Nearly half of Americans think the US is spending too much on Ukraine aid, an AP-NORC poll says

SEUNG MIN KIM and LINLEY SANDERS
Tue, November 21, 2023 

Ukrainian soldiers navigate on the Dnipro river by boat at the frontline near Kherson, Ukraine, Sunday, June 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

WASHINGTON (AP) — As lawmakers in Washington weigh sending billions more in federal support to Kyiv to help fight off Russian aggression, close to half of the U.S. public thinks the country is spending too much on aid to Ukraine, according to polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Those sentiments, driven primarily by Republicans, help explain the hardening opposition among conservative GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are rebuffing efforts from President Joe Biden to approve a new tranche of Ukraine aid, arguing that the money would be better spent for domestic priorities.

Yet opposition to aid is down slightly from where it was a month ago in another AP-NORC poll. Now, 45% say the U.S. government is spending too much on aid to Ukraine in the war against Russia, compared with 52% in October. That shift appears to come mostly from Republicans: 59% now say too much is spent on Ukraine aid, but that’s down from 69% in October.

Nonetheless, the Republican resistance to continued Ukraine aid remains strong.

“I understand the citizens need help, but I feel like we’re spending way too much money on Ukraine when we have our issues here, on our own soil, that we need to deal with,” said Eric Mondello, 40, from Fountain, Colorado. Pointing to needs such as health care for veterans and homelessness in communities, Mondello added: “I understand the U.S. has been an ally to others, but I feel like, let’s take care of our people first.”

More than one-third (38%) of U.S. adults say that current spending is “about the right amount,” which is up slightly from last month (31%). Among Republicans, nearly 3 in 10 (29%) say the current spending is about right, up from 20% last month.

Paula Graves, 69, is among those who says the amount of spending for Ukraine is the right amount.

“Putin, he’s straight up evil. I don’t think there should be any question in anyone’s mind,” said Graves, of Clovis, California. "He’s a dictator. He’s infringed on human rights, he’s a very scary person and if Ukraine falls to him, who’s next? What country’s next?”

Graves, who says she is not affiliated with a political party but leans more conservative, said she believes the U.S. has a leadership role on the global stage and added: “I think we definitely need to put America first, but I don’t think that needs to be first and only.”

The White House has been repeatedly pressing lawmakers to pass Biden’s nearly $106 billion emergency spending package that he proposed in October, which includes more than $61 billion specifically for the war in Ukraine. The rest of Biden’s request has aid for Israel as it battles Hamas, money for various priorities in the Indo-Pacific region and additional resources to help manage migration at the southern border.

On Ukraine, the Biden administration is increasingly warning that the well of aid is running dry. In an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Ukraine’s effort to defeat Russian forces “matters to the rest of the world” and pledged that U.S. support would continue “for the long haul.”

That message was reinforced at the White House.

“As President Biden has said, when aggressors don’t pay a price for their aggression, they’ll cause more chaos and death and destruction," John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, told the White House press briefing Monday. “They just keep on going, and the cost and the threats to America and to the world will keep rising.”

But Congress has rebuffed the White House efforts at bolstering Ukraine support at least twice in recent months. First, it ignored a roughly $40 billion supplemental request before a Sept. 30 funding deadline. Then last week, it passed a stopgap funding measure that keeps the government operating through early next year, but with no additional Ukraine aid.

In the Senate, a small bipartisan group is working on legislation that would combine fresh Ukraine assistance with stricter border measures to address concerns from Republicans that the U.S. was focused on needs abroad at the expense of issues closer to home. A broad majority of senators remains supportive of Ukraine aid, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., being one of the most stalwart supporters despite the isolationist strain in his party.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said lawmakers will continue to work on the Ukraine-border package over the Thanksgiving break and won't wait until mid-January — when Congress faces another government funding deadline — to act on Ukraine.

The big question mark is in the House, where still-new Speaker Mike Johnson — who had voted against Ukraine aid as a rank-and-file conservative — has spoken broadly of the need to counter Russian aggression yet faces unruly GOP lawmakers who have shown more hostility to continued support for Kyiv.

Johnson, too, is insisting that additional Ukraine aid be paired with tougher border measures, although it is far from certain that any immigration agreement that clears the Democratic-led Senate could pass the GOP-controlled House.

Half of U.S. adults are extremely or very concerned that Russia’s influence poses a direct threat to the United States. Democrats (53%) and Republicans (51%) are similarly concerned about Russian power – but Democrats are more likely than Republicans to see Ukraine as a nation of shared values to the U.S. and to support more aid for Ukraine.

About half of the public (48%) endorses providing weapons to Ukraine (57% among Democrats, 42% among Republicans). About 4 in 10 favor sending government funds directly to Ukraine (54% for Democrats, 24% for Republicans).

Americans have grown slightly more likely to say the U.S. should take “a less active role” in solving the world’s problems, compared with a September poll from AP-NORC and Pearson. Slightly fewer than half (45%) now say the U.S. should be less involved, up from 33% in September. Just 16% of Democrats now say the U.S. should take a more active role, down from 29% in September.

Peter Einsig, a Republican from Tulsa, Oklahoma, said he still believes the U.S. has a role to play abroad, but that he remains concerned about excessive government spending and federal debt.

Yet Einsig said he would be more inclined to support aid to Ukraine if there were more oversight into how the money was being used abroad, as well as a timeline of how much longer the U.S. would be providing support.

“We don’t have transparency on where the money is really, really going,” said Einsig, 40. “It’s a big lump sum.”

Four in 10 U.S. adults say Ukraine is an ally that shares U.S. interests and values. That view is most common among Democrats (53%), who are much more likely than independents (28%), Republicans (29%) and Americans overall to see Ukraine as a nation with similar values and needs. About half of Republicans say Ukraine is a partner that the U.S. should cooperate with, but say it is not a nation that shares U.S. values.

___

The poll of 1,239 adults was conducted Nov. 2-6, 2023, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, designed to represent the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

10 years later, a war-weary Ukraine reflects on events that began its collision course with Russia

HANNA ARHIROVA

Updated Tue, November 21, 2023

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — It happens every November, when the cold descends on Kyiv. The change in weather always makes Dmytro Riznychenko think back, and he is overwhelmed by his emotions.

“This is where it truly began," Riznychenko said, walking through central Kyiv's Independence Square recently, reflecting on the uprising that unleashed a decade of momentous change for Ukraine, eventually leading to the current war with Russia.

"Ten years of war and struggle,” the 41-year-old psychologist continued, wearily and reluctantly. “And it seems like the blood has only just begun to flow, truly. I regret nothing. But, God, it’s just so tiresome.”

On Nov. 21, 2013, the Moscow-friendly president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, announced he was shelving an agreement to bring the country closer to the European Union and instead would deepen ties with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Outraged crowds soon filled Independence Square for peaceful anti-government protests. Later, after riot police used truncheons and tear gas to disperse the people, demonstrators set up tent camps with barricades, self-defense units and banners with revolutionary slogans. In response to the police violence, hundreds of thousands joined the demonstrations in early December.

The standoff reached a climax in February 2014, when police unleashed a brutal crackdown on the protests and dozens of people were slain between Feb. 18-21, many by police snipers. A European-mediated peace deal between the government and protest leaders envisioned the formation of a transition government and holding an early election, but demonstrators later seized government buildings, and Yanukovych fled to Russia.

The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance said 107 people were killed in the uprising.

Kateryna Gladka was a 23-year-old student when she joined the pro-Western crowds at the time, viewing it as the “revolution of her generation.”

“For me, the top priority was the value of freedom, basic freedom, and dignity.”

“We had to prevent a totalitarian regime and the return of Soviet things,” Gladka said in a telephone interview.

She recalls the police violence and blood staining the street near Independence Square, and “I very clearly understood that we had entered another stage.”

After Yanukovych's ouster, Russia responded in March 2014 by illegally annexing Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Then, separatist forces backed by Moscow began an uprising in the eastern Ukraine region known as the Donbas, which grew into a long-running conflict, leaving thousands dead.

Finally, in February 2022, Putin launched his war that continues to this day, with tens of thousands of deaths on both sides amid Europe's biggest conflict since World War II.

“Yanukovych was that puppet, a figure for Moscow, which hoped to use him as a person to keep Ukraine on the Russian leash,” said Kateryna Zarembo, an analyst at the Kyiv-based think tank, The New Europe Center. “When he fled, it became clear to the Kremlin that they were losing Ukraine.”

Asked Tuesday about the 10th anniversary of the start of the uprising in Kyiv, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated Russia’s view that it was “a coup, a forceful coup financed from abroad.”

Ukrainians in 2013 had wanted the country to enter into a deal with the EU, but Putin pressured Yanukovych to pull out at the last minute. Ukrainian leaders who followed were more eager than ever to bring Kyiv into the Western fold.

“So what we saw in 2022 — that Ukraine had to be either part of Russia or destroyed — those intentions were seen earlier," Zarembo said. "When that didn’t happen, Russia intervened militarily.”

Despite the calamities, Ukraine has become more united than in its 32 years of independence and has drawn closer to the EU, the United States and the West in general — an outcome Putin had tried to prevent. Today, under President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the country has won widespread support and admiration amid the Russian invasion.

“All of this came at a very high cost,” Riznychenko said.

Standing on the Alley of Heavenly Hundred, so named to honor those killed in the uprising, he recalled the sniper fire from a special police unit known as Berkut, which was disbanded in 2014.

“There was a feeling that death had opened its arms,” Riznychenko said.

“It was cold, I remember how the dead were lying. I remember them under blankets near the Main Post Office. That I remember,” he added.

Now, their portraits are on permanent display on the street honoring those slain in what Ukraine calls its Revolution of Dignity, and Riznychenko said he later memorized the names. In 2014, he volunteered to fight in eastern Ukraine against the Moscow-backed separatists, and was injured in Ilovaisk.

Investigations of the shootings are continuing, and the Prosecutor General’s Office recently indicted five members of the Berkut police unit, all now living in Russia. Another 35 people are being investigated.

Independence Square today also features a multitude of small blue-and-yellow flags, with each symbolizing a fallen soldier in the war. Their numbers grow daily.

Every year, Gladka gathers with friends at a nearby restaurant, aptly named The Last Barricade, to commemorate the uprising. But after 21 months of war with Russia, the date brings conflicting emotions.

“To be honest, I am personally very tired of the fact that every generation has to die for Ukraine,” she said, noting that 10 years of her youth have been stained by violence, and she now wants a “normal and ordinary life.”

“This endless struggle is like some closed circle that just lasts for centuries,” she said.

___

Associated Press photographer Efrem Lukatsky contributed

Ukraine Uprising Anniversary
In this file photo taken on Dec. 8, 2013, Ukrainians break a monument to Vladimir Lenin in central Kyiv, Ukraine on Dec. 8, 2013. On Nov. 21, 2023, Ukraine marks the 10th anniversary of the uprising that eventually led to the ouster of the country’s Moscow-friendly president.

 (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, file)

Column: Nonunion automakers are matching the UAW's great contract, but that may be bad for the UAW

Michael Hiltzik
Wed, November 22, 2023 

UAW President Shawn Fain announces the start of a series of strikes that ultimately brought the union success in contract negotiations with the Big Three automakers. (Matthew Hatcher / AFP/Getty Images)

A funny thing happened in the wake of the United Auto Workers' recent contract settlements with major auto companies .

Toyota said it would give its workers a raise worth about 9% on its top pay rate, beginning in January.

Nissan said its 9,000 U.S. workers would get raises of about 10% and would end a two-tiered pay system.

When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won’t just be with a Big Three, but with a Big Five or Big Six.
UAW President Shawn Fain

Honda announced a pay raise of 11% for workers at its plants in Ohio, Indiana and Georgia, along with an accelerated schedule of bringing workers up to the top rate to three years from six.

Subaru said it would raise pay at its plant in Lafayette, Ind., though it hasn't said by how much.

What's funny about these announcements is that none of these companies is covered by a UAW contract. But they could read the handwriting on the wall from the UAW's contract settlements. If they didn't UAW President Shawn Fain made sure they wouldn't miss the message.

As some of the leading nonunion shops in the industry, they responded almost instantaneously. Before the ink had dried on the union's agreements with GM, Ford and Stellantis (the owner of Chrysler and Jeep), he announced that his next targets would be the foreign automakers that had set up their shops in anti-labor states to keep unions from their doors.

“One of our biggest goals coming out of this historic contract victory is to organize like we’ve never organized before,” Fain said. “When we return to the bargaining table in 2028, it won’t just be with a Big Three, but with a Big Five or Big Six.” (He also signaled that he would be pushing to unionize Tesla.)

There are a few ways to look at this. One is that the UAW has absorbed the lesson that the key to organizing new locations and recruiting new members is achieving victory in contract negotiations. That's what brings union membership out of the abstract and makes its benefits concrete.

Read more: Column: American unions have finally remembered how to win

Few things spell success like the contract terms reached by the UAW after its six-week strikes in September and October — including historic wage gains, the rollback of many concessions the union gave the companies to ensure their survival during the last recession, and assurances that the industry's transition to electric vehicle manufacture won't proceed without union participation. As far as that goes, the new contracts are a great advertisement for the virtues of union membership.

The improved wage scales and other workplace benefits announced by the Japanese automakers are, of course, good for those companies' employees, who become collateral beneficiaries of the UAW's efforts.

It's also true, however, that the nonunion companies' responses could successfully undermine the UAW's organizing efforts.

"When you have a half-unionized industry where the unions have real ability to make a difference, the non-union companies have to follow along or they are just inviting the unions in," labor historian Erik Loomis told me. "It becomes very easy to siphon off union support in a factory when the wages are the same plus the workers don't have to pay dues."

Indeed, the technique of fighting unionization by offering workers better pay and benefits is as old as, well, labor-management relations themselves.

In his 1993 memoir "Confessions of a Union Buster," former anti-union consultant Martin Jay Levitt related "the five key corporate failings that drive workers to seek union help," as his very first boss outlined for him: "lack of recognition, weak management, poor communication, substandard working conditions, and non-competitive wages and benefits."

If a company dealt with these issues, Levitt was instructed, "it can achieve a happy work force and never have to fear a union invasion."

None of that means that the raises announced by Toyota et al are, or should be, the equivalent of everything a union can offer workers at an organized plant or company.

There may be other benefits that aren't offered by the nonunion employers, including job security guarantees — especially in anti-union right-to-work states where many foreign automakers and some domestic manufacturers have set up shop, such as North and South Carolina, Indiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Kansas and Georgia.

Read more: Column: A Teamsters strike against UPS could remake the union movement for the better

Nor should it escape workers' notice that the nonunion companies had to be goaded by the UAW's success into offering raises to their own employees.

"Why not the raise before the UAW's?" asks veteran union lawyer Thomas Geoghegan. "It should tell auto workers at Toyota, Honda, and Subaru, who had nowhere else to go anyway, that they were being paid less than they were worth."

The companies' motivation may be to keep the UAW from storming their gates, Geoghegan says, "but it may backfire by making the workers wonder why a raise now, and not before. We don't have truly competitive labor markets, paying people what they are worth — if we did, then that raise would have occurred without the UAW."

In other words, the UAW, along with other heavy industry unions such as the Teamsters, have a ways to go to reinforce their recent victories by carrying their fight to new plants in parts of the country — such as the Deep South — where they have long struggled to make headway.

They have a lot to show for their efforts thus far, and for at least the next year, an administration in Washington that has supported Americans' collective bargaining rights like no other administration in 90 years. At the moment, they appear to have the advantage over recalcitrant managements. Let's see what they do with it.

Get the latest from Michael Hiltzik
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

UAW chief, having won concessions from strikes, aims to expand membership to nonunion automakers



UAW President-Interview
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain speaks to a reporter from The Associated Press during an interview at the union's headquarters Monday, Nov. 20, 2023, in Detroit.

 (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

TOM KRISHER and MIKE HOUSEHOLDER
Mon, November 20, 2023 

DETROIT (AP) — Entering contract talks with Detroit's three automakers, Shawn Fain set lofty expectations for what he could gain for his union members — and delivered on many of them. He secured significant pay raises, improved benefits, the right to strike over plant closures and a raft of other concessions.

But to the United Auto Workers president, the agreements that emerged from talks that were marked by six weeks of strikes were merely the start of a victory streak and a renaissance for the 88-year-old union. Now, Fain has set his latest ambitious goal: To gain UAW membership in nonunion companies across the industry — from foreign automakers with U.S. operations like Toyota to electric vehicle makers like Tesla to EV battery plants that will likely represent a sizable share of auto jobs in the decades ahead.

Already, Fain asserted in an interview with The Associated Press, the contracts have benefited workers in nonunion auto companies: Soon after the UAW won major pay raises for its workers, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and Nissan — all nonunion operations — raised their own workers' pay in what Fain characterized as an obvious bid to stop the UAW from unionizing those workforces.

Last week, workers at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis collectively voted 64% to ratify the new settlement deals, which are among the richest contracts in the UAW 88-year history. The agreements ended many wage tiers, gave temporary hires better pay and a path to full-time work and boosted from around 6% to 10% the annual 401(k) contributions for those without pension plans.

According to Fain, workers at some nonunion plants, including the electric vehicle sales leader, Tesla, have contacted the UAW about joining the union, which hasn't even begun its organizing efforts. Fain noted that the nonunion companies didn't raise pay for their workers until after the UAW won general and cost-of-living raises, which should reach 33% by the time the contacts expire in 2028.

“Companies play their workers as fools sometimes,” he said in the interview. “They care about keeping more for themselves and leaving the employees to fend for themselves.”

Fain, who took office just eight months ago in the first direct election of UAW leaders in its history, said the time is right for labor unions to grow as they did in the 1930s and 40s, before they began a steady decline beginning in the 1950s. American workers, he said, are fed up with stagnant wages while corporate executives earn ever-growing multiples of median worker pay.

Companies, Fain said, will spend “limitless amounts” to try to stop the UAW, but the union can point to its Detroit contracts to show workers they will have a voice. In that way, he said, the union is a “great equalizer."

Fain declined to say which nonunion companies the UAW would target first. But high on the list is Tesla, whose biggest shareholder is CEO Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest man and an outspoken opponent of the union.

“The world's richest man is the richest man for a reason,” Fain said. “They get this kind of wealth by exploiting other people.”

Musk, who also runs the rocket company SpaceX, is talking about shipping Tesla production to Mexico and other low-cost countries.

A message was left seeking comment from Tesla.

The union leader said he expects Toyota, Honda and others to fight the UAW's organizing effort by threatening to close factories or eliminate benefits. Musk has threated to end stock awards that go to production workers if they vote to join the union. Fain said the UAW, if given the opportunity, would negotiate to retain and increase those stock awards.

The union, Fain says, also will have to organize Detroit automakers' EV battery plants, which are joint ventures with South Korean companies. GM and Stellantis, the maker of Jeep and Ram vehicles, have agreed to bring their joint venture plants under the union's national contract, making it easier for the UAW to sign them up. Ford has not.

That, he said, could become a problem if Ford fights the UAW's efforts to organize at the plants in Kentucky and Tennessee.

“Unless they change their tune, it's going to be an all-out war,” Fain said.

Ford did agree to put a wholly owned battery plant being planned for Michigan and a planned electric pickup plant in Tennessee into the UAW contract. But in the interview, Fain accused CEO Jim Farley of agreeing to work with the union on the joint-venture plants — only to renege later.

“At that point, things didn't go well,” Fain said. “We had to make progress where we could, and we did.”

In response, Ford said in a statement that it negotiated in good faith with the UAW and agreed to work with it on a fair deal to address the issue of union representation of the battery plants.

“These are multi-billion dollar investments, and the future of our industry is in the balance, so any deal must make sustainable business sense,” the company said.

Fain declined to say what his fight would look like or if it could mean a strike against Ford in 2025, when the joint-venture plants are set to open.

“It just means we're going to do what we have to do to get it,” he said. “Those workers deserve their fair share of economic and social justice."

Ford has said it couldn't pledge to unionize the battery plants because its joint venture partner would have to agree and the plants aren't exclusively under its control. In addition, Ford has said, the plants haven't been built, and it can't agree to the unionization of workers who haven't been hired yet.

In the contract talks, Fain said, he would have liked to gain stronger pension increases for longtime workers with defined benefit plans. He'd also like steady pension checks for newer hires rather than 401(k) plans. The union plans to seek law changes requiring “retirement security” for all workers, and will push for the benefits in 2028 contract talks.

In the interview, Fain said he doesn't expect the higher costs that the automakers will absorb from the new contracts to lead them to build new factories in Mexico or Canada. The union, he said, can strike if a U.S. plant is closed and could take action if companies build new factories elsewhere.

The UAW, he said, will try to work with the companies. But he noted that partnering with the automakers in the past to address costs has typically benefited them to the exclusion of workers. He noted the concessions the UAW agreed to in 2008 to help the automakers survive dire financial problems.

This time, he said, union members negotiated for themselves but also won raises for nonunion workers in the South who would have received nothing without the UAW.

"That’s something to be proud of,” he said.

Why Nissan, Toyota workers can 'thank' the UAW for pay hikes

Foreign automakers are using a ‘union substitution' strategy in order to deter unionization, which means matching UAW contracts.

Pras Subramanian
·Senior Reporter
Tue, November 21, 2023

United Auto Workers (UAW) president Shawn Fain calls it the “UAW bump,” in which non-union auto workers are seemingly getting pay hikes thanks to the UAW’s contracts with the Big Three. Whatever workers are calling the phenomenon, they are likely very grateful for the extra pay this Thanksgiving holiday.

Nissan became the latest non-union automaker to hike pay for its US workers, with the Japanese company increasing top wages by 10% starting this January. Workers not at the top wage scale will also receive hikes, with 9,000 US workers in total receiving these wage gains. Nissan also said it is eliminating wage tiers across its workforce.

If some of the wage gains and changes sound familiar, it is because they echo some of the gains reached by UAW workers in their bargaining process. The pattern agreements the UAW struck with GM, Ford, and Stellantis include a 25% hike in base wages through 2028, including an immediate 11% bump as well as ratification bonuses among other benefits.

Nissan’s pay hikes follow similar moves made by Hyundai, Toyota, and Honda in recent weeks for their US workers, none of whom are unionized.

UAW members hold picket signs near a GM assembly plant in Delta Township, Mich., Sept. 29, 2023. (Paul Sancya/AP Photo, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

“Non-union workers can thank the UAW for their recent pay raises,” said automotive manufacturing expert Sam Fiorani of AutoForecast Solutions to Yahoo Finance. “It was entirely expected that wages would go up in the face of recent labor changes. There’s no reason for Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and the rest to raise their workers’ pay except for the pressure put on them from the union.”

Labor expert Marick Masters of Wayne State University calls what these foreign automakers are doing the “union substitution” strategy.

“Clearly, such actions by nonunion companies can be viewed as part and parcel of a ‘union substitution’ strategy, which seeks to deter unionization in specific companies by paying workers sufficiently comparable wages,” Masters said to Yahoo Finance.

Masters noted the non-union foreign automakers have “skillfully navigated” union avoidance in their US operations thus far. It also helps that these automakers have placed factories in states that are not generally union friendly, like Alabama (Honda), Georgia (Hyundai), Tennessee (Nissan), and Texas (Toyota).

United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain speaks to a reporter from The Associated Press during an interview at the union's headquarters Monday, Nov. 20, 2023, in Detroit. (Mike Householder/AP Photo) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

While AutoForecast Solutions’ Fiorani said the foreign automakers needed to “narrow the gap” between the Big Three’s contracts with the UAW and their own workers in order to compete, there’s also the possibility that raising pay at these non-union companies helps them attract new labor from other industries as well.

“Raising their wages also enables them to recruit better for hourly workers, who compare wage offering not only to the unionized Big Three, but also other non-auto employers in their localities who may offer competitive compensation,” Wayne State’s Masters added. “This latter point is particularly important as wage rates have increased generally in the economy of the past couple of years after a long period of relative stagnation.”

For a union leader like Fain, moves by the Nissans and Toyotas of the world are music to his ears, in which the UAW hears a growing chorus of pro-union voices and new members.

"Even though you're not yet members of our union, that pay raise Toyota's giving you is the UAW bump," Fain said to Toyota workers. "UAW. That stands for, 'You are welcome.'"

Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.

Nissan Motor hiking wages at US auto plants after UAW deal

David Shepardson
Mon, November 20, 2023

A visitor is seen at Nissan Motor Corp.'s showroom in Tokyo

(Reuters) -Nissan Motor will hike top wages for workers at U.S. manufacturing plants by 10% in January after the United Auto Workers union reached new contracts with the Detroit Three automakers, a company spokesperson said on Monday.

The Japanese automaker said the wage hike takes effect Jan. 8 for production technicians, maintenance, and tool & die technicians. Workers not yet at top scale will also receive increases in wages. About 9,000 U.S. workers in total will get pay hikes.

Nissan said it is also eliminating wage tiers for U.S. production workers. In recent weeks, Hyundai Motor, Toyota Motor and Honda Motor have all announced they would hike U.S. factory wages after the UAW contract and as the union says it will work to organize nonunion plants operated by foreign automakers and Tesla.

Nissan said the pay hikes reflect its commitment to its employees in the United States "and enhancing our competitiveness."

The UAW labor deals with General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis include a 25% increase in base wages through 2028, including an immediate 11% hike, and will cumulatively raise the top wage by 33%, compounded with estimated cost-of-living adjustments to over $42 an hour.

It also cut the number of years needed to get to top pay from eight years to three years, will boost the pay of temporary workers by 150% and make them permanent employees. The deal also includes significant retirement improvements.

The UAW for decades has unsuccessfully sought to organize auto factories operated by foreign automakers. UAW President Shawn Fain was in Washington last week for meetings on the union's organizing strategy.

President Joe Biden has backed the UAW in its quest to unionize other carmakers.

Nissan said over the last three years it has increased wages at its three manufacturing sites by 12-18.5% in total; previously cut time needed to reach top pay from eight to four years; added two paid holidays and increased paid parental leave for production workers.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul and Grant McCool)

Volkswagen becomes the latest automaker to hike wages for U.S. factory workers

Reuters
Wed, November 22, 2023 

FILE PHOTO: The New York International Auto Show, in Manhattan, New York City

(Reuters) - Volkswagen said on Wednesday that it would hike salaries for production workers at its Tennessee-based Chattanooga assembly plant by 11%, weeks after the United Auto Workers union won significant pay and benefit hikes from the Detroit Three automakers.

The German company and other non-union automakers in the U.S. have come under increased pressure to improve pay and benefits following the record contracts achieved by the UAW in late October after thousands of its members went on a six-week targeted strike.

Japanese automakers Honda Motor and Toyota have raised wages for non-union U.S. factory workers in recent weeks amid signs that the union is turning its attention to organizing the workforce at foreign-owned and Tesla auto plants.

Hyundai Motor has also announced a 25% increase over the next four years for non-union production workers in Alabama and Georgia.

UAW President Shawn Fain told Reuters last week that the union was getting expressions of interest in organizing from many Tesla workers.

The Elon Musk-led company, which enjoys an operating profit advantage over other automakers, has not announced any salary hikes in the U.S.

Volkswagen's pay increase is effective from December, with a compressed wage progression timeline beginning in February.

(Reporting by Mehr Bedi in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

Israeli-Palestinian peace camp shaken but determined

Chloe ROUVEYROLLES-BAZIRE
Wed, 22 November 2023

Vivian Silver's brother Nir greets Arab-Israeli peace activist Ghadir Hani at the memorial service (Oren ZIV)

The Israel-Palestinian peace camp has long promoted dialogue against hatred and bloodshed but the passions inflamed by the deadliest Gaza war yet pose entirely new challenges for the movement.

Many of its activists believe that talking to each other is now more important than ever, at a time when the fighting rages unabated and both sides mourn their dead.

"It wasn't easy before the war," said Sulaiman Khatib of Fighters for Peace, a group he co-founded in 2006 and whose Israeli and Palestinian members hold weekly meetings and frequent protests.

"But now it's even more difficult, starting with the relationship with each of the societies, both in Israel and in Palestine, where the extremes have risen."

The Gaza war has brought levels of suffering unusual even by the brutal standards of the decades-old conflict that has seen two Palestinian uprisings and four previous Gaza wars.

Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mutilating corpses and dragging some 240 hostages back into the blockaded territory.

Israel has responded with an intense air and ground war that has levelled vast areas of Gaza and claimed more than 13,000 lives according to the Hamas government, while its 2.4 million people endure a punishing siege.

One recent evening, a small group of around 40 Israeli and Palestinian activists gathered by the walls of Jerusalem's Old City to observe 15 minutes' silence for "all the dead".

Standing with their eyes closed or crying, or sitting cross-legged, they listened to Jewish and Christian prayers under the gaze of often sceptical passers-by.

One onlooker remarked in an angry whisper, "How dare the Arabs do that?"

- 'Dehumanisation at a high' -

The peace camp has always made some people bristle on both sides and become ever more marginalised.

Yet it still counts more than 200 organisations, some more than 40 years old.

Among their ranks are environmentalists for peace, motorists who drive Palestinians to visit doctors in Israel, and joint Israeli-Palestinian choirs.

They remain convinced that they have been right to advocate dialogue.

One group, the Circle of Parents, is made up of Israeli and Palestinian families bereaved by the conflict.

"I already see people who may come and join us after so much violence," said its co-director Yuval Rahamim, based in Tel Aviv.

"It will be part of the personal process for some."

Most activists, initially stunned into silence by the October 7 attacks, resumed their discussion groups a few days later.

It hasn't been easy, they say, and not just because of logistical hurdles such as additional roadblocks in the occupied West Bank.

"It has never been that difficult to hear the other's point of view," said Avner Wishnitzer, another co-founder of Fighters for Peace.

In the current wartime climate, he said, all sides are torn by "the pain, the fear".

"Dehumanisation is at a high point. It will intensify. People -- of course not all -- are ready to see the other side's babies killed.

"There is no place for nuance, complexity. There is a rise of extremism on both sides".

Reflecting on the peace groups, he said, "we are a minority, maybe a smaller minority now. The space for free speech has narrowed significantly."

- 'People are on edge' -

The hurt from October 7 runs even deeper for some because peace activists were among the victims.

One of them was Vivian Silver, a founder of Women Wage Peace, who died at Kibbutz Beeri.

Khatib acknowledged the movement has been badly shaken and that many activists struggle with mixed and confusing emotions.

"There are many members who go to sleep consumed by frustration and wake up optimistic," he said. "It's not black and white, people are on edge.

"What has happened is so staggering that we don't want to participate in a form of status quo by persisting with our old ways of doing things."

Some non-government groups fear they will lose funding as donors reassess their relationships or redirect their cash to Gaza aid relief.

The Alliance for Middle East Peace, with more than 160 member groups, receives distraught calls every day from its members.

Its member Nivine Sandouka urged "an international peace fund" to be set up, modelled on past fund-raising efforts for conflict-torn Northern Ireland.

The group's veteran activist Doubi Schwartz said the movement will need time to find its bearings to maintain the dialogue towards peace.

"The red lines are part of the difficult and honest discussions between Israeli and Palestinian peace activists," he said. "The discussion about it will last for decades.

"The conversation we share and the ways we operate will evolve significantly. But the fact that people still want to talk to each other is something that makes me optimistic."

crb/sbh/dla/fz/kir

Gaza strikes kill family members of journalist targeted by death threats

Reuters
Mon, November 20, 2023 

A flare falls over Gaza, as seen from southern Israel

(Reuters) - Deadly strikes hit the Gaza home of a news photographer days after an Israeli media advocacy group questioned his coverage of Hamas' Oct. 7, prompting death threats against him on social media.

Yasser Qudih, who survived the strikes on the night of Nov. 13, said four projectiles hit the rear of his house, killing eight family members.

The attack was five days after the Nov. 8 report by HonestReporting questioning whether Qudih, a freelance photographer, and three other Gaza-based photographers had prior knowledge of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.


Reuters strongly denied HonestReporting's speculation, as did other international news organisations identified in the report.

Qudih had provided photos to Reuters during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas gunmen although he was not a Reuters staff photographer.

Qudih said he had returned home barely an hour before the strikes on his house which were seconds apart, and without warning, at around 7:50 p.m. (1750 GMT).

"Israel attacked my home," he said. Asked why, he added: "I don't know."

Reuters could not verify who was responsible for the strikes, why Qudih's home in southern Gaza was targeted or whether the strikes were linked to HonestReporting's Nov. 8 report.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF), which has launched a military offensive in Gaza in response to the Oct.7 attack, declined to say whether its forces had conducted the strike and, if so, what the target was.

"The IDF is currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organization Hamas. Questions of this kind will be looked into in a later stage," it said, in answer to questions from Reuters.

In a statement, Reuters said it was "deeply saddened "to learn of the deaths of Qudih's family members. It also said HonestReporting made "baseless accusations" against Qudih.

"Thereafter, numerous threats against his safety circulated online. HonestReporting later accepted that its accusations were unfounded," Reuters said.

"The situation on the ground is dire, and the IDF's unwillingness to give assurances about the safety of our staff threatens their ability to deliver news about this conflict without fear of being injured or killed."

TWO-STOREY HOUSE

HonestReporting's Nov. 8 report prompted the Israeli prime minister's office to say the journalists were accomplices in "crimes against humanity". Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz suggested they should be treated as terrorists and hunted down, and a former Israeli envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said they should be "eliminated".

After issuing its report, Honest Reporting's executive director, Gil Hoffman, told Reuters on Nov. 10 that his organisation accepted as "adequate" statements by Reuters and other media organisations cited in its report that they had no previous knowledge of the attack.

HonestReporting did not respond to requests for comment on the attack on Qudih's home. Requests were submitted by Reuters to HonestReporting on Thursday.

In a reply to Reuters on Thursday, Danon, a member of Israel's governing Likud party, reiterated his initial remark when asked about the strikes on Qudih's home.

"Every terrorist who illegally entered our communities on Oct. 7, every individual who arrived with the vile murderers who brutally assassinated, raped, mutilated, burnt and kidnapped their way through the south of Israel will meet the same fate," he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that the Israeli military follows international law and takes "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm".

Gantz's office did not respond to a request for comment. Hamas did not comment on the attack on Qudih's home.

Qudih told Reuters he lived in a two-storey house that was home to only him and his immediate and extended family. About 20 people were at home during the strikes, which left a large crater in a yard behind the house and destroyed one side of the building.

The director of Nasser Hospital, the main hospital serving the area where Qudih lived, confirmed to Reuters that the names and ages of the eight family members killed were listed among the dead registered with the hospital.

(Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Mark Bendeich, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

EU faces growing Muslim animosity over Gaza war stance - Borrell

Tue, November 21, 2023 


By Andrew Gray

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union faces growing animosity across the Muslim world and beyond due to accusations of pro-Israel bias and double standards over the war in Gaza, the bloc's foreign policy chief has warned.

Josep Borrell said he feared such acrimony could undermine diplomatic support for Ukraine in the Global South and the EU's ability to insist on human rights clauses in international agreements.

He said the EU had to show "more empathy" for the loss of Palestinian civilian lives in Israel's war against Hamas, launched in response to the deadly Oct. 7 cross-border assault by the Palestinian militant group.

His comments came in interviews with Reuters during a five-day Middle East trip that took him to the rubble of Kibbutz Be'eri devastated by Hamas, the West Bank, a regional security conference in Bahrain and royal audiences in Qatar and Jordan.

On the trip, which ended on Monday evening, Borrell heard Arab leaders and Palestinian civil society activists complain that the 27-nation EU was not applying the same standards to Israel's war in Gaza that it applies to Russia's war in Ukraine.

"All of them were really criticising the posture of the European Union as one-sided," Borrell said.

Waving his mobile phone, he said he had already received messages from some ministers signalling they would not support Ukraine next time there was a vote at the United Nations.

"If things continue a couple of weeks like this, the animosity against Europeans (will grow)," he added.

In response to the criticism, Borrell stressed human lives had the same value everywhere and that the EU had unanimously urged immediate humanitarian pauses to get aid to Palestinians in Gaza and quadrupled its humanitarian aid for the enclave.

But Arab leaders want an immediate end to Israel's bombardment, which has killed at least 13,300 Palestinians, including at least 5,600 children, according to Gaza's Hamas-run government.

They have lambasted both the EU and the United States for not condemning Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza, in contrast to the West's response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Israel has stressed that it is responding to the deadliest attack in its history, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

It says it is attacking civilian areas as that is where Hamas operates and it is trying to avoid innocent casualties.

EUROPE STRUGGLES

As High Representative for foreign policy, Borrell is charged with crafting common positions among EU members.

A neighbour of the Middle East and home to substantial Jewish and Muslim populations, the EU has a major stake in the latest crisis. Although not in the same league as the United States, it has some diplomatic weight in the region, not least as the biggest donor of aid to Palestinians.

But the bloc has struggled for a united stance beyond condemnation of the Hamas attack. It has largely limited itself to support for Israel's right to defend itself within international law and calls for pauses in fighting.

Individual member countries, meanwhile, such as Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary have stressed strong support for Israel while others such as Ireland, Belgium and Spain have criticised Israel's military action.

France has called for a humanitarian truce that would pave the way for a ceasefire.

Borrell, a veteran Spanish Socialist politician, last month declared that some of Israel's actions contravened international law - to the annoyance of some EU member countries.

He avoided such direct public criticism on his trip. He also sought to show understanding for the pain felt by Israelis, recalling his own experience on a kibbutz in the 1960s.

But he said the EU also should do more to demonstrate it also cares about Palestinian lives and this could come through stronger calls for aid to get into Gaza and a renewed push for a Palestinian state under the so-called "two-state solution".

(Reporting and writing by Andrew Gray; Additional reporting by John Irish; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)


EU must ‘show more sympathy for Palestinians’ amid accusations of pro-Israel bias

Joe Barnes
Tue, November 21, 2023 


Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for foreign policy 

- MAZEN MAHDI/AFP

The European Union must show more sympathy for Palestinian civilians because accusations of pro-Israel bias are fuelling anger across the Muslim world, the bloc’s top diplomat has said.

Josep Borrell said Arab leaders had accused Brussels of not applying the same standards to Israel’s war with Hamas that it applies to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“All of them were really criticising the posture of the European Union as one-sided,” he said after holding talks with Arab leaders and Palestinian activists during a five-day trip to the Middle East.

Mr Borrell claimed ministers from the region had signalled they would not support Ukraine the next time there was a vote on the war at the United Nations.

“If things continue a couple of weeks like this, the animosity against Europeans will grow,” he added.

As the EU’s High Representative for foreign policy, Mr Borrell, a veteran Spanish socialist, is tasked with formulating common positions amongst the bloc’s 27 member states.

But he has struggled to balance pro-Israeli voices in Germany, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic with the likes of Spain, Belgium and Ireland, which have voiced criticism of its offensive in Gaza.

A neighbour of the Middle East and home to substantial Jewish and Muslim populations, the EU has a major stake in the latest crisis.

Although not in the same league as the United States, it has some diplomatic weight in the region, not least as the biggest donor of aid to Palestinians.

However, the EU has yet to reach a united stance on the conflict, beyond condemnation of the Hamas attack. Instead, it has largely limited itself to support for Israel’s right to defend itself within international law and calls for pauses in fighting.
Broken international law

During a fierce debate over whether the EU should back calls for a ceasefire last month, Mr Borrell was criticised for suggesting Israel’s response to Hamas’s Oct 7 terror attacks had broken international law.

Last week, he declared that “one horror does not justify another”, and urged Israel not to be consumed by rage as it moves to eradicate the terror group.

Israel insists it is working hard to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza while arguing it has has no choice but to take its fight to civilian areas where it says Hamas terrorists operate.

In response to criticism of the EU, Mr Borrell has insisted the bloc has backed humanitarian pauses – short breaks in the fighting to pave the way for vital supplies to be delivered and evacuations to be carried out – while quadrupling its own aid to Gaza.

Pro-Palestine protests calling for an immediate ceasefire have taken place across the bloc in recent weeks.

Some governments, such as in France and Germany, have tried to limit the demonstrations citing concerns over security and anti-Semitism, which has spiked in the wake of last month’s massacre by Hamas.

Arab leaders have demanded an immediate ceasefire to end Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, which has killed at least 13,300 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.

Similar criticisms have been made of the US, which is seen as the foreign power most capable of tempering Israel’s response.
‘EU roadmap’ to peace

Mr Borrell outlined an “EU roadmap” to peace after fighting between Israel and Hamas ends during his visit to the Middle East, which ended on Monday after taking him to the rubble of Kibbutz Be’eri, devastated by Hamas, the West Bank, a regional security conference in Bahrain and royal audiences in Qatar and Jordan.

The plan called for a commitment from Israel not to occupy Gaza and hand control of the coastal enclave to a Palestinian authority, as well as promises not to forcibly displace Palestinians.

Mr Borrell said the draft plan would require the help of the US and Arab states to implement.

He also voiced fears the conflict could further enflame the volatile situation in the West Bank and drag in other actors in the region if left unchecked.

“In light of increased extremists and settlers’ violence against Palestinians there is a real risk that the situation could escalate,” Mr Borrell said.

“Reports of a ship hijacked by the Houthis are another worrying signal of a risk of the regional spill over,” he added, citing the recent seizure of a Japanese-operated vessel in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group.

Meanwhile, Cyprus said it was ready to open a maritime humanitarian aid corridor between its ports to Gaza.

Nikos Christodoulides, the Cypriot president, said the proposal was the “only one currently being discussed on an international level” that could increase the trickle of aid reaching Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing.

The plan would require the backing of Israel’s government, which controls and restricts access to the enclave’s coastline.

Supplies reaching Gaza would be distributed by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees using its established network, Mr Christodoulides said.

Planning for the corridor of about 230 miles is essentially completed, and aid can begin to flow when a pause in fighting is declared, he added.

EU says no Palestinian aid going to Hamas, programmes to continue
Reuters
Updated Tue, November 21, 2023 

European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis addresses a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg


BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union said on Tuesday a review of its development aid to Palestinians, ordered after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, found no evidence of funds going to the militant group and that its assistance would continue.

The EU is the biggest provider of such aid to Palestinians. It has earmarked some 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) for its programmes for the period between 2021 and 2024.

The European Commission, the EU's executive body, announced the review two days after Hamas militants attacked Israel from Gaza, killing 1,200 people and taking around 240 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Officials said the review was ordered as a precaution, not because they had any indications EU cash was going to Hamas.

"The review found no indications of EU money having directly or indirectly benefited the terrorist organisation Hamas," said Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis.

Development aid is used for projects designed to have a long-term impact, such as paying the salaries of officials at the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, and the work of U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.

It is separate from humanitarian aid, meant for urgent needs for essentials such as food, water and shelter.

"The review found that the control system in place has worked. As a result payment to Palestinian beneficiaries and UNRWA will continue without any delays," Dombrovskis told reporters.

The Commission said, however, that it would not proceed with plans to provide 75.6 million euros ($82.5 million) for Gaza infrastructure projects that were not "feasible in the current context". That money will now go to other projects.

Israel launched heavy bombardment of Gaza after the Oct.7 attacks as part of a campaign to defeat Hamas.

The enclave's Hamas-run government says at least 13,300 Palestinians have been confirmed killed - including at least 5,600 children - during Israel's aerial blitz and invasion.

($1 = 0.9168 euros)

(Reporting by Andrew Gray and Philip Blenkinsop; editing by Bart Meijer and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Who Are the Palestinian Prisoners Who Could Be Released in a Hostage Deal?

Karen Zraick
Wed, November 22, 2023

Relatives and supporters of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons staged a sit-in in front of the Red Cross in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Negotiations around the release of Israeli women and children held hostage in the Gaza Strip have centered on an exchange for Palestinian women and minors held in Israeli prisons. The size of that group has grown quickly during the six weeks of war and upheaval since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, according to a Palestinian prisoners’ rights group.

The group, Addameer, says about 200 boys, most of them teenagers, were in Israeli detention as of this week, along with about 75 women and five teenage girls. Before Oct. 7, about 150 boys and 30 women and girls were in Israeli prisons, it said, and since then, many other detentions have occurred, as well as many releases.

Addameer said that it compiled the figures using data from the Israel Prison Service, which administers the country’s jails, and information from the families of detained people.

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Early Wednesday, the Israeli government and Hamas announced they would uphold a four-day cease-fire in Gaza to allow for the release of 50 hostages captured during Hamas’ assault last month on Israel and 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Many of the most recent arrests came during raids across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where protests and violence have surged, including attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers. Israel has said that the arrests are part of a counterterror operation against Hamas in the West Bank.

There are also about 700 people missing from Gaza who are believed to be in Israeli prisons, but information on their whereabouts is murky, said Tala Nasir, a spokesperson for Addameer. It was not clear how many of those people, if any, were women or minors. The Israeli military has said it has apprehended 300 people in Gaza during the ground invasion who it claimed were connected to armed Palestinian groups and that they “were brought into Israeli territory for further interrogations.”

Of the roughly 240 Israeli hostages taken to Gaza by Hamas and other armed groups, 33 are minors, the youngest of whom is 9 months old, according to the Israeli government. At least 62 are women, according to an organization formed by the hostages’ families. Four of the women being held hostage are Israeli soldiers, according to interviews with their family members and information gathered by a forum of the hostages’ families.

As of this week, the total number of what Addameer calls Palestinian political prisoners in Israel — including people from Gaza, the West Bank and Israel — was 7,000, up from about 5,000 before Oct. 7, according to Addameer. That includes more than 2,000 people held in “administrative detention,” meaning they are being held indefinitely without charges, it said.

Nasir said that her group defines that category as Palestinians arrested for offenses that are related to political activity and free speech rather than crimes such as drugs or violence. She added that Addameer had received many reports in recent weeks of people arrested on charges of incitement for their social media posts in Israel and the West Bank. Earlier this month, the Knesset passed an amendment to a counterterrorism law that criminalized the “consumption of terrorist materials.”

Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said that it was monitoring 121 cases of arrests and detentions linked to social media posts, some of which “merely contained expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, or even verses shared from the Quran.”

Rights groups have long warned that Palestinian detainees are held without due process and face abuse and even torture. Military Court Watch, a nonprofit legal group, said last year that of the 100 Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces that it had interviewed, 74% reported physical abuse, and 42% said they were put in solitary confinement.

The women in Israeli detention include Ahed Tamimi, 22, a high-profile figure in the West Bank who was sentenced to prison in 2018 for slapping an Israeli soldier. Israeli officials accused her of her posting hate speech online; her family said the post was not hers.

Six Palestinian detainees who were held without charges have died in Israeli prisons in recent weeks, according to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s news agency. One of them, Omar Daraghmeh, was a senior member of Hamas, the militant group said when his death was announced.

c.2023 The New York Times Company

Pro-Palestinian marches are far more frequent than pro-Israeli ones. How U.S. reaction to the Israel-Hamas war has changed

Jaweed Kaleem, Abhinanda Bhattacharyya
Tue, November 21, 2023 

A Palestinian flag is carried as thousands of demonstrators march last month through downtown Los Angeles to protest the death toll inflicted on Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas war. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The protesters have stopped traffic, staged die-ins, filled the National Mall. Since the latest Israel-Hamas war began, nearly every state in the U.S. has seen vigils, rallies and marches aiming to sway public support, and policy, for Israelis and Palestinians.

To better understand the nature of the demonstrations, The Times turned to data from the Crowd Counting Consortium, a group run by researchers from Harvard and the University of Connecticut.

The consortium, which has tracked U.S. protests since the 2017 Women's March, uses photographs, videos and news articles as well as social media posts to analyze protests and estimate crowd sizes. The data cover 2,150 demonstrations attended by more than 1 million people since Hamas' surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 and the Israeli bombardment and besieging of the Gaza Strip.

There have been nearly three times as many pro-Palestinian events as pro-Israeli ones. Demonstrations have decried the cross-border attack and called for release of Hamas-held hostages, a cease-fire and an end to Israeli blockades or occupation of Palestinian territories.

The pattern follows the course of the war so far. The pro-Israel protests were concentrated in the days immediately after the cross-border attack, in which Israel says Hamas killed about 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and took some 240 more hostage. But as Israel has continued its retaliatory bombardment of Gaza — killing more than 12,700 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry — the majority of protests have been pro-Palestinian.

Pro-Palestinian rallies have been concentrated in areas with large Palestinian American or Arab American populations.

In California, that includes the Bay Area and Southern California. Minneapolis, Chicago and New York are also central to the pro-Palestinian movement. Washington, where 160,000 people attended a march on Nov. 4, has drawn many of the largest crowds.

Pro-Israeli events, meanwhile, have focused on areas with large Jewish populations. That includes California and Florida as well as Chicago, Detroit, New York, Atlanta and Washington.

Demonstrators gather on the National Mall in Washington this month to denounce antisemitism and call for the release of hostages taken from Israel. (Ali Khaligh / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

Those demonstrations have generally been smaller than pro-Palestinian ones. A notable exception was a Nov. 14 rally on the National Mall that attracted 160,000 people.

The data have important limitations. The researchers included crowd counts — based on the average of the high and low estimates given in news coverage — for only about 60% of pro-Palestinian events and 70% of pro-Israeli ones. They lacked counts for the remainder because some events were advertised but not covered or the coverage did not give attendance estimates.

Still, the researchers said the data they collected, which cover demonstrations through Nov. 17, offer the most comprehensive picture available.

The Crowd Counting Consortium also looked at the language used at pro-Palestinian rallies and noted changes in messaging in the weeks since Oct. 7.

Early on, popular chants and signage referenced "apartheid" and "resistance," but now those are giving way to talk of "genocide" and demands for "cease-fire."

"There has been a shift in the rhetoric," said Jay Ulfelder, a Harvard political scientist who leads the research.

Another phrase that has become less common is, "resistance is justified if Palestine is occupied." That language is incendiary because it suggests that the Hamas attacks on civilians were legitimate acts of war.

Through Oct. 15, the sentence or variations of it were used in at least 88% of pro-Palestinian events. From Nov. 6 to 17, that dropped to under 10% of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

"That change is possibly because we are moving farther and farther away from the Hamas attack," the main act people have characterized as "resistance," Ulfelder said.

Another controversial chant is "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." Some Jewish groups describe it as an antisemitic call for the dissolution of Israel, though many protesters view it as a plea for Palestinians to be given equal rights.

The phrase was seen or heard at more than than 40% of pro-Palestinian rallies through mid-October. Between Nov. 6 and 17, it was found in less than 17% of pro-Palestinian protests, Ulfelder said.

He suggested that could be because more Jewish organizations, including the leftist group Jewish Voice for Peace, were leading sit-ins and marches in support of Palestinians.

"There is an increased frequency of events organized primarily around cease-fire and some, not all, are led by Jewish groups," Ulfelder said. "They are less likely to use the 'from the river to the sea' phrase because they understand how some Jewish communities interpret it."

Ulfelder, whose group has tracked events in roughly 400 cities, predicted the social movements for Palestinians and Israelis would continue to grow.

"What we are seeing is that these crowds are not slowing down," Ulfelder said. "More than a month since Oct. 7, people are continuing to come together to express their views."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Most Americans support Israel, new poll finds

Julia Manchester
Mon, November 20, 2023



The majority of Americans say they support Israel, according to a new survey from Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll shared with The Hill on Monday.

Eighty percent of voters said they supported Israel amid its ongoing war with Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that the US labels a terror organization. However, the polling showed the percentage of support for Israel increasing by age group.

Fifty-five percent of 18- to 24-year-olds said they supported Israel, while 65 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds said the same. Seventy-five percent of 35- to 44-year-olds said they supported Israel, and 95 percent of voters older than 65 years old said the same.


“When asked the clear question on whether voters support Israel or Hamas, Americans give a clear answer that they support Israel and proposed congressional aid,” said Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll.

“They also support four-hour pauses and other help to those in Gaza but believe Israel has the right to continue its campaign unless hostages are released.”

Calls for a cease-fire have grown as the Palestinian death toll reaches over 11,000 in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. The war started last month after Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people.

President Biden and his administration have been largely supportive of Israel, despite the growing criticism against the country’s bombardment in Gaza and calls for a cease-fire.

According to the latest Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, 66 percent of voters said Biden should support Israel and not pull back. However, younger voters also were more likely to say Biden should pull back his support, the poll found. Sixty-one percent of 18- to 24-year-olds said Biden should pull back, while 84 percent of voters over 65 years old said he should support Israel.

The divide between younger and older voters on the matter continues when it comes to calls for a cease-fire. Sixty-four percent of 18- to 24-year-olds, 66 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds and 71 percent of 35- to 44-year-olds say a cease-fire is right.

But that number starts to decrease amid older voters. Forty-four percent of 45- to 54-year-olds, 50 percent of 55-to 65-year-olds and 57 percent of voters older than 65 said a cease-fire is wrong because it gives more power to Hamas.

The latest findings come as other polls show Biden’s standing among young voters plummeting, with many blaming him for his handling of the war in Gaza. An NBC News poll released on Sunday showed Biden’s approval rating among 18- to 34-year-olds at 31 percent, down from 46 percent in September.

The Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll was conducted between Nov. 15-16 with 2,851 respondents surveyed. It is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and the Harris Poll. Results were weighted for age within gender, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, household size, income, employment, education, political party, and political ideology where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

The Hill.

Between Israelis and Palestinians, a Lethal Psychological Chasm Grows

Roger Cohen
Tue, November 21, 2023 

Israeli security forces look on as Palestinians pray in Jerusalem on Oct. 13, 2023. Nearby is a site sacred to both Jews and Muslims that has been one focus of tensions over the years. (Afif H. Amireh/The New York Times.

JERUSALEM — Eight years after the foundation of the state of Israel, Moshe Dayan, the chief of staff of the Israeli military, stood close to the Gaza border to pronounce a eulogy for a 21-year-old Israeli security officer slain by Palestinian and Egyptian assailants.

“Let us not today cast blame on his murderers,” he said in 1956. “What can we say against their terrible hatred of us? For eight years now, they have sat in the refugee camps of Gaza and have watched how, before their very eyes, we have turned their land and villages, where they and their forefathers previously dwelled, into our home.”

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His short speech, a little longer than Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and a powerful reference for Israelis, is perhaps recalled less for this insight into Palestinian anger than for Dayan’s resolute conclusion.

“Without the steel helmet and the cannon’s maw, we will not be able to plant a tree and build a home,” he said.

Today, 67 years later, at a time when Jews have again lost their lives to Palestinian gunmen at the same kibbutz, Nahal Oz, that Roi Rotberg guarded, Dayan’s explicit evocation of the sources of Palestinian “hatred and desire for revenge” remains rare in Israel. Many Israelis have preferred to avert their gaze from the rage at their doorstep.

In the same way, Palestinian insight into the devouring specters of antisemitic persecution awakened in Jews by the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack appears negligible. Mutual empathy is very hard to find.

“Each side begs for the status of five-star victim,” said Mohammad Darawshe, the director of strategy at the Givat Haviva Center for Shared Society, which promotes Jewish-Arab dialogue and is about an hour’s drive north of Jerusalem. “If you are stuck in victimhood, you see everyone else as victimizing and dehumanizing.”

The consequence is a psychological chasm so deep that Palestinians are invisible as individuals to Israeli Jews, and vice versa. There are exceptions, of course: Some Israelis and Palestinians have dedicated themselves to bridging that divide. But generally, the narratives of the two sides diverge, burying any perception of shared humanity.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli war, known to Israelis as the War of Independence, is the Nakba, or catastrophe, to Palestinians. Nakba vies with Holocaust as each side invokes “genocide.”

The relentless weaponization of history goes all the way back to biblical times and the divergent fates of the estranged sons of Abraham — Isaac, the patriarch of the Israelites, and Ishmael, a prophet of Islam.

“On Oct. 7, Hamas trampled on every sensitive nerve in the Israeli psyche,” said Itamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States. “Hatred, fear and anxiety are now at their most extreme. But in the end there are two peoples coveting the same land, and two sides to the story you have to try to see.”

The demonization knows no bounds. Since the Hamas attack last month, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, has spoken of fighting “human animals.” Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political bureau, has described Israel as “neo-Nazis supported by colonial forces.” Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has in turn called Hamas “the new Nazis.”

One Israeli lawmaker, Ofer Cassif, has alluded to “pogroms” against Palestinians to describe the relentless Israeli bombardment of Gaza, a word whose specific historical meaning is the slaughter of Jews and a word that many Israelis have used to describe the killing by Hamas of some 1,200 people last month, according to Israeli authorities.

Of course, wartime propaganda describing enemies as monstrous is not confined to the Middle East. The United States portrayed the Japanese as subhuman during World War II, and the Japanese represented Americans as deformed brutes. Nazis depicted Jews as vermin to justify mass murder.

But something in the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation — two peoples located at the nexus of places holy to Judaism, Islam and Christianity — imbues the conflict with a peculiarly ferocious charge resistant to every attempt to tame its potency.

“After 76 years, Israelis and Palestinians have only one thing in common: the sense of living beside people who want to kill you,” said Rula Daoud, a Palestinian Israeli who works to promote peace as a director of an organization called Standing Together.

She dates her decision to try to build bridges between the two peoples to an incident in a bakery in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod during the 2014 war in Gaza. She was standing in line for bread reading a newspaper with a photograph of Palestinian children who had been killed. “I hope they all die, I hope they all burn to death!” the Israeli woman next to her exclaimed.

“Oh really?” Daoud said, gripped by rage. “Shall we stand on the roof here and watch the children of Gaza burn?”

Soon after, she quit a job in audio therapy, determined to overcome the blindness of hatred.

In general the decades since the collapse of the Oslo Accord of 1993 have accentuated the psychological gulf. Day-to-day interaction between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza has been drastically reduced by walls and fences in a push for physical separation.

Almost forgotten are the Palestine Liberation Organization’s recognition in 1993 of Israel’s right to exist in peace, and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s determination to pursue that peace, a decision that cost him his life in 1995 at the hands of an extreme right-wing Israeli assassin who said he acted “on the orders of God.”

These were the ephemeral glimmerings of shared humanity, soon quashed.

In the intervening decades, Hamas and the ultranationalist religious Israeli right have each extended their influence. The conflict now involves fundamentalist religious ideologies, distinct in critical regards but equally convinced that all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River has been deeded to them by God.

A political and military struggle between two national movements for the same land can be resolved by compromise, at least in theory. France and Germany settled their differences in Alsace-Lorraine. Peace came to Ireland. But absolutist claims of divine right to territory appear impossible to reconcile.

“The humanity of the other is less acknowledged for the simple reason that human contact has become rare,” said Yuval Shany, a professor of international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Where there is contact, as between Israel’s Jewish and Palestinian populations, some measure of empathy stirs.

In 2014, during an earlier round of Israel-Hamas fighting, I stood in eastern Gaza City, gazing at tangles of iron rods, jagged outcrops of masonry and air thick with dust. At the time, a 9-year-old child in Gaza had memories of three wars in six years and needed no indoctrination in hatred.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel’s destruction, told me in an interview that year: “Israel will be eliminated because it is a foreign body.” Referring to Israeli Jews, he said, “Why should they come from Ethiopia, or Poland or America? There are 6 million in Palestine. OK, take them. America is very wide. You can make a new district for Jews.”

The delusional fantasy that the enemy can be made to vanish has since grown. “On the Palestinian side, the ideal solution has become that Israel disappear,” Shany said. “On the Israeli side, there is a desire for Gaza to go away, even if that means bombing it away. Of course, that is not a solution.”

Neither people, Israeli nor Palestinian, present in roughly equal numbers on the land to which they are fiercely attached, is going away. But increasingly each has denied even the identity of the other. West Bank Palestinians seldom refer to “Israelis,” almost always to “Jews.” Israel resists calling its Arab minority, more than 20% of the population, “Palestinians,” which is what they are.

“You are dealing with two traumatized peoples,” said Gershom Gorenberg, a historian and author. “The trauma of the present is linked to multigenerational trauma. People can’t even agree on events, let alone what the events mean.”

A deadly explosion occurred at the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City on Oct 17. Beyond that, everything about it is disputed.

Absent recognition, dialogue or understanding, blood flows. Rabinovich, the former Israeli ambassador, said he had seen a video of a Hamas gunman involved in the Oct. 7 massacre. The gunman phones his father back in Gaza and says: “I am on the other side killing Jews. They cannot live happily when we live the way we live.”

The Palestinian hatred Moshe Dayan perceived and vowed to resist by being “prepared and armed, strong and determined,” grows still, fed by Israeli oppression, fencing-off and control, as well as chronic Palestinian misgovernment. Palestinians in Gaza, whose dead number more than 12,000 according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, fear annihilation.

These fears are met by the “Never Again” of a Jewish people that knows the meaning of genocide in the form of the Holocaust and sought through the foundation of its own state to put an end to millennial persecution.

The defeat on Oct. 7 was a shattering blow to this aspiration. This war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ ruthless application of its charter, is existential in that sense for an Israel that suddenly feels smaller and more vulnerable.

“If we cannot get beyond the walls, share this land, and come to value life over death, we are all doomed,” Daoud said. “Every three years or so, we will be sending kids of 18 and 19 to their deaths.”

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