From the news: on the war in West Asia [Content Warning - links to reports on bigotry/hate, violence including SA & CSA/abuse/war, genocide, language. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Reporting on recent and currently ongoing tragic events in West Asia, in Israel, Gaza, and adjoining nations, includes the following: 

• “‘Extremely challenging’: Israel’s Gaza ground assault faces stumbles”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/4/extremely-challenging-israels-gaza-ground-assault-faces-stumbles   This article also indicates that international pressure is working - and confirms that the ground attack is being as difficult as the experts predicted  
  

• “We Need an Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza”   https://www.juancole.com/2023/11/need-immediate-ceasefire.html   and   “Biden calls for ‘pause’ in Gaza conflict after heckler confrontation”   https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/middle-east-news/2023/11/02/gaza-israel-refugee-camp-blast   and   “Apocalyptic Politics are Clouding the U.S. Response to the Israel-_____ Conflict and Demonising Muslim-Americans”   https://www.juancole.com/2023/11/apocalyptic-politics-clouding.html   

• “The Invisible Slaughter of Palestinian Children”   https://www.juancole.com/2023/11/invisible-slaughter-palestinian.html   “Israeli air strike on ambulance kills 15, injures 60, Gaza officials say”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/3/several-killled-in-israeli-attack-on-ambulance-convoy-gaza-health-ministry   and   “The New Humanitarian | Inside Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, healthcare workers suffer trauma, burnout, and loss”   https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2023/11/01/inside-gaza-nasser-hospital-healthcare-workers-trauma-burnout   and   “Israeli police storm hospital in East Jerusalem, detaining Gaza visitors”   https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-police-detain-gaza-visitors-hospital   
  

• “‘Unsafe in own home’: Israeli settlers spread terror in South Hebron Hills”   https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/3/unsafe-in-own-home-israeli-settlers-spread-terror-in-south-hebron-hills   and   “‘Arrested, tortured and insulted’, say workers returned to Gaza by Israel”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/3/arrested-tortured-and-insulted-say-workers-returned-to-gaza-by-israel    
  

• “Netanyahu's impossible war between captives and smashing _____”   https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-netanyahu-captives-_____-impossible   and   “Analysis: Israel’s Gaza bombing campaign is proving costly, for Israel”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/3/analysis-israels-gaza-bombing-campaign-is-proving-costly-for-israel   (economics)   

• “Will Egypt accept Palestinians if Israel pushes them out of Gaza?”   https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/2/will-egypt-accept-palestinians-displaced-by-israels-war-on-gaza   but   “Egypt to receive wounded Gazans through key crossing: sources”   https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231031-egypt-to-receive-wounded-gazans-through-key-crossing-sources   and   “Relief in Lebanon as Hezbollah’s Nasrallah holds off on wider Israel war”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/3/relief-in-lebanon-as-hezbollahs-nasrallah-holds-off-on-wider-israel-war   but   “‘Ready for all possibilities’: Hezbollah leader warns of possible wider war”   https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/middle-east-news/2023/11/04/hezbbollah-leader-warning   and   “Analysis: Houthis declare war on Israel, but their real target is elsewhere”   https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/2/analysis-houthis-declare-war-on-israel-but-their-real-target-is-elsewhere   and   “Germany announces complete ban of _____ activities”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/2/germany-announces-complete-ban-of-_____-activities   and   “How the Israel-Gaza War May Ignite the Entire Middle East” - Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters   “The conflict in Israel and Gaza is escalating, but it has so far not spread in any major way across the region. But so long as the conflict persists, it could just be a matter of time until other fronts of this war open up. Middle East scholar Dalia Dassa Kaye explains how the Gaza war may ignite the entire middle east. She is a senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and a Fulbright Schuman visiting scholar at the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University. We spoke on Tuesday, October 31 about a why a wider regional war is very much in the realm of possibility.”  Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/global-dispatches-world-news-that-matters/id593535863?i=1000633421826   

• “Watching the watchdogs: Fear in newsrooms silences pro-Palestine voices”   https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/11/1/watching-the-watchdogs-fear-in-newsrooms-silences-pro-palestine-voices   and   in an egregious example of bias,   “WhatsApp’s AI shows gun-wielding children when prompted with ‘Palestine’”   https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/02/whatsapps-ai-palestine-kids-gun-gaza-bias-israel   “By contrast, prompts for ‘Israeli’ do not generate images of people wielding guns, even in response to a prompt for ‘Israel army’”   and   “'Shut up and fall in line': Israel, Palestine and the dawn of a new censorship in western art”   https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/israel-palestine-western-art-new-censorship   and   “Advocacy or a career? US students fear employer backlash amid war in Gaza”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/2/advocacy-or-a-career-us-students-fear-employer-backlash-amid-war-in-gaza  
  

• A staggering reminder that Gaza has oil & gas reserves. I personally do NOT consider that has anything to do with what Israel is doing - the trauma of what happened on 7^th October is too deep, raw, and real, and the suggestion (in an article I will NOT link to) that it does is, frankly, deeply offensive. However, this is an issue that is worth keeping in mind in the long term. See   https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Natural_gas_in_the_Gaza_Strip&oldid=1183110629   and   https://unctad.org/news/unrealized-potential-palestinian-oil-and-gas-reserves (from 2019)   and   https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/6/21/palestines-forgotten-oil-and-gas-resources (from 2021)   and   (from June, 2023) “Israel gives nod to Gaza Marine gas development, wants security assurances”   https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/israel-gives-nod-gaza-marine-gas-development-wants-security-assurances-2023-06-18/   “Israel gave preliminary approval for the development of a gas field off the Gaza Strip on Sunday while saying it would require security coordination with the Palestinian Authority and neighbouring Egypt” - which assurances will never happen, now 
  

Note: as with other mass murderers, violent extremists crave publicity, so I refuse to give that to them - I will avoid using their names (which is a policy adopted by good law enforcement and media for other mass murderers), and I will not give them the satisfaction of being described with the T word. 

This is explained further in my post at https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2023/10/from-news-on-war-in-west-asia-content_25.html. 

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk.