Quakes Do Not Kill People, Bad Buildings Do

Infrastructure surge in the geologically fragile Himalayas

May 19, 2024 by Sci Dev Net Leave a Comment

 

By Ranjit Devraj

Early on Tuesday (April 23), Taiwan was hit by a series of earthquakes with the highest magnitude at 6.3. The latest tremor came less than three weeks after a magnitude 7.4 quake hit the island, damaging over 100 buildings and trapping dozens of people in collapsed tunnels

If an equally strong earthquake were to hit the tectonically unstable Himalayas, an even bigger catastrophe awaits with some 700 million people living along this gigantic fault line, an arc stretching from Afghanistan to Burma and taking in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, India and Tibet.

The Himalayas, which separate Asian giants India and China, were created about 45 to 50 million years ago when the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate to push up the world’s highest mountain range featuring Everest and K2.

“Earthquakes in the Himalayas pose a grave danger to thickly populated settlements in the alluvial plains of North India,” says C.P. Rajendran, adjunct professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, in Bangalore, India.

“Considering the current level of infrastructure and human activities in the region, the threat of earthquakes is of serious social and economic concern.”

Rajendran, an author of ‘The Rumbling Earth’, a newly released book on earthquakes on the sub-continent, warns that tunneling and road-building in the fragile Himalayas should be limited. It takes lessons from the 2015 Nepal quake which resulted in massive loss of infrastructure, as well as claiming 9,000 lives.

In November 2023, the Silkyara Bend-Barkot road tunnel being built in Uttarkashi, an important Hindu religious pilgrimage destination, collapsed. Rajendran said the tunnel was too close to the main tectonic fault line where the Indian plate had collided with the Eurasian plate.

The Nepal quake and the even more severe one that hit Pakistan’s Kashmir region in 2005 that killed more than 80,000 people indicate the need for preparedness. Rajendran says that while short-term predictions of quakes are not yet possible, their effects can be predicted and pragmatic measures such as seismically-sound building codes must be enforced.

The Rumbling Earth emphasises the need to enforce building codes in the densely-populated Indo-Gangetic Plains, a large bowl of alluvial sediment dotted with cities and towns powered by hydroelectric dams as well as thermal and nuclear power plants.

What drives the frenetic road and infrastructure building in the Himalayas?

Apart from popular measures to make it easier for Hindu pilgrimages to reach the so-called “abode of the gods” in the high mountains, there are strategic considerations along the disputed borders that India shares with China.

India and China are “locked in a frenzied infrastructure-building competition,” according to Aleksandra Gadzala Tirziu, founder and CEO of the geopolitical and strategic cosmmunications firm, Magpie Advisory.

“The buildup suggests both sides have strategically decided to leverage peacetime to bolster their logistical capabilities for a potential war,” she writes in an article for the independent Liechtenstein-based Geopolitical Intelligence Services.

However, the issue of frenzied building activity in quake-prone zones is not exclusive to the Himalayas.

Safety non-compliance

Across the Asia Pacific region infrastructure and homes are rising up in seismically sensitive areas with governments seemingly reluctant to enforce safety codes for fear of slowing down development activity.

For example, a recent study conducted by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology and the Tokyo Institute of Technology on 100 high-rise buildings in Metro Manila and Cebu found several of them failed to conform to the national building code.

The Philippines falls in the ‘Ring of Fire’ around the Pacific Ocean rim which is marked by volcanic activity and seismic events as a result of overlapping tectonic plates. It includes Indonesia, Japan, the western seaboard of North America and Chile.

Studies of the Lombok and Plau quakes that hit Indonesia in 2018 showed that much of the damage caused to buildings and infrastructure was due to noncompliance with concrete reinforcement specifications.

A highly active faultline is the Great Sumatran Fault which, in 2004, generated a 9.3 magnitude earthquake and the Indian Ocean tsunami resulting in over 226,000 deaths and incalculable damage to infrastructure in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, catching large populations and their governments unprepared.

In contrast, the September 2015 earthquake and tsunami that struck the central coast of Chile only caused 13 deaths. Chile and Japan are countries on the Ring of Fire where there are strict building codes and tall structures must be made to sway with seismic waves, rather than remain rigid.

If there is one lesson to be learned from past experiences of seismic events it is that, far more than quakes, it is poorly constructed buildings that kill people. Governments in the region must develop and enforce the necessary building regulations to prevent possible massive loss of life.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Asia & Pacific desk.

 

Luxury Stores Are Bucking the Commercial Property Downturn

High interest rates across the US and Europe have hurt commercial property values, but not when luxury retail is involved.FacebookTwitter

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Photo by Christian Wiediger via Unsplash

What are the three most important words in commercial real estate today? Luxury, luxury, luxury. 

While high interest rates across the US and Europe have hurt commercial property values, real estate attached to luxury brands has skirted the trend. It turns out that supply and demand can still trump the onerousness of rates at nearly 17-year highs.

Exclusive, Expensive Club

High interest rates can be a real burden for consumers, which is the idea: The goal is to slow an economy whose growth is stoking inflation. That includes making it less attractive to bid up commercial real estate prices. And that’s exactly what’s happening: US commercial property prices are down about 21% from their March 2022 peak when the Federal Reserve started hiking interest rates, according to Green Street. In Europe, they’re down 24%.

However, it’s a different story when you’re talking about New York’s Fifth Avenue or Milan’s Via Montenapoleone, homes to the likes of Gucci, Prada, Hermès, and more:

• According to the Wall Street Journal, Cartier’s Swiss parent company recently bought a property on London’s Bond Street at a 2.2% rent yield (the cash generated as a proportion of purchase price.) Normally, the Bank of England’s rate of 5.25% would make debt financing unattractive.
• But the luxury-store landscape is still as exclusive as a pair of Louis Vuitton trainers, which will set you back about $1,200. Bond Street, Fifth Avenue, and Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive have only so many buildings fancy enough for luxury brands to want to set up shop. As a result, luxury retailers have spent more than $9 billion buying boutiques since the start of 2023, the WSJ said.

These Stores Sell Themselves: The highly competitive market has led to some solid wins for real estate owners and private equity firms. Blackstone, the world’s largest asset manager, doesn’t often deal in retail property. However, after buying a portfolio of 14 locations on Via Montenapoleone in 2021 for $1.2 billion, it managed to sell just one of the properties to Kering last month for $1.4 billion. Meanwhile, office building owners are green with envy.

The ‘NYTimes’ finally publishes a comprehensive indictment of ‘Jewish terrorism’ against Palestinians

The New York Times has astonished its readers by publishing a long indictment of a subject it has purposely ignored for years: “Jewish terrorism” against Palestinians.

BY JAMES NORTH 

MAY 19, 2024 

MONSOWEISS
ISRAELI SETTLER ATTACKS PALESTINIAN WOMAN IN JERUSALEM’S OLD CITY DURING THE ‘JERUSALEM DAY’ FLAG MARCH, MAY 29, 2022. THE FLAG MARCH IS AN ANNUAL DISPLAY OF RIGHT-WING ISRAELI NATIONALISM AND ANTI-PALESTINIAN RACISM INTENDED TO CELEBRATE ZIONIST FORCES’ SEIZURE OF EAST JERUSALEM IN 1967. (PHOTO: OHAD ZWEIGENBERG/SOCIAL MEDIA)


The New York Times is astonishing its readers, especially those of us who monitor its tradition of biased and dishonest reporting about Israel/Palestine. The paper just published a long indictment of what it actually called “Jewish terrorism” against Palestinians. The report, which is the cover story of the widely-circulated Sunday magazine, is titled: “The Unpunished: How Extremists Took Over Israel.” Here is the opening paragraph of the “takeaway” synopsis that ran along with the actual article:


“For decades, most Israelis have considered Palestinian terrorism the country’s biggest security concern. But there is another threat that may be even more destabilizing for Israel’s future as a democracy: Jewish terrorism and violence, and the failure to enforce the law against it.”

The massive article, by Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti, prints out to 52 pages. It covers decades of history, and includes more than 100 interviews. Bergman has long had ties to Israel’s intelligence services, and he includes inside sources. “This story is told in three parts. . .,” the reporters say. “Taken together they tell the story of how a radical ideology moved from the fringes to the heart of Israeli political power.”

Howard French, the distinguished former New York Times reporter turned author, asked the obvious question on Twitter:


“Where was the daily coverage of the Times throughout all of this?”

French’s view was echoed in the paper’s comment section. “Jack” was one of the 2500 Times readers who have already overwhelmingly endorsed the article. He wrote: “. . . I am struck by this piece being the only one I can recall to make consistent use of the term ‘terrorism’ to describe the actions of Jewish Israelis. It is far more common to hear settlers who commit violence against unarmed civilians referred to as ‘extremists’ rather than ‘terrorists.’”

This site has long argued that the Times, (like other mainstream TV and print outlets), covers up Jewish extremism as a central strategy in its ongoing whitewash of Israel. Time after time, we’ve shown how the paper ignores violent Jewish Israeli figures, and disguises vicious unprovoked attacks by Jewish “settlers” in the occupied West Bank as “clashes,” which somehow seem to just erupt spontaneously. But this report — finally — is starting to tell some truths. Let’s hope that the succession of Times Jerusalem bureau chiefs who committed malpractice over the years are now feeling a sense of shame.

There are signs that “The Unpunished” is already starting to get traction elsewhere in the mainstream. Nicolle Wallace, who rarely reports on Israel/Palestine, gave 15 minutes of air time to the article in her May 10 program on MSNBC, including on-camera interviews with the two reporters.

So far, Hasbara Central, Israel’s huge propaganda apparatus, has apparently been stunned into silence. But the midnight oil is surely burning in both Tel Aviv and at AIPAC headquarters in Washington, D.C., because this might be the biggest single mainstream journalist challenge ever to the standard dishonest Israeli narrative.

The Bergman/Mazzetti report is far from perfect. It is long, but it doesn’t include the word “apartheid” a single time. The reporters aren’t required to agree with the assessment, but they should have corrected their paper’s previous whitewash and at least explained that major human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli organization B’Tselem, have all found that the Israeli system constitutes “apartheid” under international law.

Nor does the report challenge the prevailing euphemism, which is that the more than 700,000 Jewish Israelis who have violated international law by moving into the occupied West Bank are “settlers”; they are in fact more accurately described as “colonists.”

So why did the Times print this long report, which does actually start to correct decades of its biased coverage? In time, leaks from people on the paper’s staff may provide part of the answer. But surely the pro-Palestine solidarity movement, along with alternative media, can claim some of the credit. In the Internet age, it is much harder to cover up the truth. First hand accounts from Gaza, the occupied Palestinian West Bank, and from Israel itself, are now widely available, and the student protesters and others have spread the word. Add to that internal dissension at the Times itself, and so top management there may have decided the paper had to act if its reputation wasn’t going to be completely tarnished.

A related question: Ronen Bergman has long had well-placed sources inside Israel’s intelligence elite. Very little of what is in this long Times article is new; much of the reporting is about events that happened decades ago. So why did Bergman decide — now — to report on what is basically old news? And why did his sources, who include former Israeli prime ministers, decide — now — to talk to the New York Times?

A valuable post on this site in March 2023 by the eloquent Razi Nabulse offers a clue. Nabulse probed behind the headlines to explain why Israeli Jews last year joined the massive uprising against the effort by Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right wing allies to stage a “coup” against the country’s legal system. The protesters represented the old Israeli elite, who are losing political power to the religious far right and the increasingly powerful settler/colonists. It is this old elite that Bergman quoted at length in this long report. The Times may be trying to protect this older “good” Israel from Netanyahu and his “bad” allies, who are the greatest threat to the country’s international standing in many decades.

It is too early to celebrate the Times‘s possible change in direction. First we will have to see if the paper, or other mainstream U.S. media, do any follow up. The adage used to be that “yesterday’s newspaper wraps today’s fish,” and the online attention span can also be short. It is possible that this story will die down in a few days, and the Times will go back to its old distortion methods. We shall see.

Biden panders to pro-Israel Jews, who are as reactionary on Israel as evangelicals

A Pew poll shows that when it comes to Israel, American Jews are much closer to white evangelicals than they are to Democratic Party numbers. Democrats want to cut off military aid. By and large, Jews don’t.

BY PHILIP WEISS 

  MAY 10, 2024 

MONDOWEISS

BIDEN GIVES SPEECH ON HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY, AT US CAPITOL, MAY 7, 2024. HERE HE IS GREETED BY STU EIZENSTAT, TO HIS IMMEDIATE RIGHT, A STATE DEPARTMENT SPECIAL ADVISER ON HOLOCAUST ISSUES. (PHOTO: JOE BIDEN X ACCOUNT)


Joe Biden took contradictory actions this week. He called campus protesters of Israeli genocide antisemites one day. Then a day later he said he wouldn’t give Israel more bombs to kill Palestinian civilians.

Biden is trying to reconcile two irreconcilable parts of the Democratic coalition– the progressive base and a special interest, the Israel lobby.

Biden’s speech on Holocaust memorial day was an extended attack on the progressives. He said campus protests represent the latest “surge” of the “ancient hatred of Jews,” the same hatred that fueled Nazism


The smear got sympathetic coverage on broadcast media. “This is ultimately a continuation of why he ran in 2020, when he saw neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville chanting — quote — ‘Jews will not replace us,’” Laura Barron-Lopez said on the PBS News Hour. CNN reporter Jamie Gangel echoed the Charlottesville claim. While CNN anchor Dana Bash said that the protests “hearken back” to Nazi Germany.

Biden’s attack on the demonstrators carries great political risk. The Democratic base is overwhelmingly critical of Israel. By 56 to 22 Democrats say that Israel is committing a “genocide” in Gaza, according to a new poll.

Pew’s survey in March was just as emphatic. Democratic Party voters oppose military aid to Israel by 44 to 25 percent, think that Israel’s methods are unacceptable by 52 to 22 percent, sympathize with Palestinians over Israelis by 27 to 15, think Biden is favoring Israel too much as opposed to striking the right balance by 34 to 29 percent, and have an unfavorable view of Israel’s government by 71 to 24.

Biden has tried to throw some crumbs to that base, as in his decision to hold back some 2000-pound bombs.

But such gestures are too little too late for many progressives– after 34,000 killings and the destruction of Gaza’s cities, all with American weaponry. Bernie Sanders has said that Gaza could prove to be Biden’s Vietnam because of the anger of the base. James Carville has said Biden’s stance could cost him the election.

Pro-Biden apologists in broadcast media have countered by saying that Biden is showing statesmanship by risking his base. And the New York Times has explained Biden’s risktaking by saying he’s a committed Zionist.

What these analyses miss is that Biden knows just what he is doing.

By smearing the protesters, Biden is catering to a key bloc in the Democratic coalition: pro-Israel Jews, who according to Pew are among the most reactionary groups in America on the Israeli violence. Jews historically vote for Democrats by about 3-to 1. But today Jews are completely out of step with the Dem base.

When it comes to Israel, Jews are much closer to white evangelicals and Republicans than they are to the Democratic Party, according to Pew’s poll, conducted in February.

PEW POLL IN MARCH SHOWS THAT JEWISH SYMPATHY FOR ISRAELIS OVER PALESTINIANS IS OVERWHELMING, AT 69 TO 7 PERCENT, AND GREATER THAN WHITE EVANGELICAL PROTESTANTS’ SYMPATHY FOR ISRAEL, AND STARKLY AT ODDS WITH DEMOCRATIC PARTY VOTERS, WHO SYMPATHIZE WITH PALESTINIANS OVER ISRAELIS BY 27 TO 15.

By 62 to 33 percent, Jews find Israel’s methods acceptable; sympathize with Israelis by 69 to 7 (sympathy for Palestinians); support military aid by 74 to 15; think Biden is striking the right balance as opposed to being too favorable to Israel, by 45 to 13; and have a favorable view of Israel’s government by 54 to 44.

Nearly one in five Jews say that Biden is too favorable to Palestinians. Only 3 percent of Democrats say that

.

PEW POLL IN MARCH SHOWS THAT DEMOCRATIC PARTY VOTERS OPPOSE MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL BY 44 TO 25 PERCENT, WHILE JEWS SUPPORT AID TO ISRAEL BY 74 TO 15 AGAINST.

These ardently pro-Israel views can be seen in the many ways that American Jews have risen to support Israel since the war began October 7. For instance, the five leading Jewish organizations (ADL, AIPAC, AJC, Conference of Presidents, and Federations) formed a new publicity campaign, led by a p.r. firm with links to the Biden administration, saying much what Biden said in his Holocaust speech: October 7 was an unleashing of Jewish hatred that hasn’t stopped since. Donor activism by Jewish pro-Israel alumni at Harvard and Penn led to the historic resignations of the Harvard and Penn presidents, days after they did not sufficiently denounce pro-Palestine demonstrators in congressional testimony –a demonstration of Zionist muscle if ever there was one.

Such efforts continue with Harvard megadonor Bill Ackman and Jessica Seinfeld, the wife of Jerry Seinfeld, funding pro-Israel demonstrations, and former Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg putting out a documentary about sexual violence on October 7.

In fact, the leading Jewish organizations have been cheerleaders for an onslaught that many international law experts say is a genocide. Just the other day Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL issued a battle cry for Netanyahu’s war on the starving refugees of Rafah.

“We are not the Jews of trembling knees. We will not flee, we will fight, we will press on and we will win, because we have no other choice,” Greenblatt said.

Biden’s pandering to these reactionary forces is in a tradition of Democratic politicians currying the favor of Zionist donors. The proportion of large Jewish donors in the Democratic Party is “gigantic” and “shocking,” according to J Street experts in 2016, the “elephant in the room” according to the Pulitzer Prize winner Nathan Thrall, writing in the Times in 2019. And former insiders Ben Rhodes of the Obama administration and Stu Eizenstat of the Carter administration (who introduced Biden’s Holocaust remembrance speech) have both written that Jewish donors were critical to their presidents’ reelection success/failure.

Of course, calling out these Jewish influencers can foster antisemitism: it bolsters the view that all Jews are powerful and working behind the scenes to get politicians to overlook the crimes of the Jewish state.

That makes it more important than ever to stress that a third of the Jewish community does not buy into the pro-Israel propaganda. A third of the community is very similar to the Democratic base and to younger voters generally. A strong but growing minority of the Jewish community is non- or anti-Zionist, and already causing a crisis among liberal Zionists, and a boycott of some Passover seders, and uncomfortable silence at others.

These Jews are shut out of the establishment but unapologetically critical of Israel’s conduct. The youth group IfNotNow has denounced Israeli genocide and apartheid, and been ostracized from the mainstream Jewish community for doing so.

When Biden withheld bombs from the Israeli military machine, Jewish Voice for Peace declared, “This is huge, and now is the time to tip the scales.”

For all of Jonathan Greenblatt’s and Alan Dershowitz’s warmongering, media need to focus on such Jewish leaders as Norman Finkelstein. The 70-year-old son of Holocaust survivors, Finkelstein has for 40 years created a body of work of harsh criticism of the Jewish state that he continues to this day. He will one day be lauded as a Jewish hero. As will Rebecca Vilkomerson of Jewish Voice for Peace, Simone Zimmerman of IfNotNow, and Marc Ellis, the author and liberation theologian.

The Jewish establishment has long shunned such speakers as self-haters as it exerts its influence for Israel. Those organizations still have traction in the White House, but not among young Jews who question Zionism. The youthful numbers are only growing. The media have an obligation to give these Jews a voice. Then our politicians will also salute their work.

The mainstream media distorted our anti-Vietnam War protests 50 years ago. They’re following the same strategy today

Fifty years ago, I joined in protests against the Vietnam war. Today the mainstream media is smearing pro-Palestine student protests in ways that are even worse than how we were slandered back then.

BY JAMES NORTH 

MAY 5, 2024 

MONSOWEISS

SCREENSHOT FROM A MAY 1, 2024 REPORT FROM CNN’S DANA BASH ON THE GAZA PROTESTS ON CAMPUSES AROUND THE U.S.


Fifty years ago, I was one of the many thousands of students and others who joined in regular nationwide protests against the Vietnam War. I was arrested twice; the second time, in August 1972, we disrupted Richard Nixon’s renomination at the Republican Convention in Miami, and I was one of the more than a thousand demonstrators who spent several days afterwards locked up in the Dade County Stockade.

What is striking is that today’s mainstream media efforts to smear the pro-Palestine student protests are so eerily similar to how we were slandered back then. Here is the current strategy, evident on TV news and in more highbrow outlets like the New York Times and the Atlantic magazine.Top priority: Ignore the actual events that are prompting the demonstrations. Today, say little or nothing about Israel’s murderous and ongoing attack on Gaza.
Ignore the substance of the student demands. Don’t mention “divestment.” (Never cite the call for nonviolent Boycott Divestment Sanctions.)
Distort protester behavior; portray them as violent, in word and deed. The new twist now is to also smear them as antisemitic.
And spend most of your time maligning the students’ character. Today, as back then, call them “privileged” or “naive,” or worse. Blame “outside agitators.”

Dana Bash’s now notorious mid-day report on CNN last week was only the most extreme example of bias. She actually compared the campus protests to the rise of Hitler’s Germany: “[The protests are] . . . hearkening back to the 1930s in Europe. And I do not say that lightly. The fear among Jews in this country is palpable right now.”

But other mainstream news reports were only slightly less obviously distorted. Take, for instance the night of April 30 at the UCLA campus. Eyewitnesses, including faculty members, testified that a band of violent pro-Israel counter-demonstrators attacked the peaceful protesters’ encampment for several hours, while campus police and California law enforcement just stood idly by; there was film and photos of injuries. But much of the print press and the TV news reported the events as “clashes,” without blaming the pro-Israel mob. (You can get an accurate report at UCLA’s college paper, the Daily Bruin.)

I was also personally present for some of the police violence at the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968. Much of the press back then followed the same playbook, exaggerating violence by the antiwar demonstrators and exonerating the police. Get ready for the same treatment this summer, when the Democrats convene in Chicago once again.

Arguably even worse this time around is the media’s refusal to report the student protesters’ demands.

But arguably even worse this time around is the media’s refusal to report the student protesters’ demands. You have to search carefully to see that the students have two connected requests: 1) Colleges should disclose their holdings in companies that provide Israel with weapons of war and other support, and 2) Colleges should then publicly divest from those holdings.

Anyone who followed Israel/Palestine before October 7 will recognize that the broad-based nonviolent movement for Boycott Divestment Sanctions has been calling for the same steps for several decades. By now, the mainstream should have profiled this movement, including pointing out how various state and local governments have passed legislation that handcuffs even calls for BDS. So far, nothing. (One interesting exception. In 2019, the estimable Nathan Thrall somehow smuggled a fair-minded report on BDS into the New York Times magazine. He’s on the scene back in the occupied West Bank. Why not ask him to update his report?)

At least during the anti-Vietnam War protests our demands were clear: Stop the Bombing. Stop the War. Bring Our Troops Home.

What’s more, the mainstream is downplaying and ignoring the news from Gaza itself.

What’s more, the mainstream is downplaying and ignoring the news from Gaza itself.

In the Atlantic, George Packer published an entire attack on the students without writing the word “Gaza” one single time. Michael Powell, also in the Atlantic, visited the Columbia campus to distort and condescend. He did meet Layla Saliba, a Palestinian-American graduate student, who told him she had lost family members in Gaza. He wrote that she talked to him “at length and with nuance,” but he didn’t bother to quote her directly, other than when she said: “We are not anti-Jewish, not at all.” (Layla Saliba does have plenty to say. She’s on X, formerly Twitter, @itslaylas)

Instead of reporting on the demands and Israel’s ongoing mass killing in Gaza, the mainstream media focused almost exclusively on narrow details. At CNN, Anderson Cooper made a fool of himself when the police finally cracked down on the Columbia campus on April 30; he demanded that his reporters on the scene document every move by the police, as if we were watching a complicated football play or a choreographed dance movement — but he failed to note that the police had moved all of the press out of camera range so they would have few witnesses when they went into the occupied building.

(The press’s narrow obsession with police-protester maneuvering brought back one of my memories from the 1972 antiwar demonstrations in Miami. When I was arrested, I happened to be in an area where there were many reporters. I was handcuffed with zip-ties, and as I was being loaded with dozens of others into a police van, the reporters all asked: “How are the police treating you?” To my credit, I answered, “The police are not our enemies. Nixon and the war criminals are our enemies.” This quote actually went viral, appeared in many press accounts, and was later read on the air by at least one famous TV anchorman.)

Another nearly perfect parallel between 50 years ago and now is the mainstream obsession to find fault with the character of the student protesters.

Finally, another nearly perfect parallel between 50 years ago and now is the mainstream obsession to find fault with the character of the student protesters. Like today’s students, we were called privileged, spoiled and naive. One nearly forgotten analysis actually blamed us on the child-rearing practices promoted by Dr. Benjamin Spock, a pediatrician whose Baby and Child Care (1946) was a huge selling guidebook for young parents back in the 1950s and 60s. Spock was indicted for promoting permissive parenting techniques, which supposedly explained our immaturity. (Spock himself, an outstanding and humane man, actually came out against the war in Vietnam and joined in many protests.)

The anti-student slanders actually lost impact, however, as the war in Vietnam continued and others who were not students joined in the antiwar movement. By those 1972 Miami demonstrations, the protest’s leaders were actually the members of an extraordinary organization called Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). At the front line of those Miami marches were several vets who were in wheelchairs because they had been wounded in combat, including two moral giants named Bobby Muller and Ron Kovic. Behind them marched more vets, including others with canes and missing limbs, most of them wearing their old military fatigues. The rest of us, a thousand strong, followed them.

The successors to Bobby Muller and Ron Kovic are emerging today. The American college students, who are being arrested and risking their futures because their consciences won’t let them stay quiet.

Unpacking the Israeli campaign to deny the Gaza genocide

A recent media flurry over the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza amounts to nothing more than genocide denial. This campaign to discredit the Gaza health ministry is simply a strategy to allow the Gaza genocide to continue.

BY JONATHAN OFIR MAY 18, 2024 

MONDOWEISS

PEOPLE STAND BY THE BODIES OF VICTIMS OF ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES OUTSIDE THE MORGUE OF AL-SHIFA HOSPITAL IN GAZA CITY ON OCTOBER 12, 2023. (PHOTO: NAAMAN OMAR/APA IMAGES)

On Saturday, May 11, the Jerusalem Post under editor Yuval Barnea came out with a sensational headline:

“UN seemingly halves estimate of Gazan women, children killed.”

The article featured two graphics from the UN, one from May 6 and one from May 8, both clearly noting that approximately 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, but the second specified that bodies that have been able to be identified were under 25,000. Out of these, the breakdown included 52% women and children, as well as 8% elderly. Earlier on, the UN noted that about 2/3 of fatalities are women and children.

Now, the game of genocide denial has begun.

The supposedly benign Jerusalem Post article quickly moved on to “questions of data accuracy,” citing Israel apologia outlets such as AIPAC’s thinktank the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), and its January report “that showed major discrepancies in the fatality reports” which suggested “manipulation.” The article also cited Abraham Weiner from Tablet Magazine claiming “fake numbers.”

The story was then picked up by others. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies picked up the story the same day, claiming now with certainty: “UN Halves Its Estimate of Women and Children Killed in Gaza.” Even Haaretz’s political correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky tweeted the graphics the next day (and still hasn’t removed it):


“Proof of how problematic it is that Hamas is the only body issuing numbers of the dead in Gaza. @ochaopt changed its figures of estimated dead in Gaza from 34,844 to 24,686, dropping the estimated number of women & children killed from 69% to 52%.”

Naks Bilal countered her:


“The UN hasn’t changed its figures. Stop spreading disinformation. The differences are down to identification (not the bodies themselves).”

Owen Jones too:


“You are spreading disinformation in the service of atrocity denial and should retract and apologise.”

But meanwhile, the spin spreads.

Next day (Sunday), the Jewish Chronicle:


“UN appears to halve Gaza casualty count for women and children – Doubts have been raised over the veracity of the Palestinian death count since October 7”

Times of Israel, Tuesday, May 14:


“UN cuts by more than half the number of women, children ‘identified’ as killed in Gaza.”

At that point, the UN managed to get issue a response to the non-story, which is even provided on CNN:


“UN says total number of deaths in Gaza remains unchanged after controversy over revised data.”

Reuters was on it, too, confirming the 35,000 number, but noting that “Israel last week questioned why the figures for the deaths of women and children has suddenly halved.”
Public-facing doubt, accepting numbers behind the scenes

The game of casting doubt on the death toll has been an early feature of this genocide, with Joe Biden kicking it off on October 27 when he said that he had “no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using” — without saying why.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) had to issue a statement in response: “We continue to include their data in our reporting and it is clearly sourced.”

But the damage was done, and the intentionally dehumanizing mantra of the “Hamas-run health ministry” was ubiquitous in Western media discourse.

And yet, senior Israel officials were using the Gaza Health Ministry’s death numbers internally for months after both Israel and the U.S. claimed those figures should not be trusted — as reported by Vice in January:


“According to a story in Mekomit by Yuval Avraham, who last year broke news about the Israeli military’s use of AI for targeting purposes, the numbers were accepted for inclusion in briefings to senior Israeli officials after intelligence services conducted operations and analysis to monitor the health ministry’s information collection methods and its internal communications and determined the statistics were credible. An Israeli intelligence official confirmed the Israeli government’s use of the Gaza ministry numbers to VICE News, while two officials from European intelligence services said they were widely used in official briefings internationally.”

The data collection methods and numbers were deemed credible internally:


“The secret services looked at the health ministry’s collection methods and determined the numbers were generally credible, so instead of collecting their own information they decided to use the [Hamas] numbers.”
Difficulty in reaching exact data in a genocide

Israel knows fully well that there is a difference between a body count and full identification. It took it many weeks to identify the bodies of the dead after the Hamas-led October 7 attack, and in mid-November, Israel actually reduced its rough estimate of 1,400 to around 1,200, and later to 1,139. The reduction of roughly 200 bodies from the count was due to hundreds of bodies being burned beyond recognition — where 200 were then said to have been Palestinians and not Israelis, as earlier assumed. This was undoubtedly due to Israel’s own indiscriminate bombing on October 7, also killing an unknown number of its own citizens.

Counting bodies, whether they are burned beyond recognition or not, is a much more straightforward task than actually identifying them, and with Israel’s methods of heavy bombing of civilians, the latter can become an enormously complex task. Gaza has been undergoing genocide since October 7, while Israel has since counted and identified its dead under relatively peaceful circumstances. Israelis may say that they have been at war since then, but the war on Gaza has had little bearing on the functioning of Israeli forensics teams. Gazans have to count their dead under fire, with Gaza’s health system all but decimated, not to mention with thousands still under the rubble.
Genocide denial

The main goal of this insidious “number questioning” is not to assess actual numbers. It is about denying a genocide.

If enough attention is given to the spin questioning the numbers’ credibility, it takes attention away from the fact that tens of thousands of people are being killed, that hundreds of thousands are facing an outright engineered famine, and that 10,000 people are missing under the rubble and probably dead.

It’s all a distraction meant to take our attention away from an event that is throwing us back a century into the past. Even the Holocaust’s count of Jewish deaths is widely varying, and that doesn’t deny it. Raul Hilberg’s seminal book, The Destruction of European Jews, summarizes Jewish deaths at about 5.15 million (between 4.9 and 5.4) — that is nearly a discrepancy of 1 million deaths when compared against the commonly-cited 6 million figure. But it doesn’t change the fact that it was a massive genocide. Only Holocaust deniers make a big fuss about such details.

But it is different when people spin the numbers strategically when the genocide is still happening in real-time. It is different when the perpetrators are doing the denying because they are seeking a license to continue with their conduct. Genocide denial as it is happening becomes one of genocide’s instruments.

Strengthening our movement in times of crisis: a historic task of the Palestinian liberation movement

The Palestinian struggle is at a critical juncture. We must come together to breathe conviction and clarity into our movement. Join us May 24–27 for The People’s Conference for Palestine!

BY PALESTINIAN YOUTH MOVEMENT MAY 19, 2024 1

UPWARDS OF 400,000 PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS TAKE THE STREETS IN A NATIONAL MARCH IN WASHINGTON DC TO SHOW SUPPORT FOR PALESTINIANS AND CALL FOR A CEASEFIRE AND END THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA, JANUARY 13, 2024. (PHOTO: EMAN MOHAMMED)


Two hundred days into the Zionist war of aggression on Gaza, the Palestinian struggle is in the midst of a critical conjuncture. For months, organizations in North America have been strengthening and leading a mass movement to advance the cause of Palestinian national liberation from within the imperial core. The popular and revolutionary character of the movement has been borne out by the millions marching in the streets, direct actions across all major cities, new and newly-energized sector-based organizing and campaigns, victories across ideological and media struggle, and most recently, student encampments demanding divestment in the universities and colleges. Through these developments, thousands of people have been brought into the struggle, moved to act by the depravity of the U.S.-led and -funded genocide and the moral clarity of Palestine’s resistance.

Amidst this mass movement, we have witnessed the martyrdom of over 50,000 Palestinians, the destruction of the Gaza Strip, and a concerted effort by Zionism and Western imperialism to break Palestinian resistance and to sever our people from their lands. To live through an ongoing genocide has meant battling feelings of despair and confusion; while daunting, the task of committing ourselves to political clarity amidst these difficult conditions remains essential.

On October 18, 1975, the largest public gathering of Palestinians in Israel since the nakba of 1947–49 took place in al-Nasra (Nazareth), aimed at confronting Zionist plans to confiscate Arab lands across the Galilee. This conference was associated with leadership of the uprisings now commemorated by Palestinians as “Land Day,” having produced many resolutions, laid the groundwork for a general strike, and established committees to implement its political goals. It is one node of many in a long history of Palestinians using conferences to concretize strategic objectives and consolidate on ideological questions, dating to the pre-nakba period: from the First Arab Women’s Congress in October 26, 1929, to the Youth Congresses in Jaffa on 4 December 1932, and in Haifa on 10 May 1935—all of which asserted opposition to British and Zionist colonization, and supported the Great Peasant Revolution of 1936–39. In moments of crisis and of revolution, Palestinians have turned to conferences in order to bring our people and movements together and to breathe conviction and political clarity into organizations and civil society.

In honor of this tradition, from May 24–26, 2024, 14 convening organizations and over 300 endorsing organizations – including Palestinian organizations that have been leading the mass movement for Palestine in North America – will convene in Detroit, Michigan, for The People’s Conference for Palestine. A city that is no stranger to the depredations of American capitalism, Detroit has been a site of revolutionary struggle for decades, playing host to the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (and their participation in the historic National Black Economic Development Conference, first held in the city in April 1969), and to one of the largest settings of Arab diasporic life.


The People’s Conference for Palestine appears at a juncture when the liberation struggle in Gaza has generated pockets of revolutionary energy all across the world. That call has been answered: in the labor movement, on the campuses, and in the streets, people are being politicized around Palestine and its attendant imperial contradictions at a rate heretofore unseen in the 21st century. The popular action of the last seven months has also posed important questions around consolidation, unity, scale, and structural form, particularly related to how the struggle builds on the existing mass mobilizations towards deeper organization. An organized movement is an effective movement, better able to politicize and maintain the gains in mass consciousness, to sustain the long-term relationships required for base building and advocacy, to protect against and resist state repression, and to coordinate across the different settings of struggle with scale and historical specificity.

The question of organization is particularly important in light of the sustained attacks on the institutions of Palestinian social and political life, accelerated by a post-Oslo neoliberal period that has led to a collapse in the strength and militancy of the struggle in the West. These conditions are being readily challenged by a movement being rebuilt and led by politically-committed Palestinians, who have convened this conference alongside journalists and aid workers in Gaza, activists from Palestine, anti-war movement elders, and student leaders in order to support each site of struggle in developing its own assessment of conditions and objectives.

The conference’s sessions, assemblies, and teach-ins will focus on building strong political organizations; confronting Zionism and imperialism in the heart of empire; advancing the ideological struggle through art, culture, media, and education; and supporting the student movement to continue to exert pressure inside and outside their campuses. Through its direct fundraising role of contributing all registration fees to Gaza, the conference has already raised over $100,000.00 USD, asserting that the Palestinian diaspora has a historic role to play in the national liberation struggle not only in the realm of political organization, but also with regards to supporting the steadfastness of our people – a concept known in Arabic as ta3ziz al sumud.

These forms of struggle are critical not only for opposing the horrors of the ongoing genocide, but for the historic challenge of ending U.S. support for the Zionist project, lifting the siege on Gaza, and liberating Palestinian land and people until our return is achieved. We hope you will join us!

Palestinian Youth Movement
The Palestinian Youth Movement is a transnational, independent grassroots movement of young Palestinians and Arabs dedicated to the liberation of our homeland and people. We currently comprise of 15 chapters across North America and Europe.

Plan to boost Uber and Lyft driver pay in Minnesota advances in state Legislature

20 May 2024

Plan to boost Uber and Lyft driver pay in Minnesota advances in state LegislaturePlan to boost Uber and Lyft driver pay in Minnesota advances in state Legislature

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A plan to boost pay for Uber and Lyft drivers in Minnesota that lawmakers believe would prevent the companies from leaving the market advanced in the state Legislature on Sunday, hours before the deadline for lawmakers to pass bills before they adjourn.

The plan that gained approval in the House was crafted by Democrats to replace a minimum pay measure the Minneapolis City Council passed that prompted Uber and Lyft to threaten to leave the state's biggest city.

The agreement announced Saturday after a day of negotiations would set a minimum pay rate at $1.28 per mile and 31 cents per minute. Uber has said it will keep operating in the state under those rates. The bill would take effect next January if passed.

“While the coming price increases may hurt riders and drivers alike, we will be able to continue to operate across the State under the compromise brokered by the Governor," Uber spokesperson Josh Gold said in an email to the Star Tribune.

Lyft representatives didn't immediately respond to emailed questions from The Associated Press about the deal.

The measure the companies objected to would have required them to pay drivers at least $1.40 per mile and 51 cents per minute — or $5 per ride, whichever is greater — excluding tips, for the time spent transporting passengers in Minneapolis.

Marianna Brown, vice president of the Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association, told the Star Tribune that even though the pay rates are lower than drivers hoped for, they were happy to see the deal come together.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a post on the social platform X that the deal “gives rideshare drivers a 20% raise and keeps these important services operating in Minnesota. I’m grateful to our partners in the House and Senate DFL for coming together to get this done."

California Disneyland character, parade performers vote to join labor union

May 19, 2024
By Associated Press


ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA —

Disneyland performers who help bring Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and other beloved characters to life at the Southern California resort chose to unionize following a three-day vote culminating Saturday.

The Actors' Equity Association labor union said in a statement Saturday that cast members for the parades and characters departments at Disney's theme parks near Los Angeles voted by a wide margin for the union to become the bargaining agent for the group of roughly 1,700 workers.

An association website tracking the balloting among cast members indicated passage by 78.7% (953 votes) in favor and 21.3% (258 votes) opposed.

"They say that Disneyland is 'the place where dreams come true,' and for the Disney Cast Members who have worked to organize a union, their dream came true today," Actors' Equity Association President Kate Shindle said in a statement Saturday night.

Shindle called the workers the "front lines" of the Disneyland guest experience. The association and cast members will discuss improvements to health and safety, wages, benefits, working conditions and job security before meeting with Walt Disney Company representatives about negotiating the staff priorities into a contract, she said.

The union already represents theatrical performers at Disney's Florida parks.

Barring any election challenges, the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board will certify the results within a week, the association said.

The NLRB did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking confirmation or additional information about the vote.

The election took place on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday in Anaheim, California, after workers earlier this year filed cards to form the unit called "Magic United."

Parade and character workers who promoted unionizing said they love helping to create a magical experience at Disneyland but grew concerned when they were asked to resume hugging visitors after returning to work during the coronavirus pandemic. They said they also suffer injuries from complex costumes and erratic schedules.

Most of the more than 35,000 workers at the Disneyland Resort, including cleaning crews, pyrotechnic specialists and security staff, are already in labor unions. The resort includes Disneyland, the Walt Disney Co.'s oldest theme park, Disney California Adventure and the shopping and entertainment district Downtown Disney in Anaheim.

In recent years, Disney has faced allegations of not paying its Southern California workers, who face exorbitant housing costs and often commute long distances or cram into small homes, a livable wage. Parade performers and character actors earn a base pay of $24.15 an hour, up from $20 before January, with premiums for different roles.

Union membership has been on a decadeslong decline in the United States, but organizations have seen growing public support in recent years during high-profile contract negotiations involving Hollywood studios and Las Vegas hotels. The NLRB, which protects workers' right to organize, reported more than 2,500 filings for union representation during the 2023 fiscal year, which was the highest number in eight years.

The effort to organize character and parade performers in California came more than 40 years after those who play Mickey, Goofy and Donald Duck in Florida were organized by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a union traditionally known to represent transportation workers.

At that time, the Florida performers complained about filthy costumes and abuse from guests, including children who would kick the shins of Disney villains such as Captain Hook.

TIT FOR TAT

China launches anti-dumping probe into EU, US, Japan, Taiwan plastics

May 19, 2024 4:52 PM
By Reuters

A cargo truck drives amid stacked shipping containers at the Yangshan port in Shanghai, China

BEIJING —

China's commerce ministry on Sunday launched an anti-dumping probe into POM copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, imported from the European Union, United States, Japan and Taiwan.

The plastics can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc and have various applications including in auto parts, electronics, and medical equipment, the ministry said in a statement.

The investigation should be completed in a year but could be extended for six months, it said.

The European Commission, which oversees EU trade policy, said it would carefully study the contents of the investigation before deciding on any next steps.

"We expect China to ensure that this investigation is fully in line with all relevant WTO (World Trade Organization) rules and obligations," a spokesperson said.

China's plastics probe comes amid a broader trade row with the United States and Europe.

The United States on Tuesday unveiled steep tariff increases on Chinese electric vehicles, or EVs, computer chips, medical products and other imports.

On Friday, the European Union launched a trade investigation into Chinese tinplate steel, the latest in a string of EU trade and subsidy probes into Chinese exports.

Most notably, the European Commission launched a probe last September to decide whether to impose punitive tariffs on cheaper Chinese EVs that it suspects of benefiting from state subsidies.

Beijing argues the recent focus by the United States and Europe on the risks to other economies from China's excess capacity is misguided.

Chinese officials say the criticism understates innovation by Chinese companies in key industries and overstates the importance of state support in driving their growth.