Susan Benesch ☮️

@FFarcebook @timnitGebru We don’t know why Khalil was imprisoned - the govt has not said. He had no student visa. If the rule of law still operates in the USA, he will get a hearing in a court, before deportation or appeal. He was not disappeared if that means taken away and killed. Just taken away.

Fascism looks like a university writing this statement normalizing their students getting abducted. 👇

12/ Words lose their meaning when you are talking to yourself. Israelis are talking to themselves. We have fully dehumanized the Palestinians. We are in full denial of the world. Our words are empty. Emptiness breeds fear. Fear fuels anger. Anger isolates. We are alone.

11/ There is nothing gratis in the desolation that is Gaza. Israel is responsible for the Gazans' welfare. It is an occupying power and it the annihilating power. Israel is obligated not just to let aid through but to provide the aid itself. Nothing gratis whatsoever. --->

10/ That isn't my point. For Zitun, and for official Israel, this is gratis, a perk, a win for the Gazans. When Israel lifts the starvation blockade, the aid that the Gazans get is proof of their superior deal making skills. It is a win for Hamas, this gratis aid. --->

9/ The final word for today is "gratis" (in Hebrew, "hinam"). Zitun writes about Israeli frustration. Frustrated why? Because it is allowing the entry of aid into Gaza gratis, without it being part of a hostage deal. This is an admission that Israel has been starving Gaza. --->

8/ In that world children have not died of starvation, nor have the inhumane conditions in the Gazan desolation helped spread the famine. The bakeries are full. Gazans, if they have money, can just buy bread. This is what is "really" happening inside Gaza. --->

7/ In that world Israel has determined that Gazans have enough food in "bakeries" to not just prevent famine, but deny its existence. In that world Israel left Gazans with sufficient infrastructure to produce bread (Israel bombed bakeries into rubble). --->

6/ Really, in the real world, there is famine in Gaza. For Zitun and for the IDF and Shin Bet, there is no famine and no humanitarian crisis. At worst, he says in the following sentence, "the economic situation is difficult". This can only be real in a fantasy world. --->

5/ "According to every monitoring system used by the Israeli security establisment, there really is no famine in Gaza. The bakeries are full and no humanitarian crisis is expected". Let us consider the word "really" (in Hebrew, "be'emet") and its use and meaning. --->

4/ The article, written by the "journalist" (another word changed utterly) Yoav Zitun, carries numerous other egregious examples. Perhaps the most offensive ones have to do with the starvation of Gaza. Writing about Jordanian aid making its way into Gaza, Zitun says: --->

3/ "Expectations" are not pipe dreams or escapist fantasies where a country assumes it can get aways with annhiliating a territory and a people and have someone else come and clean up the mess. The Hebrew word, "tzipiyah", no longer means what I thought it does. --->

2/ An article on ynet.com, Israel's most popular news site, mentioned the "expectation that a multinational force from moderate Sunni countries will enter the Gaza strip has not materialized". Only in a parallel universe could Israel have "expected" this.

1/ Hebrew is deserting me. Reading about Gaza in the Hebrew media, talking to people about Gaza, I see and hear words the meaning of which I used to know, but realize that this meaning has changed utterly. It is self-defeating to write about Hebrew in English, but here goes. --->

@haaretzcom @SusanBenesch Exactly; even friends and allies can't turn a blind eye to the punishment & suffering of bystanders. This is a political and moral disaster for the state of #Israel, its standing in the world and respect for its people. The #Israeli political decision making has been appalling.

Israel's sluggish delivery of food aid to Gaza is tantamount to torturing civilians, and it is turning even longtime friends into appalled critics. But Israel can relieve this needless suffering, without helping Hamas | Opinion | @SusanBenesch haaretz.com/opinion/2024-0…

From @SusanBenesch "In wars, people die," said one of my Israeli family members. It's true. But war doesn't require mass starvation of civilians." haaretz.com/opinion/2024-0…

@believeonjesus @Brick_Suit Please read the piece. It answers your question.

@Brick_Suit @SusanBenesch Where do they think it comes from?

.@SusanBenesch...while you are entitled to your "opinion" that illegal aliens are not smuggling fentanyl across the border, you are 100% wrong. Why would you put forth such an obviously untrue statement? Your deliberate lies are wrong and dangerous.

@MaryMcK52530170 @BillMelugin_ @jamesnorth7 No one knows the total figures, since tragically a lot of fentanyl gets through. But CBP is finding way more of it (and other drugs) in vehicles + bags at ports of entry, than between POEs. In five days in July 2022, eg, 603 pounds of fentanyl were seized at POEs.

The L.A. Times ran an editorial that claims illegal immigrants aren't smuggling fentanyl into the U.S. There have been numerous arrests of illegal immigrants caught backpacking fentanyl across the border. I will post some of those busts below. We only know what law enforcement publicizes. Here are the facts about fentanyl smuggling: Are the large crowds of migrants looking to turn themselves into Border Patrol after crossing illegally smuggling fentanyl? No. Are drug smugglers backpacking it in through remote areas where there are few, if any agents on the line because they are busy processing huge groups of migrants elsewhere? Yes. And with 1.8 million + known gotaways, it's impossible to know how much is getting in. It is true that the overwhelming majority of fentanyl seized at the southern border is in vehicles at ports of entry coming into the U.S., usually being smuggled by U.S. citizens. But in fiscal year 2023, Border Patrol seized over 2,840 lbs of fentanyl *between* ports of entry. There is no breakdown on how much of that is vehicles stopped at BP checkpoints vs illegal immigrants caught backpacking it, but to claim that illegal immigrants don't smuggle fentanyl into the U.S. is provably false. LA Times link: latimes.com/opinion/story/…

@DefiantLs Yes, as that report and CBP reports say, large amounts of fentanyl have been found in travelers’ cars and luggage at ports of entry. Do you think that’s how migrants come into the United States?

"In the United States at the moment, there is, at minimum, a striking and alarming shift in the extent to which dangerous speech is used and condoned by political leaders and other influential people," @SusanBenesch told me.