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According to Haaretz, the Israeli public is enthusiastic about Trump’s plans to empty Gaza of Palestinians and build an American owned Rivera there. And remember Trump mocking a reporter’s disability? Apparently, mocking losers is popular among others as well. America is standing tall again under Trump.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/trending/israelis-mock-palestinian-children-tiktok-prank-call-trend

https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/1898237242876813726

The enthusiastic reception among the Israeli public for Donald Trump’s Gaza takeover plan – that includes emptying the Strip of almost 2 million Palestinians – has offered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a political boost that he is likely to take full advantage of.

Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Benn said on the Haaretz Podcast, that “very sadly, the transfer idea is extremely popular within Israeli Jewish society.” He traces the mainstreaming of the concept throughout the years of Netanyahu’s leadership, and notes how October 7 acted as a catalyst.

One of the primary pillars of opposition to the “voluntary migration” schemes pushed by Israel’s far-right leaders has been the fear of international condemnation. Now, explains Benn, the American president himself eliminated that fear.

The fact that it was Donald Trump putting the idea of moving Palestinians out of Gaza on the table gives Netanyahu – and other Israelis – the ability to embrace the concept of ethnic cleansing openly.

“It was really unthinkable to have the American president calling time and again for ethnic cleansing of people, most of whom are not Hamas, are not terrorist and were not part of October 7. They are already suffering because of the war – and to just tell them to go away and never come back? This was really beyond belief,” Benn said.

Benn and Haaretz Podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer also discussed the precarious state of the Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal, and the “very high” chances of returning to full-fledged war in Gaza.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/podcasts/2025-02-13/ty-article-podcast/israels-embrace-of-trumps-gaza-plan-is-atrocious-unthinkable-and-morally-wrong/00000195-012b-d1d7-a9d5-f96fbc430000?dicbo=v2-Qlf57NH&utm_source=traffic.outbrain.com&utm_medium=referrer&utm_campaign=outbrain_organic

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Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Message from the Civil Rights Movement to Israel and the US
Every year, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr Day, the Center for Peace and Justice Education at Villanova University hosts a Freedom School, with numerous presentations. This presentation is on “Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Message from the Civil Rights Movement to Israel and the US” by Lowell Gustafson, Professor of Political Science. On November 10, 2024, Ta Nehisi-Coates spoke at the historic Riverside Church in New York at an event about “America and the War on Palestine,” noting that it was at that church where Martin Luther King, Jr. announced on his opposition to the Vietnam War. In his recent book, The Message, Coates recounts the echoes of American Jim Crow laws he experienced during his visit to the West Bank. This session will discuss how the civil rights movements in the United States, South Africa and elsewhere have influenced discussions about the current violations of basic civil rights in Gaza, and American policies of complicity in Palestinian suffering.

This was presented to a Villanova University audience; perhaps it might be of interest to others as well. The usual disclaimer applies here; these are not necessarily the views of Villanova University nor of its Center for Peace and Justice Education.

Heroic Protests, Villainous Policies
It was my pleasure and honor to give a talk at the Tunisian Association of American Cultural Studies (TAACS) for its conference on Heroes and Villains in American History, Culture, and Politics. This talk lasts for the amount of time we have in a 75 minute class period at Villanova University, where I have taught since 1986. This permitted me to put together some of the material that is available on the US / Israel / Palestinian issue, but there is much more that could be added. And it is always important to realize that there are other important ways to organize and interpret this material.

My main take-away from my visit to Tunisia is that there are a lot of people in MENA (Middle East North Africa) and Europe who study and know the US very well.

There are some errors here. One is that Mike Casey complained not that Gazans expressed skepticism about his numbers of casualties in Gaza, but that President Biden had. Another is that I fudge the numbers 200,000 and 700,000 when discussing “mowing the lawn.” To clarify here, it was 700,000 Palestinians who were forced out of Palestine in 1948; 200,000 of them forced into what is now the Gaza strip. The third problem I notice is the entire concluding section of the video. It becomes disjointed. I give the video a grade that slips below an A. It is not within YouTube’s procedures to splice or replace the video; I would have to delete this one, re-record it, and then post a new one. So I just make these corrections here and ask for your indulgence.

Maya Cosmos
I appreciated the chance to give this talk at the Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomy meeting. The full meeting is at https://www.youtube.com/live/K7_MDl7aeI4?si=7U2ATi1hVz-Nj-7n . There were a couple technical glitches, so I patched my talk up a bit, although it is still a little cut-and-pasty here. Anyway, the video covers how my interest in inter city-state relations led to my interest in cosmology. The talk covers these points: Observations and Stories Example of Ancient Greece,
Early Modern Europe Origins of Ancient Mesoamerica
My Original Intent: Ancient Maya Politics
Maya Priests and E-Groups Connecting Cosmic Layers Time
What are the stories we (should) tell in a scientific age?