"It should not have taken mass slaughter and apocalyptic destruction. But the daily stream of horror from Gaza is what finally broke through the overwhelming propaganda machine and media ecosystem that perpetuates the narrative of Israel’s “right to self-defence,” while castigating any form of resistance by occupied and oppressed Palestinians. Americans were not only shocked by the disturbing images from Gaza—parents carrying the remains of their children in plastic bags, children amputated without anaesthetic, entire neighbourhoods flattened, and so much more—they were also seeing the blatant hypocrisy of Western governments and media playing out in real time. What they were being told directly contradicted what they were seeing with their own eyes." Assal Rad

How Gaza turned US public opinion against Israel

Supporting Israel used to help politicians get elected, but with Americans far more critical of Tel Aviv's influence on US policy, it has now become a liability at the ballot box

Assal Rad

30 Aug 2026

In more than 20 years of closely following US politics, foreign policy, and the issue of Palestinian liberation, there has always been one clear message: Washington's ironclad commitment to Israel is unconditional. A rare topic that enjoyed bipartisan unity, US support for Israel has been so entrenched in the American political psyche that it has long felt unquestionable. In fact, any equivocation on support for Israel was often a political liability for American politicians.

Whether Republican or Democrat, administration after administration has emphasised their near-unconditional support for Israel in words and deeds, through diplomatic protection and material assistance. That Palestine has finally entered mainstream US political discourse and criticism of Israel has become a political qualification in many races is a testament to the dramatic shift in public opinion and the depravity of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Though Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, blockade of Gaza, apartheid policies, and daily abuse of Palestinians is nothing new, it was not until Israel launched its most devastating assault on Gaza to date that US public opinion finally began to shift.

It should not have taken mass slaughter and apocalyptic destruction. But the daily stream of horror from Gaza is what finally broke through the overwhelming propaganda machine and media ecosystem that perpetuates the narrative of Israel’s “right to self-defence,” while castigating any form of resistance by occupied and oppressed Palestinians.

Americans were not only shocked by the disturbing images from Gaza—parents carrying the remains of their children in plastic bags, children amputated without anaesthetic, entire neighbourhoods flattened, and so much more—they were also seeing the blatant hypocrisy of Western governments and media playing out in real time. What they were being told directly contradicted what they were seeing with their own eyes.

The response of Israeli and American officials, from Prime Minister Netanyahu to Biden officials and recognised political figures like Hillary Clinton, was to dismiss any wrongdoing by Israel, deflect with often baseless accusations of antisemitism, and blame youth naivete or social media for the growing public outrage.... READ MORE   https://en.majalla.com/node/332801/politics/how-gaza-turned-us-public-opinion-against-israel

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“I ask—they hate it when I say this, but I can’t help myself—‘What if I know my rights, and the government knows my rights, but they just don’t care?’ ” Mahmoud Khalil

The Trump Administration says that Khalil’s statements would be lawful except that they compromise “core American interests.”Photograph by Sharif Hamza for The New Yorker

How Far Will the Trump Administration Go to Deport Mahmoud Khalil?

Khalil, a legal permanent resident, protested Israel when he was a student at Columbia. Now the Trump Administration is trying to kick him out of the country.

By Andrew Marantz

August 17, 2026

Published in the print edition of the August 24 & 31, 2026, issue, with the headline “Fighting Words.”

It may or may not be true that all happy families are alike, but it’s certainly true that any married couple with a car, happy or unhappy, must at some point decide who will do the driving. For Mahmoud Khalil and his wife, Noor Abdalla, this was not a difficult decision. Khalil, who is thirty-one, spent his youth in a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, where he didn’t have much time for driving lessons; until recently, he was on track to become a high-level diplomat, a career that usually involves not driving but being driven. Abdalla, on the other hand, was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, and she learned to drive before she could see easily over the dashboard. (She is still short enough that this seems to require some effort, though she is now a thirty-year-old dentist who until recently had a daily commute.) In the inveterate American tradition, she treats her car as a second living room. “It’s where I’m most comfortable,” she said this past fall, giving her steering wheel an affectionate pat.

It was a Tuesday in October, just after dawn, and a pink sun was rising over the oil-distillation towers of northern New Jersey. Abdalla was making good time from Brooklyn to the federal courthouse in Philadelphia, where the couple would observe oral arguments in what Khalil dryly called “one of my cases.” He sat in the passenger seat, holding a phone in each hand: his own, from which he texted members of his sprawling pro-bono legal team, and Abdalla’s, which he used to d.j. The music, mostly old Levantine folk songs, was interrupted every now and then by a notification from a navigation app, in English: “Police ahead.”

Khalil moved to Manhattan in 2022, and he adapted quickly to American culture. (In a sense, he even came to inhabit that most American of identities: an influencer.) At Columbia, where he was a master’s student in public and international affairs, he became perhaps the most visible pro-Palestine activist... READ MORE  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/08/24/how-far-will-the-trump-administration-go-to-deport-mahmoud-khalil

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Dear America- WE THE PEOPLE are being forced to fund weapons, escalating war, hate, and hypocrisy everywhere.

A popular 2026 WE CAN DO IT American MEME that honors all workers- including those who helped win World World II & end the Nazi Holocaust

Dear America,

Why are our elected leaders, influencers, institutions, and mainstream media so willing to empower (and/or hid) the injustice of Israel and the moral corruption of IDF troops and citizens? 

WAKE UP: Israelis are human beings being led farther and farther away from the rule of fair and just laws.  

Funding Israeli wars and illegal settlements in the occupied territories harms every aspect of civilization we are supposed to be protecting: Homes, families, farms, infrastructures, and jobs are all being destroyed by sovereign Israeli violence.

Refusing to respect Universal Human Rights since 1948, Israeli violence and injustice has most obviously aimed to displace and destroy the native non-Jewish men, women, and children of historic Palestine AND TO SILENCE DISSENT! 

Children are being tormented as they see their parents maimed, wounded and killed. Parents are traumatized as beloved children are killed.  How would you react in that situation?

PLEASE NOTE: Israeli hostilities do not stop at the borders of Palestine, it spills out through the world in many cruel ways.

Modern man-made Israel is an astronomically expensive arms race & Ponzi Scheme that enriches a few at the top while impoverishing and harming the vast majority of Americans in multiple ways:  WE THE PEOPLE are being forced to fund weapons, escalating war, hate, and hypocrisy everywhere.

AI and massive Data Centers are only making matters worse everywhere in every way.  AI is a bunch of empty promises made so that a handful of people can make more big money before the bubble pops- and people realize that human intelligence and real jobs are the best investment to help build a vibrant democratic society with a strong economy and honorable future.

What would Hitler have done with AI data centers... hmm just look at how we've been pushed to do all things online and realize how vulnerable we are to greedy tyrants, hate mongers, and hackers.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

"An incompetent and gullible Trump is plainly responsible for yielding to Israeli pressure and dragging the US into the latest war." The pro-Israel lobby has swayed US presidents since Truman. It must end with Trump

How much is your support for Israel worth? Try $1 billion [that we know of]... Israel is spending wads of cash on public diplomacy in a desperate attempt to reverse waning American support for the country after it stands accused of genocide in Gaza and pushing the U.S. into the Iran war.

For 2,000 years, Christians have called the Holy Land home. CNN’s Clarissa Ward travels from Jerusalem to the occupied West Bank to examine how Israeli ultranationalist extremism is reshaping that reality.

"People talk about post-traumatic stress, but for us, there is no post-era; the trauma is ongoing. Keeping our people safe in such a context is incredably difficlut, especially when you see your mother in pieces, your father under rubble, and your friends gone. Such experiences profoundly affect your brain and emotions, and we must help our people to be resilient in this harsh reality." -Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb of Palestine

From 400 hives to 35: the Gaza beekeeper refusing to let war end his life’s work - Ibrahim al-Dabba continues to care for his colonies despite losing his home and most of his hives and equipment. Story by Lina Abu Zayed, photographs by Omar Ashtawy

".... diplomacy, multilateralism and global standards are a better choice than a race for the bomb."

“The power of the Universal Declaration [of Human Rights] is the power of ideas to change the world. It inspires us to continue working to ensure all people can gain freedom, equality and dignity." #StandUp4HumanRights

Common Words with Arabic Roots

Rights groups call for help stopping Israeli 'pogrom' against Palestinians in West Bank: B’Tselem and Rabbis for Human Rights among others urge action after four Palestinians are killed by settlers near Nablus

The number of registered orphans in the territory [GAZA, Palestine] has risen to 65,279, including 54,468 children who it said lost one or both parents during the war.

"Bombing the infrastructure people rely on will not make Iranians [or Palestinians] embrace those carrying out the attacks." .... ‘It’s truly hell here’: airstrikes, repression and water shortages become ‘new normal’ for Iranians

"At the very moment that the Israeli regime, with the support of the United States, is pursuing the dismantlement of UNRWA in violation of international law, there can be no accommodation of political projects designed to facilitate its replacement. UNRWA was established by General Assembly Resolution 302 because the international community failed to implement Palestinian refugees' rights under United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194. Its mandate therefore remains exclusively under the authority of the General Assembly until those rights—including return, restitution, compensation, and reparation—are fulfilled. It cannot be transferred, conditioned, or terminated through political arrangements." Statement by BADIL and GPRN “Dismantling UNRWA: “The Board of Peace” Agenda”

DEAR AMERICA

ICE and Israel should both be de-funded and de-fanged.

Jobs created by the weapons industry bring temporary economic relief to some- while inflicting immense pain and suffering on many many many more.

Pushing all commerce online to "Save A Tree" ends up decimating numerous forests and fields for energy and water hungry Data Centers. CEOs and our elected leaders take huge profits while taxpayers are left with escalating losses, including the surging loss of land and water for hyperscale Data Centers.

Anti-immigrant legislation and excessive funding for ICE are more about protecting wealthy people and corporations, who can hire illegals knowing that the workers and their families will be too afraid to complain about dangerous working conditions, low pay, long hours, and slum landlord housing.

You can't win a modern war. You can destroy homes & families, you can usurp land & resources from the rightful owners, and you can undermine & destroy a free press and the fourth estate- but people worldwide have memories, as well as a sense of right and wrong that cannot be bombed into oblivion.

STOP THE BOMBS and the bigotry, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE stop accepting bribes & propaganda & bad advice from a very foreign country that seeks to destroy support for UNIVERSAL human rights and the rule of fair and just laws.

Along the way we learned that slavery is wrong. We learned that domestic violence is wrong. We learned that racist hate is wrong. SO WHY are we funding Israel and why are we bombing Iran for Israel!!!

Violence is a problem- not the answer

"Attacks on critical infrastructure are not only about what is destroyed, but also about the people left without what they need to live. Even wars have limits and they must be respected." ICRC Red Cross

The power of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the power of ideas to change the world. It inspires us to continue working to ensure all people can gain freedom, equality and dignity...

In 1945, 50 nations came together in San Francisco to create a new organization for peace, prosperity & human rights- the United Nations

"The United Nations is the only place on Earth where all the world's nations come together to discuss common problems and find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity. This intergovernmental organization born out of the ashes of the Second World War remains indispensable to the pursuit of world peace, justice, equality and sustainable development" https://www.un.org/en/

The right of refugees to return to homes and lands they were expelled from is an individual right and cannot be unilaterally abrogated by third parties.  https://imeu.org/resources/resources/fact-sheet-palestinian-refugees-the-right-of-return-under-international-law/441

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."   https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

"We live in an age saturated with Holocaust books, films, documentaries, and lessons that teach us how dangerous dehumanization can be. We are reminded time and again that before people can be mistreated, displaced, or killed on a mass scale, they are first stripped of their humanity through words and imagery. And yet, when similar language is used today to describe Palestinians, much of the world remains silent—or worse, offers its support. If history has taught us anything, it is that when human beings are reduced to weeds, thorns, insects, or any other nuisance, the groundwork is being laid for people to accept what would otherwise be unacceptable. That is why the language matters. And that is why the silence is so troubling." ~ Mike Odetalla

Mike Hanini Odetalla

tspoSnerodf2f7m4000m15847f1l64fh32m5a97380l7tu1f0g4u14518m4f  ·

Morning reflections regarding Gaza with coffee as I look over my yard:

6/08/26

I can't look at my lawn without thinking about the terminology that has been used over the years to describe military assaults on Palestinians.

"Mowing the lawn" was one such phrase used to describe repeated assaults on Gaza, reducing Palestinian men, women, and children to little more than blades of grass to be cut down.

More recently came "Field of Thorns," a term associated with the current Israeli leadership, where Palestinians are once again reduced to an unwanted nuisance that must be removed.

What I find most disturbing is not merely the language itself, but the world's reaction to it.

We live in an age saturated with Holocaust books, films, documentaries, and lessons that teach us how dangerous dehumanization can be. We are reminded time and again that before people can be mistreated, displaced, or killed on a mass scale, they are first stripped of their humanity through words and imagery.

And yet, when similar language is used today to describe Palestinians, much of the world remains silent—or worse, offers its support.

If history has taught us anything, it is that when human beings are reduced to weeds, thorns, insects, or any other nuisance, the groundwork is being laid for people to accept what would otherwise be unacceptable.

That is why the language matters.

And that is why the silence is so troubling.

~ Mike Odetalla

 https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10166147366441977&set=a.10150390714236977

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"Israel created the largest group of child amputees in modern history and now blocks prostheses... The cruelty is always the point." Assal Rad

 

 Assal Rad

@AssalRad

Israel created the largest group of child amputees in modern history and now blocks prostheses.

 

https://x.com/AssalRad/status/2045621575605686401 

 

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Assal Rad

@AssalRad

 

So, Israel wants to occupy and attack Lebanon. Yeah, that’s not a ceasefire.

 

https://x.com/AssalRad/status/2045752659463053551 

Assal Rad

 

@AssalRad

Notice the euphemisms? 

 

“Retain buffer zone” = Illegally occupy Lebanese territory 

 

 “Freedom of action” = Attack whenever they want

 

 

 

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

 

“Whether people like Israel or not, they have proven to be a great ally…” 

 

By lying and leading us into reckless wars? Or taking billions of taxpayer dollars away from Americans in need to slaughter children? Or is it the foreign influence in our politics that makes it great?

 

https://x.com/AssalRad/status/2045675848947409167/photo/1 

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

This discussion is completely absent in Western media.

 https://x.com/AssalRad/status/2045349407579836646

 

 

& 

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

 

Name the killer and the crime  

 

https://x.com/AssalRad/status/2045399038930153742 

 

 

Statement by UNICEF on the killing of two water truck drivers in the Gaza Strip: UNICEF is outraged by the killing of two drivers of trucks contracted by UNICEF to provide clean water to families in the Gaza Strip. The victims were killed by Israeli fire -17 April 2026  https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-unicef-killing-two-water-truck-drivers-gaza-strip-0

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

 

Israel killed two UNICEF drivers trying to get WATER to families in Gaza. Is this story going to get any coverage? Or is the ongoing genocide not newsworthy? 

 

 https://x.com/AssalRad/status/2045301464978075788

 

 

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