Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

Kissinger

Here,  here (apt title), and short and sweet from Robert Paul Wolff (also an earlier personal recollection).

Crowdsourced "cancellation insurance"...

...for the "cancel culture" kind.  This appears to be real!

Israel/Gaza links for November 27

This Al Jazeera columnist certainly hates Israel, but his observations are not without substantial elements of truth.

Details are emerging about conditions for the hostages during their captivity by Hamas.

Peter Beinart on "anti-Palestinian" bigotry.

Gender-based violence as a "weapon of war" in the Hamas attack of October 7, from Physicians for Human Rights.

The Israeli woman who wrote the heartbreaking plea for her children held hostage (noted last week) was reunited with her freed children yesterday.

Billionaire anti-semite files frivolous lawsuit against media watchdog that points out the obvious

Story here.  The only question, I suspect, is whether he and the lawyers get sanctioned for filing this lawsuit.  I note that his regular lawyer, Alex Spiro of Quinn Emmanuel, had nothing to do with this lawsuit, probably for a reason!

Khalidi v. Benhabib on the "Philosophers for Palestine" letter

Philosopher Muhammad Ali Khalidi has responded to Seyla Benhabib's response (excerpted here) to the original "Philosophers for Palestine" letter (noted and discussed here).   Professor Khalidi contests certain attributions that Professor Benhabib made about what the letter signatories believe, accusing her of an "intention to mislead" and also a "smear."   I assume Professor Benhabib would argue that she was drawing implications from the positions defended in the letter (e.g., the letter called for a ceasefire, which would benefit Hamas, ergo the letter effectively supports Hamas), but I think Professor Khalidi is right to contest the accuracy of that.

Israel/Gaza links for November 20

Israel's "options" for Gaza after Hamas.  None are particularly realistic, it seems to be, but it seems increasingly clear that emptying Gaza (or most of Gaza) of Palestinians is what the Israeli right wants.  Biden has proposed an international force, to be followed by the Palestinian Authority, which "controls" the West Bank.  The latter will be bitterly opposed by the right-wing fundamentalists in Israel, who fear that will ultimately lead to Palestinian statehood.

Israeli report finds that the Hamas "pillage and murder" raid on October 7 had not planned to attack the music festival (which was only discovered after the raid began), where more than 360 were killed (a higher figure than previously reported), and 40 were kidnapped.

70-year-old grandfather defended his Kibbutz on October 7 for 12 hours with a rifle:  another remarkable story of resilience under extreme circumstances.

Head of mission for Gaza for Doctors without Borders describes the horrific medical and humanitarian situation.  

Some relatives of victims of the October 7 atrocities do not support the attack on Gaza:  “'We are just drowning in our own violence and blood,' Yonatan Zeigen, Silver’s 35-year-old son, told Al Jazeera. 'Israel won’t cure our dead babies by killing more babies.'  Silver was one among several victims known to regularly volunteer to drive sick Palestinians from the Gaza border to hospitals in Israel for treatment."

"The Politics of Language"

Philosopher Jason Stanley talks about his new book (co-authored with David Beaver) on PBS.

America is not a civilized country, part 492: how is it possible that private individuals can purchase an AR-15?

The Washington Post has shared photos of the aftermath of an AR-15 attack (the weapon of choice in most of the mass shootings in the US); they are not for the faint-hearted.  But they do drive home the indefensible insanity of a country that permits these kinds of weapons to circulate.  No other civilized country on the face of the earth permits this.  How it is possible for a fringe group of fanatics at the NRA and their bought-and-paid-for-representatives in Congress to defy the will of the vast majority for real gun control in an alleged democracy will itself make a remarkable case study in the pathologies of "democracy" and "freedom" for future scholars. 

Israel/Gaza links for November 16

"If Gaza was in your city, how much would be destroyed?"  Some gripping visuals, to drive home the scale of the destruction.

"Does Israel have the [legal] right to defend itself [under international law]?"   An international law scholar brings out the surprising difficulties of the question.

There's more to "massive state violence" than the question of what is lawful.

Support of American citizens for Israel is declining amidst assault on Gaza.  In an actual democracy this might lead to a change in policy!  We'll see...

Israel/Gaza links for November 13

French President Macron calls on Israel to stop bombing babies, women, elderly in Gaza.  The pressure is starting to mount on Israel to stop the slaughter.

A Palestinian in the West Bank describes threats and terror from Israeli settlers.

Civil and political liberties within Israel under attack during the war.

The horrifying situation in Gaza's hospitals.

"Hijacking Memory: The Holocaust and the Seige of Gaza"

A webinar this coming Monday with historian Omer Bartov at Brown University, who was one of the co-authors of the "Response to October 7" letter I encouraged readers to sign.

(Thanks to Ross Hyman for the pointer.)

Israel/Gaza links for November 9, 2023

Peter Beinart talks to a Palestinian and an American Jewish  activist about where the left goes now. (Thanks to Cora Diamond for the pointer.)

An interview with a UN official about international humanitarian law in the context of Hamas, Israel, and Gaza.

Philosopher David Benatar talks about Israel and Gaza at Brain in a Vat.  (Thanks to Scott McLain for the pointer.)

Professor Omer Bartov on the "possibility" of genocide in Gaza--it is not genocide now, but the "danger" is there.  (UPDATE:  A written version of the same [thanks to Dean Rowan for the pointer].)

Two news websites, with quite different perspectives, that I check periodically are that of the Times of Israel and Al Jazeera; both offer some good reporting.  Between the two, one can sometimes piece together a better sense of what is happening, but they also each shed light on how Israelis and Arabs view what is going on.  Sometimes, of course, reading them produces a real Rashomon effect.

ONE MORE:   An international law expert comments on proportionality and the attack on the Jabalia refugee camp.

On approaching 90

"Somber reflections" from the always interesting Robert Paul Wolff.

Benhabib's response to the Philosophers for Palestine letter

A propos yesterday's post, this bit from Professor Benhabib's rejoinder struck me in particular:

Hamas is a nihilistic organization which treats the civilian population of Gaza as its hostage. The leader of the organization, Ismail Hanniye, sits in a luxury hotel in Qatar, while children on the streets of Gaza die. Yes, as Amnesty International has said, “Gaza is the largest open-air prison in the world,” but this is also due to the fact that Hamas is an exterminationist organization, whose Charter endorses the destruction of the State of Israel. You also implicitly seem to support this when you write that, “If there is to be justice and peace, the siege of Gaza must be lifted; the occupation must end, and the rights must be respected of all people currently living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, as well as those of Palestinian refugees in exile.” Amen to that! but do you see Hamas a political organization dedicated to “respecting the rights of all people currently living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean”? This defies history and logic. Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel; I do not support that. Do you? What moral or political logic is guiding your reasoning here?

Israel/Gaza links for November 6

Via Matt Kramer (in comments on an earlier post), I came across this really excellent (historically informed, conceptually careful) essay on Zionism and "settler colonialism" by philosopher Samuel Fleischacker.  Very short and unsubtle version:  what is going on in the West Bank is a case of "settler colonialism," but the creation of Israel is not.   But please read the whole essay.

A political scientist here, Robert Pape, who studies terrorism (and suicide bombers in particular) thinks Israel's current approach to Hamas will just produce more terrorists.  He gives some instructive historical examples.

Philosopher David Enoch talks about the "morality of the Israel-Hamas war" at Reid Blackman's podcast.

A short video about Israeli Arabs who risked their lives to rescue Israeli Jews from the Hamas massacre.

"Can humanities survive the budget cuts?"

The NYT is noticing the crisis that we have often noted here.  The "elephant in the room," of course, is the extraordinary cost of higher education in the U.S., which is almost certainly the primary explanation for the decline of humanities majors, and the increase in STEM and business majors.  The STEM majors at least learn something, and their skills are in demand, but the evidence that most undergraduate business majors lead anywhere is uneven.

Israel/Gaza links for November 2

Israel offering financial inducement to Egypt to accept the Palestinians from Gaza.

Alternatives to invasion Israel could take against Hamas.  (Thanks to Joshua Selby for the pointer.)

Why Arabs rejected Zionism long before 1948 (it was not because of anti-semitism).  This is a quite informative essay.  (Thaks to Cora Diamond for the pointer.)

Dueling letters at Columbia:  here and here.  (Via Corey Robin on Twitter, I learned that Bernard Harcourt, my former law colleague now at Columbia, signed both!  The dangers of not reading what you sign...)

Israeli academics suggest creating "safe havens" for Gaza Palestinians in Israel, once Red Cross is permitted to confirm safety and well-being of the hostages.  (Thanks to Alon Harel for the pointer.)

Hamas official vows that they will repeat "October 7 again and again."  I'm sure civilians in Gaza appreciated that well-timed bit of public relations from their benighted rulers.

Only in Italy?

Mother sues to evict her two adult sons (in their 40s!), whom she calls "parasites."  The court calls them "big babies"!

(I know, I know, this happens elsewhere, but elsewhere the court does not call them bamboccioni.)

Reading recommendations on the history of Zionism and Israel

Philosopher Craig Duncan writes:  "I would find it interesting to hear what histories of Israel (from the rise of the Zionist movement in the late 19th century onwards, say) you and your readers might recommend as reliable and intelligent sources."  Comments are open for reader suggestions; please say a bit about the books or articles you're recommending.

Roundup of Israel/Gaza links for October 31

Photos of the Hamas carnage from October 7; this is pretty ghastly, so do not click on the link if you're not steeled for it.

"What Palestinians really think of Hamas."   From the article:   "Arab Barometer, a research network where we serve as co-principal investigators, conducted a survey in Gaza and the West Bank days before the Israel-Hamas war broke out. The findings, published here for the first time, reveal that rather than supporting Hamas, the vast majority of Gazans have been frustrated with the armed group’s ineffective governance as they endure extreme economic hardship. Most Gazans do not align themselves with Hamas’s ideology, either. Unlike Hamas, whose goal is to destroy the Israeli state, the majority of survey respondents favored a two-state solution with an independent Palestine and Israel existing side by side."

Thomas Friedman actually writes something sensible (I'm not sure this has ever happened before):

I have sympathy for the terrible choices that Israel’s government faced after the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. But it was precisely because I closely followed [former Indian PM] Singh’s unique reaction to the Mumbai terrorist attack that I immediately advocated a much more targeted, fully thought-through response by Israel. It should have called this Operation Save Our Hostages and focused on capturing and killing the kidnappers of children and grandparents. Every parent could understand that.

Instead, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government immediately raced into a plan to, as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant put it, “wipe out” Hamas “from the face of the earth.” And in three weeks Israel has inflicted easily more than triple the number of civilian casualties and caused far more destruction in Gaza than Israel suffered, while committing itself to taking military control of Gaza — an operation, on a relative population basis, that is roughly equivalent to the United States deciding almost overnight to occupy half of Mexico.

The Oxford letter calling for a ceasefire (first noted here) has generated two responses from Israeli philosophers:  one from David Enoch, and one from six Israeli moral philosophers.  The latter seems to me the stronger response (the first comment in response to Enoch's piece is pretty on point [apart from the reference to the morally corrupt Anscombe!]).  Enoch mocks, with considerable justification, the pretense of the Oxford letter to represent the expertise of "academics who spend our lives thinking about events such as these" (a description that perhaps applies to a couple of the signatories at best), and the letter from the six Israeli moral philosophers lends support to that criticism.  Both Professor Enoch and the six moral philosophers assume that Israeli military options are cases of "self-defense" (and the latter makes that case more persuasively than I have seen elsewhere), but the idea that there were not other options is hard to take seriously.  Even Thomas Friedman (above) noticed other options!   Why not rebuild the fences and improve the border security, assassinate Hamas leadership and militants when possible, and, most importantly, negotiate to free the hostages?  In that scenario, the only mass murder of civilians will have been perpetrated by Hamas ("proportional" mass murder of civilians in "self-defense" still doesn't look too good, but I guess I'm not a subtle enough moral philosopher?)  It's not at all clear the invasion will make Israel safer.

Via Alon Harel on FB, I came across this interesting piece on "the future of Hamas" after October 7.

ADDENDUM:   An Israeli "Intelligence Ministry" document explores the possibility of relocating all the Palestinians in Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula.  This may not be the "official" policy, but for obvious reasons, that it is even being considered will greatly alarm the Palestinians and the Egyptians.

Israel/Gaza links for October 29

Kenneth Roth (formerly of Human Rights Watch) comments on the Hamas atrocities (which apparently some infantile leftists can't acknowledge for what they are).  (Thanks to Nick Serafin for the pointer.)

Meanwhile, families of the hostages implore Netanyahu to make a prisoner swap.  That return of the Israeli hostages is not the priority for the Israeli government is the clearest indication that the leadership is in the grips of blind rage for revenge.  I can't imagine what it would be like to realize your governent had so completely abandoned you.

A report from a pediatrician about the horrifying hospital conditions in Gaza.

Meanwhile, parents in Gaza mark names on their children's bodies, so they can be identified.  Think about that.

"The Decolonization Narrative is Dangerous and False."

UPDATE:  Another item, from last Spring, but highly relevant today:   Is another Nakba possible?

Biology journal editor loses his position after expressing sympathy for civilian victims of the bombings in Gaza

There's an account here, which quotes me about the law (private employers can punish employees for their political opinions, except in California), but omitted, alas, my opinion that this aspect of employment law in the U.S. is a travesty and an offense to democracy, in which citizens should be able to express their views about matters of public interest without being sanctioned by their employer.  This case is particularly weird because the opinion expressed on Twitter was utterly banal, and yet still triggered his dismissal.  (Note that the editor is also a professor at Berkeley; Berkeley could not, and has not tried to, sanction him for his speech, but he has no academic freedom or free speech rights vis-a-vis the journal.)

Israel/Gaza links for October 26

A video about victims of the Hamas massacre at the music festival.

U.N. Secretary-General calls for ceasefire, denounces "collective punishment" of the people in Gaza.

An article that puts names and faces on victims (including entire families!) of Israeli bombings in Gaza.

"Hamas' bid for revolutionary legitimacy."  Not sure what I think of this, but it is worth a read.

Wealthy people are annoyed that their Ivy League alma maters are not towing the pro-Israel line adequately.  

Roundup of Israel/Gaza links for October 24

Philosopher Oded Na'aman (Hebrew U) on "demands and refusals of empathy" in the wake of October 7.   (Professor Na'aman also wrote [prior to October 7] about his own moral regrets for his role in the Occupation of the West Bank.)  (Thanks to Aaron Garrett for this pointer.)

Oxford academics (including many philosophers) call on the British PM to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and the free passage of humanitarian aid.

Times of Israel puts names and faces on the victims of the October 7 "pillage and murder" raid.  (If there is a similar resource humanizing the civilian victims in Gaza, please email me.)

President Biden has the legal authority to plunge the U.S. into a conflagration in the Middle East; prudence, not law, is the only real constraint.

A freed hostage recounts her experience and explains why she shook hands with her Hamas captor before being set free.

Roundup of Israel/Gaza links for October 22

The Bedouin bus driver who saved 30 young Israelis from the Hamas massacre at the "rave"

The "logic" behind the Israeli siege of Gaza and the looming disease threat to Gaza residents

The "war on water" in Gaza

Another round of Israel/Gaza links for October 19

A guide to the law of armed conflict, with some explicit references to Israel, Gaza, and Hamas.  This is highly informative, but as the authors note, whether particular actions constitute war crimes, or otherwise violations of the law of armed conflict (not all violations are war crimes), is a "fact-sensitive" inquiry (although there are some clear violations:  e.g., taking hostages).

"The War in Gaza:  What is Israel allowed to do?" by David Enoch & Barak Medina (the link is to the Google Translate version--thanks to William Conner for the pointer).  (UPDATE:  Here is the "official" English version.  [Thanks to Sergio Tenenbaum for the pointer.].)

The philosophy of military action

Philosopher Muhammad Ali Khalidi (CUNY Graduate Center) writes:

Some readers of your blog may not realize that there is a philosophical dimension to what’s happening in Gaza.  In 2005, the former head of Israeli military intelligence, Amos Yadlin, co-authored an article in a philosophy journal with philosophy professor Asa Kasher, in which they explicitly reject the Principle of Distinction in International Humanitarian Law.  They argue, in effect, that in Israel’s military campaigns, greater priority ought to be given to protecting the lives of Israeli soldiers than Palestinian civilians — and they think they’ve given a moral justification for this conclusion.  I think their arguments are not sound and have tried to show why in another journal article (and in this shorter encyclopedia entry and blogpost).

This is not just an academic exercise on the part of Kasher and Yadlin.  There’s strong evidence that this new “code of ethics” for the Israeli military has played an important role in Israel’s wars since it was written, giving commanders and soldiers cover for violating the Principle of Distinction with impunity.  Israeli organizations like Breaking the Silence have collected a great deal of testimony to suggest that such directives have been transmitted down the chain of command and account partly for the huge numbers of Palestinian civilian casualties in Israel’s successive military campaigns in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. 

We have noted Professor Kasher's public interventions previously.

"Remarks on Religion" from philosopher Daniel Kaufman

I'm sure this will produce a lively set of responses!  An excerpt from the end:

When one examines the great religious traditions, all of which stem from antiquity, what one is confronted with are obviously, demonstrably archaic, primitive conceptions of the universe, values, notions of obligation, the respective roles of the sexes, economics, politics, and the like. One encounters shamanistic rituals, “lock-and-key” type metaphysical formulas of the “chant these words over there on the first Tuesday of every third month, and X will happen” variety, and hierarchies of deities and angels that look remarkably like ancient monarchic and Imperial hierarchies. All of which makes perfect sense in an Iron Age context. But it seems to me that it would take a good amount of self-deception – or at least, a sort of psychic indolence – to look at all of this and say, “Nope, these aren’t fascinating and often lurid snapshots from the messy, often ugly history of human development, but rather, eternal truths about the nature and operation of the universe and everything and everyone in it. Oh, and just my religion, not those other people’s.”

 

More links on Israel and Gaza

The Times of Israel reports that Hamas, through Qatar, has offered to exchange the women, children, and elderly hostages for an equivalent number of female and teenage Palestinian prisoners held by Israel; Israel, the report says, rejected that offer, which I find incomprehensible, but perhaps the reporting is not wholly accurate.

Why has Israel delayed a ground invasion of Gaza?

The situation in Gaza is already grim.

The Zionist philosophy of "the Iron Wall" and its role in Israeli history.  (Thanks to Moti Gorin for calling attention on Twitter to this informative essay.)

I will probably post these roundups of links less frequently going forward, but welcome emailed suggestions from readers.

A roundup of more commentary and news on the attack on Israel and the war in Gaza

The Twitter feed of an Israeli news source (in English) has a number of interesting items each day.  One thing I've seen there, but not elsewhere, is that Israel has already begun to assassinate Hamas leadership (here and here, for example).  I'm not an international law expert, but I believe this is a completely appropriate form of self-defense in light of the the crimes of October 7, and one that will do far less harm to innocent civilians (including the hostages in Gaza, who are at grave risk).  It would basically be a more aggressive form of what Israel did after the 1972 Munich massacre.

The families of the hostages are, understandably, very worried about the pending invasion of Gaza.  And the Biden Administration is very worried about the invasion triggering a wider conflagration, one in which the U.S. will intervene.  Why not prioritize saving the hostages and targetting the perpetrators of the crimes of October 7?  As one Israeli friend of mine remarked on Facebook:  "I fear that at this point israel is operating out of blind vengeance...without a clear plan. The result will be devastating not only to Gaza but also to Israel."

The Catholic Patriarch in Jerusalem offers to exchange himself for the hostages in Gaza.  Perhaps Netanhayu and the religious zealots in his cabinet should make the same offer?

A woman in Gaza recounts her family's decision to flee south. 

Another depraved U.S. academic outs himself.  He should have to sit down and explain himself to the volunteer grave diggers in Israel.

"Whither Palestine?"  A curious essay, but it does make some interesting observations about the strange idea of "settler colonialism."

 

Some good news out of Europe: Polish voters oust the authoritarian populists from power

Here.  One can only hope the Hungarian fascist wannabes are next.

More links and commentary regarding Israel and Gaza

Inside the Hamas attack on one Israeli kibbutz.

Violence against Palestinians surges in the West Bank.

A BBC journalist reporting from inside a Gaza hospital (from a couple of days ago, it's probably worse now).

Peter Beinart is one of the few prominent pro-Israel Jewish writers to actually recognize the Palestinians as human beings with legitimate interests and rights; he here draws an interesting contrast with the ANC's struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

"Hamas is dragging Israel towards the abyss."  I fear this is a correct assessment.  If the West Bank erupts, if Hezbollah attacks, if Iran joins the fight, either directly or through support of intermediaries, and hundreds of thousands of Israeli troops are in Gaza, this could become an existential crisis not just for the Palestinians but for Israel.  At that point, would Israel use nuclear weapons against Iran (or against Hezbollah)?  Would the U.S. intervene? And then what? 

UPDATE:  Interesting comment from longtime reader Dr. Roger Albin, which he kindly gave permission to share:

The Beinart essay is very good but like many discussions of the end of Apartheid in South Africa, overlooks what may be the most critical factor – the role of Cuba and the struggles in the former Portuguese colonies.  The Cuban-led expulsion of South African troops from Angola in the late 1980s ended the South African regime’s hope of maintaining a cordon sanitaire of client states around South Africa.  The South African leadership was intelligent enough to realize that the long-term survival of the regime was unlikely and that some form of negotiated settlement was the only way out.  To put it crudely, the Cuban Armed Forces forced the Apartheid regime to the bargaining table.  This is very well described in Piero Gleijeses’ two excellent books on this topic.  As Beinart points out, ANC success was partly due to its commitment to a pluralistic democracy and disciplined violence, but these would have been unavailing without Castro’s commitment to defending anti-colonial movements in Africa and the fire power of the Cuban military.  

Annals of academics with no decency or judgment

The atrocities and resulting war in Israel and Gaza has certainly brought them out of the woodworks.  Zareena Grewal (an anthropologist it appears, teaching in American Studies and other area-study fields at Yale), who apparently has three children but no capacity for empathy for non-Paltestinian people's children, has brought a firestorm of protest down on her head for her chillingly stupid and cruel tweets.  (Naturally, some benighted undergraduate started a petition calling for her to be fired for her lawful speech.)  Meanwhile, a contributor at Dissent wrote about some of the other depraved responses only to elicit this utterly witless rejoinder from Gabriel Winant, whom I'm sorry to see is an assistant professor of history here.   The author of the original piece responds appropriately to this sorry display by Professor Winant.

One certainly learns a lot about the moral emptiness and emotional depravity of people at moments like this.

Again, I encourage readers to sign this letter which takes seriously the idea that human lives matter, and matter equally, even during war.

(Thanks to Brian Morton for the pointer to the first Dissent piece.)

One million human beings can't evacuate anywhere in 24 hours...

...and certainly not in a country under siege and as devastated as Gaza is.  This is extremely ominous.  It also makes clear that in the rush for vengeance for the crimes of October 7, Israel is prepared to sacrifice the lives of all the Israeli hostages.   I have signed this letter regarding the October 7 atrocities (authored by the group that produced this earlier letter), and the authors invite signatures from anyone who supports the message.

A Netanyahu campaign ad from 2019

You can see it here.   It makes rather explicit the extent to which he always ran as the guarantor of safety and security.  He is finished now, especially as it becomes clearer that the lack of military in Southern Israel was due to their deployment defending the increasingly aggressive and belligerent Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

UPDATE:  The political fallout is becoming clear.

Some more links and perspectives relating to Israel and Hamas

The NYT quotes the U.N. Secretary-General saying this (regarding the Hamas "pillage and murder" raids in Southern Israel):  “Nothing can justify these acts of terror and the killing, maiming and abduction of civilians.”  This seems like a rather good principle, even if it is unsatisfying to those who think, "No it is justified against an apartheid state" or "It is justified by the way Israel has treated the Palestinians" and so on.  The reason the principle should be treated as an absolute is obvious:  in the absence of such a norm, the scale of human misery during conflict and war will be far greater than it already is.   When Israel invades Gaza, there will be, correctly, demands that it observe that norm, even if the Hamas barbarians did not.  We saw what happened in WWII when that norm was rarely observed.  We need it to hold, and those who violate it deserve to become pariahs.

Regarding the invasion of Gaza, this opinion piece suggests, not implausibly, that this may have been exactly what Hamas wanted as part of its longterm strategy:

Hamas knew that the attack on Saturday would give Mr. Netanyahu little choice but to retaliate with a ground invasion, and it knows that Israel Defense Forces technology and military superiority will offer little advantage on the crowded streets of Gaza City, in Jabalia, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, or through Hamas’s labyrinth of underground tunnels...

It appears Hamas wants to draw Israeli soldiers into a quagmire, like Hezbollah did in Southern Lebanon from 1985 to 2000. After years of fighting, Israel suffered a humiliating and chaotic withdrawal, leaving an empowered and threatening Hezbollah on its northern border.

Why might Hamas want to draw the I.D.F. into a bloody ground battle? Hamas is the uncontested power in Gaza, though elections have not been held since 2006. Neither the Palestinian Authority nor its main political party, Fatah, the business community, civil society nor family clan leaders can effectively challenge Hamas, which has become only stronger after each successive conflict with Israel....Hamas surely believes it can defeat the Israelis on its home turf in a war of attrition.

The decline of organized religion even in the U.S.

This is striking:

3 in 10 U.S. adults said they had no religious affiliation.

• About half of them identify as atheist or agnostic, and the other half say their religion is "nothing in particular."

The shift away from religion is even starker among younger adults, with 43% of 18- to 29-year-old Americans responding "none," when asked which religion they follow.

• But fewer than 20% of U.S. adults over 60 are "nones."

Has Twitter hit the "tipping" point towards its demise?

The latest indicator:   Princeton historian Kevin Kruse, with hundreds of thousands of followers, is abandoning the ship.  Other big accounts are bleeding hundreds of followers each day, mostly due, one suspects, to folks giving up on Twitter.   I've set up an account at Bluesky, which seems to have the best chance of growth, at least for academic readers.  I'll soon begin sharing of blog post links there, as well as on Twitter.

Another entry for the "Black Book of Capitalism"?

I'm with Marx:  capitalism is indispensable for productive plenty, so people can live decently and freely.  I'm also with Marx in believing that at some point capitalist relations of productions (i.e, the way capitalism organizes control of productive power) is a catastrophe for the well-being of the majority.  A case in point?

[T]he America of those without college degrees has been scarred by death and staggeringly shorter life spans.

Almost two-thirds of American adults do not have college degrees, and they have become increasingly excluded from good jobs, political power and social esteem. As their lives and livelihoods are threatened, their longevity declines.

In the 1970s, American life expectancy grew by about four months each year. By the 1980s, it was similar to life expectancy in other rich countries. Since then, other countries have continued to progress, with life spans increasing by more than two and a half months a year.

But the United States has slowly, gradually and then precipitously fallen behind....

A hodgepodge of commentary and perspective about the war in Israel

I don't agree with the opinon pieces, below, although they are each revealing in different ways.

A solidly pro-Israel (and Palestinian-indifferent) opinion writer in the New York Times.  Israel's interests are the only interests.

A solidly anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian opinion writer in Al Jazeera.  He does articulate what are the likely rationales for the attack, even if his vicarious pleasure in killing is creepy.

Meanwhile the relatives of some of the victims of Saturday's attack speak.

The "elephant in the room," Gaza and its history.

A brief comment on the war in Israel

I am flabbergasted at the massive intelligence and military failure that made it possible for Hamas soldiers to literally take over multiple towns and commit atrocities against Israeli civilizans with almost nothing standing in their way.  Netanhayu, who earned most of his political capital as a supposed guarantor of Israeli security, has failed spectacularly in this case.  His response, as a result, will surely be brutal.

Many people, including huge numbers of civilians, who were alive 24 hours ago are now dead or maimed.  Many more will be dead or maimed over the next 24, then 48, then 72 hours etc.  What a horror. 

I haven't anything useful to say, so I'll just stop with that.

America is not a civilized country, a continuing saga

The two culprits are religious fundamentalism and, of course, guns:

[A]cording to an analysis published on Thursday, the rate of firearm fatalities among children under 18 increased by 87 percent from 2011 through 2021 in the United States. The death rate attributable to car accidents fell by almost half, leaving firearm injuries the top cause of accidental death in children.

The finding underscores additional data showing that firearm injuries are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 20, after excluding deaths of infants born prematurely or with congenital abnormalities.

Some 2,590 children and teenagers under the age of 18 died of firearm injuries in 2021, up from 1,311 in 2011, according to the study, which was published in the journal Pediatrics. In other industrialized countries, guns are not even among the top three causes of death for children.

Hannah Arendt, "white supremacist"?

MOVING TO FRONT FROM OCTOBER 2--SOME INTERESTING COMMENTS, MORE WELCOME

Why not, everyone is these days apparently?  Some of the essay is just "guilt by association," but some of the quotes from her writing do not redound to her credit, but I don't know the texts to know whether this is cherry-picking.  Curious what readers more knowledgeable about Arendt make of this hit piece?

Ibram Kendi's "Antiracist Center" at BU implodes

The student newspaper at Boston University reports:

Three years [since its founding], after at least $43 million in grants and gifts and what sources say has been an underwhelming output of research, the Center for Antiracist Research laid off almost all of its staff last week.

Multiple former staff members allege that a mismanagement of funds, high turnover rate and general disorganization have plagued the Center since its inception.

The $43 million, according to 2021 budget records obtained by The Daily Free Press, includes general support, such as the $10 million from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, as well as donations for specific projects.

The document, which is not an all-inclusive list of donors, also lists TJ Maxx’s foundation, Stop & Shop and Peloton as donating over a million dollars....

A week after the layoffs, BU announced Wednesday that they received complaints “focused on the center’s culture and its grant management practices"....

The Compliance Services Office received an anonymous complaint in 2021 about the Center from Saida Grundy, an associate professor of sociology at BU and former CAR employee.

The complaint detailed multiple high-level employees leaving suddenly and allegations of a workplace culture that included fear of retaliation and discrimination.

An apt takedown of the awful Rupert Murdoch, the man who helped wreck America...

...by Michelle Goldberg, one of the two NYT opinion writers I actually read on occasion (the other is Jamelle Bouie); an excerpt from the end:

Murdoch’s legacy is decided. We are hurtling toward another government shutdown, egged on by Hannity. The electorate that Fox helped shape, and the politicians it indulges, have made this country ungovernable. An unbound Trump may well become president again, bringing liberal democracy in America to a grotesque end. If so, it will be in large part Murdoch’s fault. “The Murdochs feel bad, about Tucker, about Trump, about themselves,” writes Wolff. Just not bad enough.

The downsides of virtual reality

Philosopher of science James Ladyman (Bristol) discusses these and other issues in connection with David Chalmers's recent book:

(Professor Laydman flags for me two errors: Erik M Conway is the co-author of Merchants of Doubt. Also the term ‘digital enclosures’ comes from sociology, specifically Mark Andrejevic:  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10714420701715365?journalCode=gcrv20.)

The situation in Israel: "what's all the fuss about?"

Philosopher David Enoch explains in this video:

 

"The Elephant in the Room" in the debate over "judicial reform" in Israel

A powerful statement signed by many leading Israeli academics (including philosopher David Enoch, among others):

We, academics and other public figures from Israel/Palestine and abroad, call attention to the direct link between Israel’s recent attack on the judiciary and its illegal occupation of millions of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Palestinian people lack almost all basic rights, including the right to vote and protest. They face constant violence: this year alone, Israeli forces have killed over 190 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and demolished over 590 structures. Settler vigilantes burn, loot, and killwithimpunity.

Without equal rights for all, whether in one state, two states, or in some other political framework, there is always a danger of dictatorship. There cannot be democracy for Jews in Israel as long as Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid, as Israeli legal experts have described it. Indeed, the ultimate purpose of the judicial overhaul is to tighten restrictions on Gaza, deprive Palestinians of equal rights both beyond the Green Line and within it, annex more land, and ethnically cleanse all territories under Israeli rule of their Palestinian population. The problems did not start with the current radical government: Jewish supremacism has been growing for years and was enshrined in law by the 2018 Nation State Law.

Remembering Vito Marcantonio

The most honorable, humane and forward-looking American congressman of the 20th-century died on this day in 1954.

"Peter Turchin's False Prophecy"

A quite interesting essay; a longish excerpt from near the end of the essay:

The great compression was rooted in the reforms of the New Deal and the expansion of union power, but it was World War II and the subsequent American-led global effort to rebuild that sustained the relatively egalitarian boom of the postwar decades. American industrial capacity doubled in the five years between 1940 and 1945. In 1946, the United States produced half the world’s total output. By the 1950s, America still produced one-third of global economic output. The historically unique conditions of this Golden Era meant that American industry could pay high wages and high taxes yet still book high profits.

However, by the mid-1960s, Germany and Japan had recovered. Their labor costs were much lower than those in the United States, and their capital stock tended to be newer and more efficient. Not only were the Europeans and the Japanese supplying their own domestic markets, they were also ramping up their exports. At the same time American consumer spending began to level out by the mid-1960s. Once-exotic luxuries like full-size refrigerators and electric vacuum cleaners had become commonplace. The postwar shopping spree was winding down. By the early 1970s, therefore, the growth and industrialization of earlier decades had led to a classic crisis of overproduction and overaccumulation. Suddenly there was too much production capacity, too much capital, and too many commodities already in existence, and not enough opportunities for profitable re-investment. American capitalism was suffocating from industrial success.