north of Gaza.” USA Today reports: “The head of the World Health Organization called Gaza a ‘death zone’ Wednesday, lamenting health and living conditions that are ‘inhumane’ and only getting worse.” Meanwhile, at the International Court of Justice, scores of countries are demanding an end to Israel’s 56-year occupation of Palestinian land, with the U.S. virtually alone in defending Israel’s actions (this case is seperate from South Africa’s invoking the Genocide Convention at the ICJ). Thursday morning, China, Ireland, Japan and Jordan were among the countries that spoke, see videos.

RICHARD SILVERSTEIN, richards1052@gmail.com, @richards1052
Silverstein writes at Tikun Olam and recently wrote the piece “Israel Unloads Gaza Ethnic-Cleansing on U.S., Saudi Arabia and Egypt: U.S. and Saudis would fund refugee camps while Egypt runs them.”

He writes: “There appear to be two separate plans: Egypt’s, which may or may not have been devised with U.S. and Israeli consultation. I broke the story that Egypt was clearing a massive empty space in Egypt surrounded by 20 feet walls and locked gates. The Washington Post confirmed my report the day after I published. …

“And who would care for these 1.5-million Rafah refugees? Who would administer the camps? Not Israel of course. Not its problem. … They palm that problem off on the Egyptians, who controlled Gaza until 1967.”

The Wall Street Journal recently reported in “Israel Proposes Rafah Evacuation Despite U.S. Concerns” that: “The Israeli evacuation proposal includes establishing 15 campsites of around 25,000 tents each across the southwestern part of the Gaza Strip, Egyptian officials said. Egypt would be in charge of setting up the camps and field hospitals, the officials said.”

Silverstein continued: “Given the close security relationship between Israel and Egypt, the latter would certainly permit Israeli troops to enter the camps at will. Isn’t that convenient? Prest-0 change-o, Israel solves its Gaza problem. It gets to destroy Hamas (and Gaza along with it), unloads 80 percent of Gaza’s population on others, and Bibi Netanyahu gets to run a victory lap in Jerusalem. …

The Barghouti factor

“There is one course events could take that would solve everyone’s problem, including the Palestinians. In the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas, it could free Marwan Barghouti, the most charismatic leader in Palestine. All factions respect him and would join in welcoming him as the leader of a new country. That includes Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

“Barghouti has already accepted a two-state solution. Hamas itself has also endorsed two-states in a 2021 reconciliation agreement with Fatah, which Biden and Netanyahu rejected.

“This is the best and only way to solve the conflict. If Biden was smart he would push the Israelis hard on this. Even demand it. But in doing so, both he and the Israelis know that it will only work if the world creates a Palestinian state.”

Four states have recently expanded medical insurance coverage to immigrants through the private marketplace, part of a larger push to expand coverage to all low-income residents.

JUSTIN GIOVANNELLI; ​​Justin.Giovannelli@georgetown.edu  
    Giovannelli is an associate research professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. 

In a recent blog post for the Commonwealth Fund, Giovannelli and his co-author note that half of undocumented adults in the U.S. are uninsured––more than five times the uninsured rate of U.S. citizens. This is partly because “programs that make health insurance more affordable, including Medicaid and subsidized coverage available through the ACA marketplaces, limit eligibility based on citizenship and immigration status.” Four states––Colorado, Washington, Minnesota, and New York––have tried to fill the gap “by expanding access to private coverage for undocumented residents with incomes just above the Medicaid eligibility threshold.”

Giovannelli told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “There have been great gains in having folks get access to comprehensive health coverage. But because of federal law, among other reasons, one population still has hard-and-fast rules that keep them from accessing coverage––and that’s folks that are undocumented. Unless and until there is a change in federal law, it’s up to the states to decide whether this is a problem they want to fix or not. A handful of states are seeing where they can use state dollars to extend coverage to undocumented folks who are very low on the income scale. There’s a lot to be said for that approach, [since] people who are undocumented are disproportionately low on the income scale, so [that approach] helps the folks who are in the most dire straits. But there are a lot of other folks who make just more than the Medicaid threshold but have all these barriers to coverage and to accessing care. And when folks don’t access coverage and care, there are other costs to society at large… If people don’t have access to coverage, they’re experiencing worse [health] outcomes and those costs tend to spread and get picked up elsewhere.”

These four states are now addressing the population making just above the Medicaid threshold. “They have chosen to focus on this group of people who are by no means well off––they’re at, for instance, 150 percent of the federal poverty level––and [finding] ways to extend private health coverage with state dollars. They’re doing this as part of a much broader strategy to improve access and affordability to comprehensive coverage in ways that benefit citizens and non-citizens who are documented and lawfully present.” These states are putting together “larger packets of improvements that help folks, no matter [their status], be a little better off.” 

Colorado is in its second year of the program. In the first year, they extended coverage to 10,000 people and had 10,000 people sign up. In the second year, they extended to 11,000 people, and have already had 11,000 people sign up. Colorado is “reaching people within the extent of their resources,” Giovannelli said. All of these programs are “indefinite changes,” he added. “They will continue as long as there is funding. There is no sunset date for any of this.”

FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle@illinois.edu
Boyle is professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. His books include The Bosnian People Charge Genocide. The U.S. government again was the sole veto, killing a third ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council on Tuesday. The International Court of Justice is continuing hearings on the Israeli occupation of Palestine, see videos. This is a separate case from South Africa invoking the Genocide Convention before the Court, which resulted in an Order from the Court which it reiterated on Friday with a reporting mechanism on that case due before the end of the month.

The Arab Group at the UN on Tuesday indicated that they may bring the U.S. government before the General Assembly to defend its veto. Boyle highlights that the General Assembly could do the following under Uniting for Peace: “Suspend Israel from participation in its activities as the General Assembly did to the former criminal apartheid regime in South Africa and to the genocidal Yugoslavia;

“Set up an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel in order to prosecute its highest level civilian and military officials for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide;

“Recommend economic sanctions against Israel to UN Member States;

“Recommend UN Member States sever diplomatic relations with Israel;

“Admit Palestine as a full fledged UN Member State.”

KATHY KELLY, kathy.vcnv@gmail.com, @voiceinwild
Kelly is the board president of World BEYOND War and a co-coordinator of the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal. The Progressive just published her piece “Israel Is Assaulting Hospitals in Gaza With Full U.S. Support.”

Kelly writes: “Tragically, hospitals in Gaza and the West Bank have been attacked, invaded, bombed and destroyed. News of additional Israeli attacks is being reported on a daily basis. Last week, ‘Democracy Now!‘ interviewed Dr. Yasser Khan, a Canadian ophthalmologist and eye surgeon who recently returned from a humanitarian surgical mission at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in Gaza. Dr. Khan spoke of bombings taking place every few hours resulting in a constant influx of mass casualties. The majority of patients he treated were children from age 2 to 17. He saw horrific eye injuries, shattered faces, shrapnel wounds, abdominal injuries, limbs severed above the bone, and traumas caused by drone launched laser guided missiles. Amid the overcrowding and chaos, health care workers tended to patients while lacking basic equipment, including anesthesia. Patients lay on the ground in unsterile conditions, vulnerable to infection and disease. Most of them also suffered from severe hunger. …

“In 2009, on a smaller, yet still horrific scale, I witnessed an Israeli onslaught in Gaza called ‘Operation Cast Lead.’ In the emergency room of the Al Shifa hospital, Dr. Saeed Abuhassan, an orthopedic surgeon, described experiences similar to Khan’s. This surgeon grew up in Chicago, very close to the neighborhood where I lived. I asked him what he would want me to tell our neighbors back home. He listed a litany of horrors and then he stopped. ‘No,’ he said. ‘First, you must tell them that U.S. taxpayer money paid for all of these weapons.’

“Taxpayer money feeds the bloated, swollen Pentagon budget. U.S. Senators, last week, cowed by AIPAC, decided to send Israel an additional $14.1 billion to boost military spending. Only three Senators voted against the bill.”

On Tuesday the group If Not Now commented: “This morning Biden vetoed a ceasefire in Gaza. Tonight he goes to a fundraiser hosted by AIPAC billionaire Haim Saban, with donors giving up to $250,000 each.”

The conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation has ties with Viktor Orbán’s far-right authoritarian government in Hungary. 

HEIDI BEIRICH; heidi@globalextremism.org, @heidibeirich, @globalextremism 
    Beirich is cofounder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE).

In a recent blog post, GPAHE investigates “widespread interactions between Heritage Foundation officials and Viktor Orbán’s regime,” which show a “deep relationship” between the two. Beirich told the Institute for Public Accuracy that Heritage Foundation President Kevin D. Roberts has repeatedly praised and thanked Orbán. 

Beirich also pointed out links between the Heritage Foundation and Hungarian think tanks like the Danube Institute. “They have personnel going between the think tanks… The Danube Institute characterizes itself as a think tank, but it is funded by the Hungarian government, pushes Orbán’s agenda, and justifies the positions of [his] government. It’s not only their relationship with the Heritage Foundation that is of interest.” Last year, a representative from the Institute spoke from the floor of the Tennessee State House “about traditional Judeo-Christian ideas. Their basic position is pushing Christian values and nationalism. They are exporting their ideas into the U.S. wherever they can find a foothold.” 

Orbánism is attractive to Trump and Trumpists writ large because it “reflects the reality that [Trumpists] would like to see. Orbán began attacking migration as early as 2015-2016, and then began attacking LGBTQ rights. He banned LGBTQ studies and women’s studies from universities. He has acolytes in all levels of society. He speaks of himself as a Christian nationalist, and he has suggested that Christian nationalists in the U.S. and Hungary work together. 

“This vision is exactly what Project 2025”––the plan that the Heritage Foundation has put forth to reshape the executive branch of the U.S. federal government if a Republican is elected president in 2024––“lays out. Project 2025 will roll back rights, end quote-unquote wokeism, politicize the bureaucracy, politicize the Department of Justice… Orbánism has achieved what they want to achieve in the U.S.” 

But “Project 2025 hasn’t gotten enough attention. The public needs to know that there’s a plan, and that folks in this movement have said Trump is their instrument to bring this about… Many Americans don’t know who the Heritage Foundation is, or who Orbán is. Unless you’re watching this closely, you wouldn’t connect the dots. But they’re there to be connected.” 

[The International Court of Justice on Monday began hearings on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. This will likely result in an advisory opinion on the illegality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. See coverage by Al-Jazeera English. This is a separate case from South Africa invoking the Genocide Convention before the Court, which resulted in an Order from the Court which it reiterated on Friday with a reporting mechanism on that case due before the end of the month.]

RICHARD ESKOW, rjeskow@gmail.com, @rjeskow
Eskow is host and managing editor of The Zero Hour and was the lead writer for the Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign. He just wrote the piece “10 Reasons House Progressives Must Reject Biden’s Pro-War, Anti-Humanitarian Bill.”

He said today of the Israeli attack on Gaza: “Western governments and media may report or note certain individual attacks here and there — this hospital invaded, these schools and residential blocks destroyed. They may even engage in performative, pro forma criticisms of them from time to time. But they studiously avoid noting the larger pattern at work: a pattern of systematic ethnic cleansing — and do their best to make sure the public doesn’t notice it.

“It’s not subtle, once you look. Israel has spent the last three months driving Palestinians in Gaza southward toward Egypt, destroying homes, schools, and hospitals behind them, and killing them as they go. UNRWA has the largest remaining humanitarian infrastructure in Gaza and had the institutional backing of the United Nations, so destroying it is the logical next step in rendering Gaza uninhabitable.

“How long before tent cities in Sinai … is promoted as the only ‘humane’ situation? Because, while we didn’t see it coming, events have regrettably forced us to — etc. etc. etc.” [See Wall Street Journal piece “Egypt Builds Walled Enclosure on Border as Israeli Offensive Looms.”]

From his recent piece: “1. Yes, it really slashes humanitarian aid.

“Biden said after the bill’s Senate passage that ‘it will provide lifesaving humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, who desperately need food, water, and shelter. They need help.’

“The dishonesty and cynicism are stunning. The bill includes only $9.15 billion for humanitarian aid, to be divided among several parts of the world, and doesn’t commit any specific amount for Gaza. …

“2. The bill doesn’t specify any level of aid to Gaza.

“Like Biden, Sen. Charles Schumer and other Democrats insist the bill must be passed because it contains humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. But it doesn’t commit any specific funds. They might get something; it might get nothing.

“State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel claimed the bill included $1.4 billion for Gaza. ‘This is tangible money,’ he said. No, it isn’t. That figure appears nowhere in the bill’s text. Even the Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee, led by Sen. Patty Murray, don’t make that claim. …

“3. The Administration has shown that it can’t be trusted.

“White House officials met with Arab Americans on February 8 over the administration’s Gaza policy. The New York Times reports that ‘the officials committed to issuing a letter clarifying the administration’s support of the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.’

“Support? Five days later, at the White House’s urging, the Senate passed the bill terminating UNRWA aid in a predawn vote. (The word ‘predawn’ has long been associated with Israeli airstrikes that kill women and children, but in this case it was a vote.)”

See IPA news release from October: “In ‘Grotesque Hoax’ Biden Admin Not Just ‘Green Lighting’ Israeli Ethnic Cleansing — ‘It’s Bankrolling It.’“

BRANKO MARCETIC, branko.95.m@gmail.com, @BMarchetich
Marcetic is Jacobin staff writer and the author of Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden.

He recently wrote the pieces “Officials Keep Admitting Biden’s Anger at Israel Isn’t Real” and “If You Care About the Hostages, Demand a Cease-Fire,” which states: “Let’s tally up those numbers. Ceasefire: seven days, zero hostages killed, 105 released. War: 129 days, at least four hostages killed, three rescued. …

“Sure enough, some of the loudest voices in Israel itself who are calling for a cease-fire are the very families of those kidnapped Israelis. After all, they’re reading the same news and watching the same footage as the rest of us. They quite logically understand that, since their family members are being held in Gaza, the Israeli government’s indiscriminate bombing and blockade of the territory puts their lives at risk, too. Any of their loved ones could end up like Sharabi or the other hostages killed by the IDF, or like the thousands of Palestinians now starving to death and riddled with infectious disease.”

See IPA news releases, from 2014: “Israeli Hannibal Directive: ‘A Breach of Democracy and Morality’” and from 2023: “Is Israel Killing U.S. Citizens by Refusing a Cease-fire?”

Also see from Jeremy Schahill: “Netanyahu’s War on Truth.”

MAX ELBAUM; ​​maxie@igc.org 
    Elbaum is an author and activist. He writes for Convergence Mag. 

Elbaum told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “Anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy are central to the MAGA movement in the current moment. But the MAGA movement is the latest manifestation of a 60-year counteroffensive against the progressive changes that were won in the 1960s. Trump is the product of a long movement. But his individual role has reshaped the direction and some of the priorities and rhetoric of that movement. At times, the media hasn’t captured how dynamic that relationship is––and makes mistakes in emphasizing Trump as an individual, rather than emphasizing the social aspect of it.

“There’s an increasing sense of the need to take Trump seriously, but it’s not at the alarm level that I would suggest is warranted… These aren’t just campaign promises. They have a whole cadre of people ready to come in to enforce” their agenda.  

“The meme that’s out there is that immigrants are invading the U.S. There are different wings of the repressive crackdown. It takes two forms: in the MAGA movement, it is posed as part of the Great Replacement, or the effort to replace white America with people ‘from shithole countries,’ to use Trump’s phrase, and that there is a conspiracy of globalist Jews who are bringing in people of color to change the electorate. But there is [also] a wing of the Democrats that has embraced harsh anti-immigrant measures. They emphasize that there are too many people, that they are breaking the law, that we have to protect our borders, [and] that this is a threat to labor rights and jobs. They don’t tend to use the same kind of hateful rhetoric. But in terms of policy, that wing of the Democrats has caved to the idea that we have to view [immigration] as a security threat and not as something that has to do with the dynamics of global migration due to war, inequality, and climate change.”

Since the last progressive immigration reform in the 1960s, and especially since 1986, immigration policy has been framed in terms of a tradeoff, Elbaum argues. “You trade repressive enforcement mechanisms at the border in exchange for a legalization program, a way for undocumented people to legalize their status. That’s been the back and forth between the Republican and Democratic parties. But that tradeoff is off the table [now]. The Biden administration and the Democrats were willing to trade the repressive mechanisms for the aid bill to Ukraine and Israel. That’s a backward shift.” 

Elbaum added: “The electoral system is rigged against popular will and progressive change. But despite the fact that we have a system that privileges money and the incredible influence of financial wealth in our politics, the majority of people are against this right-wing movement in the form of MAGA. If that majority can be activated, when it understands the agenda that is behind this, and when that is put front and center by public opinion shapers and influencers and the media, then people turn out against MAGA. When the movement is framed as a right-wing effort to take over politics and redistribute to the wealthy, then we have the majority of American people on our side, and can begin a new cycle of progressive change.”