It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, billed by the Trump administration as a “military operation,” has now evolved into a sustained confrontation with no clear exit strategy, no authorization from Congress, and no public transparency. The United States finds itself at a precarious juncture in a conflict of its own choosing. While high-level representatives from both countries met last month in Pakistan for ceasefire-linked negotiations, diplomatic efforts have not resulted in slowing a conflict that has increased regional instability.
The war remains unpopular both domestically and among U.S. allies, even as the Trump administration continues to try to rationalize entering a war of aggression. Reporting and political pressure have begun to focus on how and when this war will end, but the matter of whether the constitutional framework governing war will be meaningfully upheld is still a fundamental question that needs to be addressed.
... full articleIt’s the old American Double Standard, ya know: Say one thing, do somethin’ different. And of course this country is founded on the double standard. That’s our history. We were founded on a very basic double standard: This country was founded by slave owners who wanted to be free.
A controversial real estate expo that advertises properties for sale in the occupied Palestinian territories returned to New York City on Monday, less than a week after a previous event drew dueling protests on the Upper East Side.
The “Great Israeli Real Estate Event” took place Monday evening at Young Israel of Midwood, an Orthodox synagogue in southern Brooklyn. Event organizers confirmed the location in an automated response to The Intercept’s request for comment, but they did not comment on the event itself.
... full articleThe moral world has no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable repugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name.
Before the war, Ibrahim Hasna, father to a ten-month-old girl, had his sights set on the future. He worked for the municipal government of Gaza City, and received additional income as a war-injured civilian after being wounded in 2018 during a series of demonstrations against Israel known as the Great March of Return. He had built what he describes as a “complete” home in the al-Shaaf neighborhood east of Gaza City.
“I worked so hard to build that house so I could get married,” he says. “It lacked nothing.”
... full articleNo weakness of the human mind has more frequently incurred animadversion, than the negligence with which men overlook their own faults, however flagrant, and the easiness with which they pardon them, however frequently repeated.
Mike Hammer is not your average diplomat. Built more like an SEC football coach than a statesman, Hammer sticks out like a sore thumb on his trips across the island. He was appointed as the ad interim Chargé d’affaires under Biden but has since grown close with Marco Rubio. Hammer’s resumé includes positions at the National Security Council, Bureau of Public Affairs, National Defense University, State Department Operations Center, along with several diplomatic posts.
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