“Half of the Israeli public is no longer in favor of the war,” one friend told me Saturday night as we witnessed thousands of Israelis take to the streets to protest the Israeli government under the slogan, “Elections Now.” “Yes, but the other half is all-in, and REALLY in favor,” responded his wife. “And they are the more powerful group.”
She, of course, is right. For months, reports of torture and rape have emerged from Israel’s military base turned torture camp, Sde Teiman, where Israel has imprisoned thousands of Palestinians without charge. I wrote about it in a previous diary earlier this month. Palestinians who have emerged from this torture camp refer to it as the “slaughterhouse” with horrendous tales of torture, rape, abuse, and sleep deprivation being meted out by Israeli prison guards. Nearly 30 Palestinians have died while in Sde Teiman and other prisons, according to the information provided to date.
And while the precise chain of events is unclear, what we do know is that the Israeli military advocate general decided to dispatch the military police to question nine Israeli soldiers on suspicion of gang-raping and sodomizing a Palestinian man from Gaza at Sde Teiman. The man was rushed to the hospital where he exhibited signs of rape, including a ruptured bowel and broken ribs. It would be a mistake to simply think that Israel’s actions in prisons like Sde Teiman came only after October. Since becoming Israel’s national security minister in 2022, ultranationalist Itamar Ben Gvir has made prisons his target, with him authorizing abuse against Palestinians. He has also called for the death penalty to solve problems of overcrowding.
Kamala isn't a Zionist. Did you watch her speech she made recently after meeting Netanyahu? And Israel is pissed about what she said! That tells you all you need to know
Edit: no really, watch it. I can tell you haven't 😚
Respectfully, what matters more to you: a politician's words or their deeds?
I'd wager my life savings that Kamala, once elected, will go back on her word and support funding for Israel, just as every president has done even as Israel has become more and more of an apartheid.
It's the best chance we've ever had. It would be foolish to punish her for stepping forward on this issue. It would just reinforce the status quo. If she goes back on it we're just in the same situation. But it's also possible that she actually holds Netanyahu accountable. She's the only choice that's even talked about doing that.