Quick thread of videos showing what Palestinians are facing right now:
Here, Palestinian children (citizens of Israel btw) break down crying as an Israeli mob tries to break into their home in Haifa:
Here, another mob of Israelis are destroying Palestinian-owned businesses:
Here, a crowd chant "death to the Arabs" as they assault a Palestinian driver as he frantically tries to get away
Here, Israeli police break into a Palestinian home in Nazareth & attack the residents:
Here, a mob of Israelis in Ramla is checking vehicles passing by -- ones with Jewish drivers/passengers are allowed through unharmed, while ones with Palestinians are violently attacked with rocks:
Here, an Israeli fanatic is asking the mob for the addresses of Palestinian citizens in his city: "Give me the addresses of Arabs in Netanya"
Here, an Israeli mob viciously beat a Palestinian man unconscious. They continue beating him as he's out cold.
Here, Israeli soldiers joke on video about selling the Palestinian children they've kidnapped ("arrested" in Palestinian areas where the soldiers don't belong) for a hundred shekels:
Here is a mob in Bat Yam going on a rampage of Palestinian-owned businesses:
Here is a driver repeatedly reiterating to the mobs in the streets that he's Jewish (a different answer to this question would've made this a very different night for him):
Here, the daughter of a Palestinian man brutalized & beaten unconscious by Israeli mobs under Israeli police protection in Akka (Acre) rushes to check if he's alive:
Missing from this list are the videos of the torn bodies of Palestinian children in Gaza from Israeli bombardment. I won't be sharing them, but I will remind you that Israel killed more than 550 children in the span of 6 weeks in 2014 (17 children killed in the last 3 days).
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I remember the unparalleled hope and inspiration I felt when Mubarak fell in 2011, & then the crushing heartbreak and disappointment when Egypt eventually took a horrific turn for the worse.
With that in mind, a quick thought on Syria: (1/8)
This is a moment of extraordinary relief & jubilation for countless Syrians who are now free from a repressive dictatorship that ruled their country for decades, killing, imprisoning & disappearing dissidents while concentration wealth & power in their hands. (2/8)
While I’m not eager to rain on this parade, I remain deeply worried about Syria’s future. There are two crucial & challenging fights on Syria’s hands now:
There is (1) Syria's domestic fight & (2) the international fight over Syria's regional role. (3/8)
Israel succeeded in decapitating Hezbollah & destroying el-dahiyeh (south Suburb of Beirut), & causing a lot of damage throughout Lebanon.
but when they invaded to "finish the job" of dismantling/disarming Hezbollah, they were met with fierce resistance & failed miserably. 1/5
Israel failed to meaningfully advance in South Lebanon, took heavy casualties on the ground, and failed to stop the rain of rockets that rocked major cities across Israel, including Tel-Aviv. They even took a drone hit to Netanyahu's home, & another to a packed military base. 2/5
In the end, Netanyahu understood his military was incapable of achieving any of its goals in Lebanon, but unlike Gaza, this unwinnable war was too costly on Israel's "home front." That's why Netanyahu opted for the ceasefire in the north, but continues the genocide in Gaza. 3/5
2 things have happened in Gaza in the last 24 hours:
1) Israel killed 47 Palestinians
2) 6 Israeli hostages were found dead
As you reflect on why only one of these stories is dominating the headlines, there are 5 more things to keep in mind 🧵👇:
1) The families of the hostages & the Israeli defense minister have accused Netanyahu of condemning their hostages to death by his refusal to strike a deal that brings them home safely.
2) Of the thousands of Palestinian hostages that Israel kidnapped & held w/out charge or trial since October, many have been brutally raped, and at least dozens (possibly far more) have been tortured to death in Israeli dungeons.
1) It's WAY overdue. It should not have taken 40,000 Palestinians to be murdered before President Biden publicly put forth a ceasefire deal that was actually already on the table for months and months, barring Israeli rejectionism.
2) Biden has already been under tremendous domestic pressure to end his support for this genocidal war on Gaza, but the last straw for him must've been Israel's recent announcement that this war would last at least another 8 months.
This would've placed Biden's 2024 election right in the middle of a US-backed massacre, and Biden knows he can't have that.
3) It's interesting that Biden framed his deal as an Israeli proposal, when JUST YESTERDAY Israel said it would NOT end the war in exchange for the hostages.
Biden explicitly called out the division within the Israeli cabinet, & is placing enormous pressure on Bibi to make a decisive choice in this moment: Go along with this deal & end the war, or side with the fanatics in your cabinet & face a more public fight with the Biden administration.
3 things to understand about Iran's retaliatory strike on Israel 🧵
1) Paradoxically, the strike was extremely significant (demonstrating Iran's boldness & capacity for deterrence), but also deliberately designed to minimize casualties to try to avoid an all-out war.
After Israel struck the Iranian consulate in Damascus, it threatened that any response launched from Iranian territory would be met with a response on Iranian territory. This threat was intended to bully Iran into capitulating, but it had the opposite effect.
Iran felt forced to respond from its own territory to demonstrate that it is not intimidated by Israel's threats, & did it via a cautious yet large & multifaceted attack to showcase (as a 'sample' if you will) what it is capable of should Israel want a major confrontation.
Quick 🧵 on the reported 4-day pause in fighting & hostage exchange deal between Hamas & the Israeli government:
This is obviously desperately-needed relief for a lot of people impacted by the horrors of the past 6-7 weeks, & the brutality of Israeli apartheid more broadly, but it highlights 7 critical points that shouldn’t be missed:
1) This deal was available BEFORE Israel’s indiscriminate bombings in Gaza killed 14K+ Palestinians and dozens of Israeli hostages.
This means Israel’s slaughter in Gaza isn’t about the hostages at all, but about murderous vengeance & opportunism to do its worst.