Palestinians Are Starving to Death: This morning, Reuters is reporting that at least 101 Palestinians, including 80 children, have died of starvation. Doctors and humanitarian workers are also “fainting on duty in Gaza due to hunger and exhaustion.” Not only is food scarce, but Israeli soldiers have killed dozens of people as they attempted to access food stations over the weekend. Yesterday, 25 countries demanded Israel end the war, but Netanyahu says he won’t stop until Hamas is defeated. That 35-day-old infant who starved to death on Saturday has nothing to do with Hamas, you fucking monster.
Seattle Protester Charged with Felony: A 33-year-old man from Monroe has been charged with third-degree assault and is being held in King County Jail for allegedly punching Cameron Higby in the head after the No Kings Day protest on June 14. The Seattle Times says Higby is a “self-described ‘America First’ influencer,” (he previously hosted a show for PragerU for years) and he was wearing a helmet and riot gear at the time. Prosecutors noted that they haven’t seen all of Higby’s medical records yet, so they may amend the charge. Higby says Lawson also harassed him online; others have accused Higby of “rage baiting.” Lawson told investigators, “I really didn’t think that a couple of (expletive) bare knuckle shots to the head at a protest after being antagonized all night was gonna come down to all this.”
Trump Tries the Distraction Method: Forget all about Epstein’s list, because the National Archives just released hundreds of thousands of files related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on Trump’s orders. King’s family is calling bullshit. They released a statement, writing, “During our father’s lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). … Those who promote the fruit of the FBI’s surveillance will unknowingly align themselves with an ongoing campaign to degrade our father and the Civil Rights Movement.”
The Plan Didn’t Work: Because most of us aren’t toddlers with the brain of a goldfish, Trump’s plan to get everyone to look over there! look over there! hasn’t worked. So Todd Blanche from the DOJ is meeting with Epstein’s BSTF (best sex trafficking friend), Ghislaine Maxwell, to see if she “has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims.” They’re selling it as an attempt to out criminals and be transparent and yadda yadda yadda, but this is fucked! Todd Blanche is Trump’s guy! This meeting isn’t an opportunity to demand answers and appease the American people who don’t want a child rapist in the White House, this is some sketchy-ass shit!
Again, I suspect what Todd Blanche is trying to do for his client Donald Trump is to get Ghislaine Maxwell to implicate someone flashy (someone LIKE Bill Clinton, tho not necessarily Clinton), which Blanche will use to release her from prison. www.emptywheel.net/2025/07/22/t…
— emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 6:32 AM
More Sketchy Business: Speaker Mike Johnson has shut down the House until September to avoid the Democrats’ demands to vote on the release of more Epstein files. He probably just wants everyone to have a great summer, and isn’t at all attempting to keep certain Presidents from being outed as child rapists, right? JK, he said he’s doing it because, “We’re done being lectured on transparency,” which is exactly what someone attempting to hide a very big, bad secret would say. This is fascism.
Trump Bans WSJ From Press Pool: Not only is Trump suing the Wall Street Journal for their reporting on his relationship with Epstein—and the pervy birthday card he made for him—Trump has also banned the news outlet from the press pool. WHICH IS ALSO FASCISM.
Don’t Worry, It’ll Be Over Soon(er): The world is starting to spin faster, and some days this summer have been shorter than the usual 24 hours. CNN reports: “July 10 was the shortest day of the year so far, lasting 1.36 milliseconds less than 24 hours. … More exceptionally short days are coming on July 22 and August 5, currently predicted to be 1.34 and 1.25 milliseconds shorter than 24 hours, respectively.” This is quite normal, experts say, but also AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Speaking of Space: Betelgeuse has a bestie! One of our most famous stars in the sky has a “companion star (that) orbits Betelgeuse in an incredibly tight orbit.” Cute! “The star is doomed, however, and the team behind this discovery predicts that Betelgeuse will cannibalize it in a few thousand years.” I demand a Pixar-style film immediately.
BREAKING NEWS: This is delicious.
Don’t Forget to Vote! Your ballot! It has arrived, probably! VOOOOOOOTE! Our endorsements are here. My very passionate argument for why voting in the primaries is important is here.
Last Week, Charles Wrote About Crows: Y’all had some very good advice for Charles on how to deal with a family of loud, aggressive crows on his street in Columbia City. Any tips on how to deal with this cranky corvid that keeps BITING MY DOG?
Yes, I give it kibble! HELP!
Hamas can stop the siege of Gaza tomorrow by returning the remaining hostages and surrendering their arms.
You could kill it.
It looks like the Palestinians are finally starting to learn the meaning of FAFO. Perhaps they should elect better leadership in the future.
Lawson is getting a lesson in FAFO as well. Punch a protester, go to jail. Hopefully for a long time.
Y’all gotta keep prattling on about Epstein I suppose, trying desperately to capture all attention so we don’t pay any attention to Obama’s coup attempt.
Banning the WSJ from the press pool is not even close to fascism, even if you use all capital letters.
“I really didn’t think that a couple of (expletive) bare knuckle shots to the head at a protest after being antagonized all night was gonna come down to all this.”
It doesn’t matter. Like we teach children on the playground, it doesn’t matter what someone says, you can’t hit them for what they say. If you can’t control yourself in the face of what is being said then walk away.
@3: Okay, child rapist apologist.
Incredible to think how much of Trump’s relationship with Epstein and his obsession with young girls including his own daughter are in the public domain and trump’s lackeys blocking the release of the epstien files is what it took for his sheep to put it all together. No one ever said these people were smart.
@1, That won’t stop the conflict.
If the U.K., France, and 24 more nations (not just 23), plus The Stranger, the late Kristo, Mike Blob, Greenwood Bod, and Thriteen12 woulds use mere words, or possibly more effective words, rather than coercive violence, against Hamas and the IDF, the conflict would stop.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/world/uk-france-and-23-other-countries-say-the-war-in-gaza-must-end-now/
The U.K., France and the 23 other nations clearly need more, and better deescalation training. If they had that the world would be farting rainbows and peace would break out all over.
Hamas, like Putin, isn’t going to stop, until someone makes them stop.
Hamas could have ended this war at ANY time by laying down their weapons and releasing the hostages, so they have EVERYTHING to do with infants dying in Gaza. Ah, but then again, Hamas actually WANTS Palestinians to die, because for them that’s called “winning”.
The far left have gone off the rails in their villainizing of Israel and tacit support for literal terrorists/death cults.
Rage baiting and charges of child rape are coming from all directions and it could very well be that neither Trump or Clinton messed with any girl under 18 and such charges of child rape will never be proven and that the DOJ doesn’t have all the info everyone think it has and that the Epstein saga will remain perpetually unsolvable. So all pundits and politicians liberals and conservative are in the mud and have egg on their faces.
I suggest to compartmentalize the whole thing and try to forget about it.
Regardless of Hamas’ actions, the IDF has a responsibility to not commit war crimes by starvation of civilian populations.
Does “Lawson” have a first name?
Does Slog have an “editor”?
@1. Lmao, Netanyahu nor his insane cronies would never be satisfied if Hamas returned the hostages and surrendered; that would force him to be held accountable for his corruption and criminal cases that were postponed by him wagging the dog and aiding and enabling 10/7. He would merely escalate the war in the West Bank after concentrating all remaining Gazas in their ethnic cleansing humanitarian zone and would label all remaining able-bodied adults in Gaza as Hamas insurgents for queing for food, fabricating a lie that they were throwing stones at IDF soldiers and had to be shot for their safety.
You aren’t dealing with rational actors but cold blooded, racist, hateful, and heartless Machiavellian villains who will stop at nothing to escape accountability and prevent peace. They will not be satisfied until no Palestinians remain in Israel-Palestine and even then will further escalate their wars with Iran until either they are removed by force or a nuke goes off in Jerusalem.
I don’t know what the hell I’d do about that crow. Part of me wants to say Megan should get a big ol’ dog crate, like one designed for great danes and such, lure both the crow & dog in there, then let ’em have an old school WWE style steel cage death match. Could maybe stage it as a community event and charge the neighbors admission & shit. Though I’d be reluctant to let me own dog in there for such an event, as I suspect she’d get massacred.
I’d bet a crow COULD be lured into a crate with treats and captured for re-release someplace far away, though I’d also imagine they may be pretty instinctually inclined to return home and that may not be very effective at all. Honestly, as long as it’s confined to nipping at the end of the tail as the video shows I think it’s pretty cute and maybe even just goofy animal playfulness, though if it got any more aggressive than that I’d probably consider some means of showing that fucker who’s boss.
@9. Way to enable Trump, loser.
There is no absolutely no evidence of Trump abusing underage girls. That is nearly 100% guaranteed.
Why do I say that?
Because after 10 years of witch hunts, impeachments, indictments and trials, if this evidence did exist, the Democrats would have already played that card.
@10, And what international force is going to go into Gaza and enforce those obligations? Will the Gazans be less dead and maimed if the munitions are fired by people with different flags on their uniforms or color on their helmets?
@12, “You aren’t dealing with rational actors but cold blooded, racist, hateful, and heartless Machiavellian villains who will stop at nothing to escape accountability and prevent peace.”
It’s interesting you find that true of Israel, but not of Hamas, who’s very charter says until they have killed or forcibly driven out every infidel in the Holy Land, or they will die trying.
The conditions that you say would allow Netanyahu to be held accountable won’t ever occur because Hamas’s mission is to never allow those conditions to occur. They deserve each other and the respective populaces won’t choose, or forcibly impose, leaders of their societies that will agree to a two-state solution. Hamas was formed in the wake of the Oslo Accords to oppose a two-state solution and any Muslim country government that supports a two-state solution. Israel hasn’t elected a government that is for that, other than in lip-service, since the government that signed the Oslo Accords.
@14: I’m also “enabling” Clinton for that matter, and Bill Gates, by only commenting with the facts we have at the current time. So strange that it offends you.
@12: I don’t agree with that assessment of Netanyahu. sorry. He remains a rational actor. He would have to stop starving Gazans if his 2 stated goals were met – I still see daylight between him and settler fanatics like Ben-Gvir.
I don’t believe Hamas will ever surrender, however. They’re fanatics as well. They don’t care how many Gazans starve: they believe it serves their cause. Every death further cements Israel’s pariah-state status.
@17. So Bill Gates and Bill Clinton shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions because they are more palatable than Trump?
@16 No international force is going to enforce Israel’s obligations. In a rational world, Israel’s allies would tell them to get their shit together. The 20-odd nations cited previously are trying to put that pressure on Israel, but the US is the foreign government that Israel takes cues from, insofar as they take them from anyone. Unfortunately, Trump seems too taken with golden statues in an ethnically-cleansed Gaza Riviera to rein in even the most obvious human rights abuses.
Most likely, the current leadership in Israel will be subject to war crimes prosecutions. Assuming those go forward (or continue for the ones already in progress), most of Israel’s current leadership won’t be able to go to any country that’s a party to the ICC without facing arrest and prosecution.
And yes, that will be cold comfort to the civilians of Gaza caught between Hamas and Israel, but that just illustrates the need for better war crimes enforcement mechanisms.
@16 “the respective populaces won’t choose, or forcibly impose, leaders of their societies that will agree to a two-state solution”
Israel did and he was assassinated by a Zionist fanatic. Palestine did and Netanyahu helped build up his rivals.
@18: Wow, even Tucker Carlson would take issue with saying that Netanyahu is a rational actor:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9QPsMRWjVpE
@19: No, they’re all innocent until proven guilty. Thanks for asking.
@16. Have you ever made an argument in good faith? Where did I say that it was mutually exclusive with Hamas and their behavior? That is a false straw man premise your dumbass needs to be able to make any of your idiotic points. Hamas is equally insane and the same goes for their leadership, but they aren’t the ones starving kids and shooting civilians indiscriminately and who are not only calling for the extermination of Israel but in Israel’s case are actively and wontonly eliminating the state of Gaza and Palestine every single day. And with the full faith and credit of our government and tax dollars, none of which we supply to Hamas other than indirectly through Trump’s deals with Qatar and the Saudis whose arms we sell them always end up in the hands of Islamist Wahhabists whose twisted faith always leads to endless blood feuds and war. But there can be no end to the intifadas over the decades as long as generations are traumatized and infused with hate that makes them receptive to these extremist ideologies. And israel is not a monolith but is full of dissent against this barbaric regime which has cracked down on all who speak out against it, along with Hamas.
@15: “no absolutely no evidence”? “nearly 100% guaranteed”?
so you’re saying there’s evidence.
@17, Clinton and gates (??? lol) don’t need enabling because everyone already believes they’re guilty and their would-be supporters, if they even exist, would be unfazed if they were exposed. Trump is the only one whose followers’ brains would melt if they were forced to reckon with what the rest of us already know because we’re not blinded by idolatry. I don’t think anything short of video would be enough to convince them but trump is certainly not helping himself by making a big spectacle of hiding a bunch more circumstantial evidence.
@25 – no, I am creating an out for myself on the .000001% chance that there is some damning evidence that hasn’t been discovered by the millions of politicos who are infected by TDS.
With those odds, still happy to stand by my assertion that such evidence does not exist.
@26: Yeah, it just makes me dizzy.
@23. So your answer to innocent until proven guilty is to compartmentalize it and forget about? Sure sounds like something a loser enabler of Trump et al would say and not someone who cares about due process. Quit bending the knee and get some balls.
@29: It’s better than wasting your time dwelling on prurient and salacious headlines.
@30. How convenient (for Trump). Perhaps you would rather waste your time dwelling on offensive and racist The Stranger’s graphics of women of color kicking each other.
@3 Ah, I see your MAGA leaders have instructed you to employ the old “why are you hitting yourself” routine. Who can forget when Obama was posting memes about being president for life, and hinting he might run for a third term. And then he totally threw everyone off by not running and orchestrating a misinformation campaign about Hilary being an elderly robot who was running a pedophile ring in the basement of a pizza parlor, because that’s a foolproof strategy to win elections. And surely everyone remembers when Obama orchestrated an attempt to get swing states to change their electoral votes, and when that didn’t work held a big gay rally to get supporters to march on Congress and stop the certification. I don’t remember any of it, but I must have been there assaulting cops with my rainbow flag since Cruella De Gabbard says it happened. But hey, this was the biggest crime ever and has totally nothing to do with covering up a story that implicates you and your creepy friends. Or forcing through a shit bill that will strip healthcare from millions and balloon the debt so that billionaires don’t have to pay taxes. Or that you didn’t negotiate an end to either war. Or that you have made no trade deals. Or that inflation keeps rising and the cost of energy has not dropped 50% as you promised.
@20, Israel is a sovereign nation.
They were brought into existence in the face of a U.S. endorsed international arms embargo in the late 1940’s, with the British Military doing interdiction at sea, and at the destination. Yet the Israeli’s not only armed themselves with small arms and artillery, but with a f*ing air force.
We can ask nicely of the Israeli’s, we could hold up U.S. arms, but they, like all sovereign nations will act as they choose and do whatever they can and have to do in the face of existential threat.
They have nukes.
So we reduce the quantify of conventional weapons, particularly Iron Dome and Patriot munitions, and withdraw THAD. We reduce the quantity of bombs, missiles and artillery shells they can get on the international market. How effective was that in 1947 and 1948?
More importantly, under barrage of tens of thousands of rockets, missiles and artillery shells do you think it would take the Israeli public to insist that the IDF go nuclear? Weeks or months? Is it in U.S. interests to see Cairo, Damascus, Tehran, and possibly Riyadh and Amman, go up in a nuclear fireball? What would the price of oil be?
400 million Arabs can march in human waves against 10 million Israeli’s until Israel runs out of bullets bombs and even nukes to mow them down and incinerate them. Israel can’t stop them. All they can do is hopefully make the cost higher than the Arabs have decided they are willing to pay, or take as many Arabs per Israeli with them into death as possible.
If we help Israel with conventional munitions and security, we avoid a nuclear armageddon in the Middle East that is against our national interest.
@21, So Netanyahu formed Hamas and wrote its charter? He elected it to power in Gaza? Or did that, and similar groups form within the Muslim world as a backlash the PLO acknowledging the right of Israel to exist?
So Muslims have no agency, smarts, and capability to decide things for themselves. It’s all orchestrated by Zionist Jedi mind tricks. Got it.
How the fuck are you going to get 400 million Arabs, half of which are women, children, and elderly, to set up a logistical zombie apocalypse invasion of Israel? Are you going to be responsible for setting up those logistics, lodging, and feeding of the largest standing army ever assembled and send them through a choke point of nukes like so much Zerg? What kind of cartoon dumbass bullshit goes on in your mind? Do you really think regular human beings just trying to make it in this world are going to throw themselves into a meat grinder en masse without any free will just to invade and depose Israel?
You have been posting here too long and with every post you say less and less. You have nothing to say but the same old pig vomit and ever more inane and fuckbrained dogshit fuckall. Eat shit and fuck off. You belong in a padded room where you constantly bitch about what pet issue The Stranger failed to mention. Get a life scumbag.
@31: Talk about a change of subject. You must be rattled. But the cheat-sheet graphic does indeed depict violence. It’s one comment “dwelling on” violence. Guilty as charged.
https://www.thestranger.com/stranger-election-control-board/2025/07/19/80156149/the-strangers-primary-election-cheat-sheet
@24, Your silence about Hamas speaks volumes. You are making your case by omission. If there is something wrong, its on the Israeli side, and what happens in Gaza and elsewhere is on Israel. You never mention anyone else, or do so in passing with a few words on your way to hundreds about Israel.
If your argument to justify your lopsidedness then becomes, “My tax dollars don’t arm Hamas,” then what you are really saying is you don’t care if Gazan’s die, as long as someone else’s money paid for the munitions that killed them. You don’t really care about the welfare of Gazans and actually ending active hostilities (e.g. the state of affairs prior to 10/7) that are killing them, just about who’s munitions are killing them. You can comfortably go as silent about the fate of Gazans as you are about the fate of the Sudanese.
@37. Proving a negative to uphold a straw man with inductive reasoning for a foregone conclusion. Retire, shitface. You’re farted dust.
@36. I was just pointing out the hypocrisy of your point about ignoring prurient and salacious headlines for those that are even more nonsensical and inconsequential. Color me unconvinced of your premise.
@37: Allowing starving people access to food won’t derail the geopolitical games Netanyahu and Hamas are playing with each other.
@33 No shit, Sherlock. You say all that like I disagree. The US will never pull the THAAD or Patriot batteries, on account of those being defensive weapons. They’re not even dual-use like the Russian S300 systems. Offensive weapons are another story, though that would take a bold Democratic administration, which I’m not holding my breath for. What might get Israel’s attention, besides the US cutting off the offensive arms supply, is the US cutting off the money supply. We give Israel a few billion a year no strings attached.
Which Muslim nations are lining up to send 400 million people over the border, let alone tens of thousands of artillery shells? Iran called it quits after a couple hundred missiles. And unless the US pulls a remote kill switch in Israel’s F-35s, the retaliatory strikes on Iran are still feasible.
@34 No, but Netanyahu and Israel’s right wing politicians spent several years before the October 7 attacks propping Hamas up because they were useful in preventing a two-state solution.
PS The US can’t take Iron Dome away from Israel, on account of it being an Israeli-developed weapons system. Do you have to work hard to be this ignorant, or does it just come naturally?
@39: There’re two different subjects (Epstein scandal vs. The Stranger political graphics) – that’s not hypocritical nor does it make the case that I’m ignoring one or the other or whatever! My god honey.
@34 educate yourself
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_support_for_Hamas
@42. Let’s just say I don’t appreciate any concessions to Trump, bless your heart.
Gaza is about real estate, and keeping Netenyahu out of jail. That’s all. That’s what the purity voters never understood.
I don’t care if stinky Granpa, Bill Gates, or President Clinton were Epstein’s client list. Let the chips fall where they may. I just want the whole list revealed, not what Pam Blondie or KKKaroline Levitt want out there.
@22: whatever you want me to click on, saying it involves Tucker Carlson makes the possibility even less remote.
saying Netanyahu is a rational actor doesn’t preclude him being a fucking murderous asshole.
A Federal Appeals court has just ruled that Trump can bar the Associated Press from the White House press pool.
The WSJ has no chance.
Pappi Trump wins again!
It never ceases to amaze me how trump has turned conservative men into the biggest pussies in the world. They’ve always been afraid of cities but now they’re afraid of children’s books and reporters and they’re not ashamed to admit it.
I’m old enough to remember when conservatives mocked the idea of safe spaces and now they’re openly begging to be protected from nothing more than words lol. Incredible stuff.
There is a very good reason nobody in power wants to release the FBI’s Epstein files … EVERYBODY is in there. Trump, Clinton, Dershowitz, Gates, royalty, Brits, Saudis, Russians, big donors, celebrities, senators, reps, judges, Republicans, Democrats, preachers, gawd knows who all. But they’re all too big to fail, that’s for sure as shit. Releasing all, as in ALL of those files would disrupt the space time continuum. Foam at the mouth demanding the release of the files, absolutely, but whatever you do, don’t release the files. And that, my friends, is just how corrupt America has become. Take them ALL down!
@48 I think you mean WPATH, Soros, and Disney as the 3 things turning men into pussies.
@46: “saying Netanyahu is a rational actor doesn’t preclude him being a fucking murderous asshole.”
Maybe it’s just me, but that seems incongruous.
You can always count on the stranger crowd for some good ole cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy.
Why don’t you ask your team why they didn’t do anything regarding Epstein for a whole four years? Are y’all really that dolt to think that they wouldn’t nail him to the wall if he was involved? I will give you this though, if he is involved your team is all up in it as well. Otherwise we would know it all by now. The dems had all the power and all you did was riot and cry about pronouns. Get a mirror.
@50, So you’re telling me you’re afraid of a children’s media production company, a holocaust survivor who donates to left wing causes, and trans people. Do you think you’re somehow not proving my point for me lol. Beyond parody.
@53: To be fair, you started the list with cities and children’s books.
@41, The money is nice for Israel. It keeps our foot in the door, but they aren’t going to ignore their fundamental strategic needs for it. They aren’t going to ignore existential threat. Never have, never will.
The annual budget of Israel is $755 billion. They can do without $4 billion.
Which Muslim nations have the capacity to drive them into the sea? They asked that after the Arab route of 47 and 48. They said that after Israel’s decisive win in 1967. They said that after them pulling decisive victory from the hands of a nearly fatal surprise in 1973.
For Israel, the neighborhood they live in has always been the Energize Bunny on steroids. No matter what they do, it just keeps coming.
When the current active hostilities end, and returns to just the normal few asymmetric attacks a year where they count casualties on both hands, the IDF and Israeli public will begin to prepare and innovate to handle the next one war. They will prepare for the next pogrom or holocaust event against Jews to occur either directly against Israel or in other places around the world. That is a feature of Israeli existence, not a bug, as is the possession of the Land or their Father Abraham.
It’s been like that since they returned to the land of their father Abraham, millennia ago.
Withholding some smart bombs, and 1/2 of 1% of their national budget, isn’t going to change that.
Likewise, there are those on the Palestinian side that will never accept being deprived of 100% control of the Land of Abraham. Today’s manifestation is Hamas and Shite Islam. Tomorrow it may be Sunni’s.
@54, ??? I said conservatives are afraid of children’s books and his reply was “yes actually we’re afraid of a specific company that produces children’s books!” How does that do anything other than support my point? Also why are you replying on behalf of this other account?
@56: Your point relies on a list of conservative stereotypes, as always, which are irresistible low hanging fruit for your debate adversaries to jam on.
I have no comment on your sockpuppet delusions.
@37, BINGO
@45 “Gaza is about real estate, and keeping Netenyahu out of jail. That’s all. That’s what the purity voters never understood.”
Who do you mean by purity voters? The people, like myself, who wanted the US to cut off arms to Israel understood this and it’s part of why we were so disgusted with the situation. It was the pro-Zionist set who really thought it was about defending the Jewish homeland or whatever.
“Not only is Trump suing the Wall Street Journal for their reporting on his relationship with Epstein—and the pervy birthday card he made for him—Trump has also banned the news outlet from the press pool. WHICH IS ALSO FASCISM.”
No, under actual fascism, honest political reporting would no longer exist, and so the Journal would not have reported what it did. It’s exactly Trump’s inability to impose The Leader’s Will upon the Journal which has him impotently kicking their reporter away. His own chosen actions admit fascism doesn’t exist here. (Not yet, anyway.)
@10: “Regardless of Hamas’ actions, the IDF has a responsibility to not commit war crimes by starvation of civilian populations.”
As I explained in yesterday’s Slog AM thread (with help from the aforementioned Wall St. Journal), Hamas has played both a long and large role in starving the Palestinians — a role Hamas eagerly continues filling today:
The new food-distribution plan exists because of Hamas’ long-standing practice of stealing humanitarian aid from Gaza, and either weaponizing it directly, or selling it for money to buy weapons. And Hamas is none too happy about this new system, either:
“Hamas has repeatedly threatened Palestinians who cooperate with the plan with violence. Last month, GHF [the newbie American contractor tasked with distributing food] said Hamas militants attacked a busload of its Palestinian staff, killing at least eight. This month, GHF and the Israeli military said they suspected that Hamas militants had injured two American security staffers with grenades.”
(https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/us-israel-gaza-aid-deaths-12d3fb35?mod=Searchresults_pos2&page=1)
Whenever I read or hear about starving Palestinians from the Stranger, or one of the sympathetic commenters here, I try to recall all of the times in the past they criticized Hamas’ cruel thefts of humanitarian aid from Gaza. When no instances come to mind, I simply remind everyone of what @1 said: Hamas can end the Palestinians’ suffering anytime it wants. And yet, Hamas chooses not to. Every time.
@60
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-14/gaza-aid-looting-gangs-yasser-abu-shabab-israel-netanyahu-hamas/105501926
Are we allowed to fire a water pistol at crows? I don’t know if that is considered a humane or inhumane action against nippy crows, but I would give it a try. The worst that could happen is you have to apologize for hurting a bullying crows feelings. Sort of like butt-hurt MAGAs who don’t like being called out on their crap.
@tensora
Israel can end the Palestinians’ suffering anytime it wants also. Guess they can’t really claim any moral high ground for being as bad as Hamas.
@63: Cute, if false. (See 10/7, see rocket attacks from Rafa since.) And I wasn’t claiming any moral high ground for anyone. I was pointing out the blatant falsity of the narrative claim here, that Hamas isn’t starving children. That is exactly what they are doing, and they’re not even being anything less than obvious about it. You simply don’t admit it’s true.
@64 because it’s not true it’s Israeli propaganda
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/cindy-mccain-hamas-israel-aid-b2757707.html
Hamas could surrender and release the hostages. It worked for the Nazis.
@67 Israel could give back the land they stole
From the link @61: “…it’s now widely believed that Abu Shabab has been armed and protected by the Israeli government…”
Well, that’s obviously incontrovertible proof! And we know it’s his gang which has been stealing the food aid, right?
“Some of the men say they have worked with a gang leader named Yasser Abu Shabab.”
Well, that proves it then!
But wait, there’s more! From the link @66:
“During her appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, McCain shot down claims that Hamas was disrupting the aid distribution process.”
Can’t wait to see the evidence she ga-
“McCain told Margaret Brennan that her agency’s staffers on the ground in Gaza had seen no evidence of an effort by Hamas to loot aid trucks.”
Well, nothing screams “TRUTH!!!1!” like a right-wing politician’s “no evidence” denial. Especially here at the Stranger, where the self-serving denials of right-wingers have the status of Gospel.
I quoted the Wall Street Journal. You linked to this nonsense. Thanks for the laughs.
@69
“The United Nations has identified Abu Shabab’s gang as one of those raiding aid convoys when they entered Gaza, saying they were doing so with the apparent protection or indifference of the Israeli military.
Former French diplomat Jean-Pierre Filliu, who spent one month in Gaza with Doctors Without Borders from December 2024 to January 2025, said he witnessed the gang being protected by the IDF while looting trucks.”
And Cindy McCain is the executive director of the World Food Programme
Everything tensorna posts regarding Gaza is a carbon copy of what Netanyahu says and removes all agency from Israel and the IDF, placing the blame fully on Hamas, in order to enable everything the IDF does and continue its sick and inhuman war.
@65: The WSJ is “Israeli propaganda”? A guy who cited FOX NEWS (!) gets to lecture anyone else on propaganda?!?
Again, “Hamas has repeatedly threatened Palestinians who cooperate with the plan with violence.” “The plan” being the only entity currently bringing food into Gaza. So Hamas now openly tries to starve Palestinian children. Full stop. This monstrous crime, accusations of which you all freely throw at Israel every chance you get, in reality also belongs to Hamas. And then you respond with thunderous silence, followed by feeble denials, and then angry personal attacks. (Don’t forget to whine loudly, and with utmost self-pitying nasality, when the rest of us conclude you’re either pro-Hamas, morally unfit to lecture anyone on pretty much anything, or both.)
And I’m not talking about a recent, poorly-sourced story about theft from a truck or two. I mean Hamas has been stealing humanitarian aid from Gazans for years, using techniques — and gaining successes — which would make any mob boss envious. Because not only are they an armed terrorist gang, they also have their hands firmly on the levers of Gaza’s government. Again, from our country’s premier economic news source:
“The group [Hamas] has used the flow of humanitarian and commercial goods to build new income streams… This has included charging taxes on merchants, collecting customs on trucks at checkpoints, and commandeering goods for resale.”
Note that while all of these activities either reduced the amount of humanitarian aid getting to Palestinians, increased the price, or both, “…commandeering goods for resale,” was actual, outright thievery. Hence Hamas’ demands to have the UN and other relief agencies again provide rivers of humanitarian aid for Hamas to skim, grift, and steal, and why they threaten violence to stop the only current flow of food to Gaza’s children. They want that money, and they want that money so they can kill more Israelis. Have you an inkling now as to why the IDF will have none of it?
(https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/food-aid-becomes-main-sticking-point-in-gaza-cease-fire-talks-18f2c614?mod=Searchresults_pos2&page=1)
@71: Context matters. If Slog hosted a fact-based dialog, then you would have read even more from me about how Gaza is a humanitarian disaster, how war criminals need prosecution without regard to their identities, how there’s plenty of blame to go around, etc. But we’re not having a reality-based dialog, because this web site has spent over a year and a half obediently supporting Hamas’ messaging against Israel, the United States, and the only political party of any power in the United States which even tried to restrain Israel. So I don’t bother pretending we’re having a reality-based dialog, but rather, I behave as if anything I type which reads as even slightly balanced will be intentionally misquoted and used as a gotcha. Because I have been given every reason to believe it will be.
“Everything tensorna posts regarding Gaza is a carbon copy of what Netanyahu says…”
kristofarian loved to paint me as Bibi’s puppet, too. I strongly suggest you follow him no further, for fear of where his path may well have permanently ended.