For about a month I’ve been watching a tendency both in myself and in just about everyone I know: We’d rather not think about the war in Gaza. Yes, it’s news. Yes, we see ourselves as citizens of a democracy who have a duty to stay well informed. But this is just too depressing. Maybe there’s something amusing we can stream on Netflix.
The 24-hour news cycle doesn’t help. Every time I look at CNN, it seems like they’re interviewing either a relative of a Hamas hostage, someone who managed to hide or run from the October 7 attack, or a Gaza nurse who has no supplies — as if the tenth such interview will communicate something the first nine failed to capture.
In some sense, though, this kind of situation is the Weekly Sift’s whole purpose: Beyond the endless repetition, somebody out there must be saying things we need to think about. I’ve tried to pick a few out in this week’s featured post, “Can we talk about Israel and Palestine?” That should be out around 9 or so EST.
The weekly summary will cover the new Speaker’s attempt to play politics with Israel/Palestine aid, the ongoing Trump trials, the polls a year out from the election, the actual elections happening tomorrow, and an old man’s rant about the World Series, before doing something I try to never do: repeat a closing. I used this 2Cellos video as a closing nine years ago, but it’s still great. That should appear before noon.
The Weekly Sift 
Comments
It’s obvious Trump will be GOP candidate and CNN is painting him as Hitler as he now leads Biden in all swing states.
Afghanistan withdrawal was a disaster that proved to the 4 evil empires of NK Iran China and Russia that their proxies were free to do terror attacks murdering raping kidnapping.
By now the fantasies of COVID vaccination benefits have been exposed and Baltic Sea Seafloor volcanoes are discovered to be true reason for climate changing and even a court case in Georgia will unravel the truth about 2020 election.
Biden & Co sell out to hostile states for own cash benefit is a ticking bomb.
I would predict a landslide of Trump winning 45 states and it’s sad we only have octagenians running that we choose from
“I would predict a landslide of Trump winning 45 states”
If you’re betting real money, I think there a probably some readers who would bet against that.
I didn’t think it was possible to pack so many unhinged-from-reality scatter-shots into one stream-of-consciousness ramble that it outperforms what Trump’s been posting lately, but, congratulations. This one sets a new standard.
Yes, we do need to report the hard facts of the evil being perpetrated on both sides. HAMAS is wrong, but understandable. ISRAEL has violated international law for years and committed crimes with it “settlements” and atrocious treatment of Palestinians. I agree that you cannot negotiate with a party that denies your right to exist.* But nothing justifies immoral wanton slaughter of innocents. It takes two to make peace. The USA also shares major blame for its blind ill advised support of Israel’s right wing leaders. We do not have “clean hands” in these matters.
* We have our own right wing extremists actively working to deny rights of our citizens to freedom and independence and we tolerate them at our own peril.
“Hamas is wrong, but understandable” is an incredibly apologetic way to describe an organization that not only exists for the sole purpose of eliminating the State of Israel, but also is directly responsible for the misery and suffering of the people of Gaza, who it uses as human shields, steals the international aid intended for them, and destroys their infrastructure to use for weapons and their own other ends.
The “immoral wanton slaughter of innocents” is exactly what Hamas did when it invaded Israel, killed 1400, and took a couple hundred more as hostages. If the people of Gaza want to live in peace, it begins by them expelling Hamas and accepting that the State of Israel is axiomatic, as the states of Egypt and Jordan have already done, and Saudia Arabia was about to do.
Barring that, Hamas must be eliminated by the country it continues to attack, working toward its ultimate objective. Anything less is to accept an entity that will never allow peace and Israel to exist at the same time.