July 6 UNOSAT data of Gaza City; every red dot is a building damaged or destroyed by Israel
there is a bright red dot off-centre in the circled area
that is the location of al-Tabi'in school
as you can see, it was one of the few standing buildings in a heavily-damaged area
here's the zoomed-out map showing everywhere in the Strip that has been bombed as of July 6.
when you overlay damaged agricultural land, the dearth of spaces untouched by the Israeli military becomes abundantly clear
the map of damaged agricultural land is so clearly now *all agricultural land* (again, UN/FAO satellite data) that you can literally use it to see the outline of cities
here's another simplified map.
only two layers, none of them geographic:
- damaged agricultural land (UN/FAO satellite data)
- damaged structures (UNOSAT satellite data)
as a linguist, the speaker should know better: it’s not about “speaking more efficiently” (using mathematical terms for prosaic things isn’t more efficient!)
but rather to signal ingroup membership in an emerging elite technocrat class defined by it’s relation to math and code
similar patterns can be seen historically in “legalese” and “bureaucratese” being signals of membership of the governance and managerial classes in the mid-century “organization man” era of large corporations
indeed, one of the primary (often tacit) selling points of both business school and management consulting was that it would immersively teach young social climbers the register and social dialect of the midcentury professional-managerial (formerly “administrative”) class
the fact that many senior Israeli leaders are Americans (and, occasionally, vice-versa, à la Amos Hochstein) is underdiscussed, and a big part of the puzzle
Ron Dermer (Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs), for example, is the son of former Miami Beach mayor Jay Dermer
Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the US and ex-deputy minister for hasbara in the PMO, was born and raised in upstate New York and New Jersey, moved to Israel as an adult, and married SF born-and-raised, now-Israeli Sally Edelstein
while the rank-and-file Israelis are increasingly Israeli born-and-raised, the Israeli elite are disproportionately American expats who serve a vital interfacing role between the two countries
One thing a lot of people don't get about Israel is how multidimensional and elaborate the discrimination is.
First is whether or not you're Jewish; this grants you special rights and privileges. Then, whether or not you're white. Then, Palestinian or not. Then, 48er or not.
The issue with @nookyelur's claim that everything rolls up to white supremacy is that it deliberately obfuscates that Israel considers itself a Jewish state, and thereby grants Jews in Israel power over all others by force of law. White supremacy exists, but it exists *as well*.
There is racism within the category of Jews in Israel. The hierarchy of Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Mizrahim, and Ethiopian Jews is well-known. But that category sits above all others. If a white Christian and an Ethiopian Jew get in a spat, the latter still gets special treatment.
I get the sense a lot of Americans have a cartoony, Hollywoodized understanding of what life under authoritarianism is like. They don’t get that most censorship is self-censorship; most people just go about their normal, daily lives not talking about the things they shouldn’t.
Most people, even one with strong values of right and wrong, are not cinematic heroes. They don’t want to die for the cause. They have families to take care of; food to put on the table. They do what they can, but within reason. And as long as things stay stable, life goes on.
Under normal circumstances, the state is fairly permissive about what people can and can’t say. They only have so many resources, after all. But they watch. And every now and again, something shifts. The people who are known to say things they shouldn’t get a knock on the door.
a few threads to weave together in response. bear with me.
note this is my analysis based on currently-available information, and thus a little more speculative and less well-documented and resourced than I am typically comfortable being on here.
similar to the immediate aftermath of Sputnik, the US has found itself on the backfoot with respect to China, with an adversary that appears heavily advantaged against them. they need to move in a fast and focused manner to compensate. this remains true no matter who wins in Nov.
USG has been failing for years to execute a "pivot to Asia". Biden was clear doing so meant "keeping the Middle East off my desk" (similar expectations have been placed on the EU to manage Russia so US can focus on CN).
The "Palestine issue" exploding re-fucked that plan up.
Ismail Haniyeh lived in Qatar and was principally responsible for hostage negotiations with Israel
He was the head of the political bureau of Hamas — not its military wing
His assassination by Israel serves to kill the negotiations and score a PR win to defuse domestic tension
Haniyeh’s death has negative bearing on the war goals: organizing a hostage release will now be far more difficult, which is what Israeli leaders want
but his prominence allows Israelis to feel like they’ve scored a “win” against Hamas
so they can comfortably pivot to Lebanon
the lack of clear military objectives in Gaza, paired with an amorphous ambition to “destroy Hamas” has resulted in declining morale and a clear need for some sort of symbolic victory
particularly since it came out that Israel flooding Hamas’ tunnels was defeated by…drains